Unfortunately there are no pictures but as Dwayne told me this story I said I have to blog about it. Here goes:
Around 2:00 this afternoon, I was in Starbucks purchasing my daily snack when I heard a fire alarm from my office building. So, I rushed to the building to see what was going on but the security guard said it was just a fire drill. During this conversation, I saw the police blocking off the area in front of the building with yellow police tape. In my peripheral vision I could see smoke directly above me coming from the 4th floor of the building. Needless to say, I dashed across the street to safety. I was thinking that this woman just told me it's a fire drill but I see smoke coming from the building. It can't be a fire drill but things weren't adding up because people were just casually walking from the building and in front of the place. I was one of the few idiots standing across the street witnessing the events unfold and trying to determine if there was a real fire or not. A fire truck then appeared shooting water up to where the smoke was coming from. But the water couldn't reach the area so they called for a larger truck. At this time, they are clearing the people from the patio at Starbucks. The second and larger fire engine showed up and started blasting water at the building soaking the people who were slowly moving out of the building. An ambulance came rushing up to the building with sirens blaring as though someone were severely burnt. I really thought there was a fire then. The husband of the lady who is more African than me (see previous post) told me what was going on. He said there is a machine they use to simulate an actual fire. It uses diesel fuel which adds to the horrible pollution here. Then the floor wardens finally came out to post up signs for the various companies to make sure everyone was accounted for. During the roll call, the firemen actually went through drills. First, a man rappelled down the building as though he was in the middle of a rock climbing exercise. Next, a man rappelled head first like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible on the Hoover Dam. Then, a live person was strapped on a gurney and lowered from the area of the fake fire (about 4 stories high) to the ground. After all this, the crowd starts applauding as though they're watching a movie or something. That's when I left and went to Glorietta Mall to get out of the heat. While leaving I then noticed two huge signs on the side of the building that read "Fire Drill Ongoing".
By the way, the fire drill lasted about 1 hour 15 minutes.
As we were told in our expatriate orientation: THIS IS NOT THE U.S.
Around 2:00 this afternoon, I was in Starbucks purchasing my daily snack when I heard a fire alarm from my office building. So, I rushed to the building to see what was going on but the security guard said it was just a fire drill. During this conversation, I saw the police blocking off the area in front of the building with yellow police tape. In my peripheral vision I could see smoke directly above me coming from the 4th floor of the building. Needless to say, I dashed across the street to safety. I was thinking that this woman just told me it's a fire drill but I see smoke coming from the building. It can't be a fire drill but things weren't adding up because people were just casually walking from the building and in front of the place. I was one of the few idiots standing across the street witnessing the events unfold and trying to determine if there was a real fire or not. A fire truck then appeared shooting water up to where the smoke was coming from. But the water couldn't reach the area so they called for a larger truck. At this time, they are clearing the people from the patio at Starbucks. The second and larger fire engine showed up and started blasting water at the building soaking the people who were slowly moving out of the building. An ambulance came rushing up to the building with sirens blaring as though someone were severely burnt. I really thought there was a fire then. The husband of the lady who is more African than me (see previous post) told me what was going on. He said there is a machine they use to simulate an actual fire. It uses diesel fuel which adds to the horrible pollution here. Then the floor wardens finally came out to post up signs for the various companies to make sure everyone was accounted for. During the roll call, the firemen actually went through drills. First, a man rappelled down the building as though he was in the middle of a rock climbing exercise. Next, a man rappelled head first like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible on the Hoover Dam. Then, a live person was strapped on a gurney and lowered from the area of the fake fire (about 4 stories high) to the ground. After all this, the crowd starts applauding as though they're watching a movie or something. That's when I left and went to Glorietta Mall to get out of the heat. While leaving I then noticed two huge signs on the side of the building that read "Fire Drill Ongoing".
By the way, the fire drill lasted about 1 hour 15 minutes.
As we were told in our expatriate orientation: THIS IS NOT THE U.S.
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Ayana