A reminder for everyone on campus: You must evacuate the building when the fire alarm goes off. It does not matter what the reason for the alarm is, when the alarm goes off you must leave the building.
The university is required to have annual fire evacuation drills for each building on campus. During past evacuations, EH&S has noticed some common problems.
Here are the top four problems we have seen with evacuations:
- Leave the building! Assume every alarm is the real thing; you don’t want to be trapped if it turns out the alarm isn’t a drill.
- Exit the building from the nearest safe exit. Please do not walk across the building to go out the door you normally come in. The only time you shouldn’t use the closest exit is if that exit puts you into harm’s way.
- Close doors as you exit. If you are in your office, close the door when you leave. If you walk past a door that is open, please close it. However, do not return to your office to close the door if you are not in your office when the alarm sounds.
- Move 100 feet from the building when you leave. Make sure you are not standing in the walkway or drive way. Make sure that emergency responders don’t have to avoid you.
