Two weeks ago students poured out of the Alma Jordan
Library as the fire alarm blared. While it was later revealed to be a false
alarm caused by an electrical malfunction, it exposed the very real danger of
students who don’t know how to act in emergencies.
“People were pushing and everyone was just rushing
down the stairs” said Sonali Sooknanan, a
student who was caught in the chaos.
Library administration is now thinking about adding
an emergency briefing as part of their annual library tours. These tours
typically give students a general run-down of the library and its services and
are a great opportunity to keep students abreast of need-to-know emergency
procedures.
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| The Alma Jordan Library, UWI St Augustine |
“People typically panic and head for the main exit,
but there are back and side exits that we open in emergencies” explained
Library Warden Andre Garcia, “there are signs and maps of the evacuation plan
on the walls, but panicked students don’t think to read them.” This is why he
thinks a formal briefing is important to have.
When we asked library personnel if any measures were
being taken to prevent future false alarms most of them didn’t know. This
didn’t sit well with the students that were interviewed who saw many of their
peers forced to evacuate without a chance to save their work on the computers. Forget
about a fire, they said the library will find itself in hot water if it puts
them through another frightening and inconveniencing false alarm.
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