Unpacking the Importance of Fire Preparedness

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Traveling Introvert. Today, I'm going to talk about fire. Yep. Yep. I know it sounds a little unusual, but, this is something I've experienced a couple times now, and it makes me realize just how much people are not really aware of fire anymore. When you were a kid, I'm sure in school, no matter where you in the world, you did fire drills. Sort of they do the fire alarm, and you get told what you had to do. Maybe it was go outside and line up in alphabetical order or go to a certain meeting point, but that was probably done at a semi regular occurrence in your life.

You would know what the fire bell sound would sound like, whether it be a continuous noise or done in a dot dot dash dash dash way, whatever it is you were told about sort of that process, what to do when there is a fire or an earthquake or that sort of a thing. Probably the same when you were in a corporate environment. If you were in the office, I am sure, as someone who used to be health and safety officer that you had to do regular fire drills. Maybe you weren't around when that happened, but generally speaking, again, you'd get to know what the fire alarm sound would be and what you were supposed to do, where you were supposed to go, if there was a logbook or, like, what was supposed to happen. Now fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I had just done an an event. I was very tired. I was asleep, and I'm at that age now where where I just don't sleep all the way through the night. I get up occasionally to use the restroom.

I did that. I get back in bed. I'm chatting to a friend on the other side of the world in the UK about stuff and things, and I hear this very faint I don't know. Is that is that a fire alarm? Is that is that a lot for another building? And so I'm in a hotel, and I look outside, and across the road is, a a gas station, so, like, we don't want the fire to be there. Right? And then I I don't know. It's not really loud enough. Is it really a fire alarm? And, again, I'm still hearing. Wa.

And so it's not quite loud enough to wake you up, I just happen to be awake, but it's also you can't hear what the words are. And then I hear sirens, and I see some people outside like, oh, that probably is a fire alarm. So what I always try and do is think what do I need to be able to keep working and or get on a plane and get back home. So my backpack is there. I put in my laptop charger, the medication, my laptop, my phone, and then, make sure I have layers of clothing, like, just a top or something and, like, my wallet, passport, that sort of a thing. And I I go outside of my room. You feel the door first. I totally forgot to do that.

You're supposed to feel the door first to make sure it's not wicked hot because then you're just opening up that fire. I get outside. There's a guy there, and he's like, oh, I'm glad I'm not the only one who heard that. It's not the fire alarm. I'm like, well, people are outside on his side, so it's probably the fire alarm. This guy, I shit you not, says, hey. Well, do you think I should take the elevator? And I'm like, no. I am personally gonna take the stairs.

Go down the theirs come out, and out of this entire hotel, maybe 15 people evacuated, and you can kind of hear the alarm a little bit better now. 5 people are coming in. Now I'm looking at this array of humans who are outside. Some of them are shoeless. A lot of them don't even have their phone or their ID the order cards to get back into said hotel. There are 3 of us who have got all our stuff oh, like most of our stuff with us. There's a guy who says this happens regularly, and I've got all my work stuff. So he's got his bag, his backpack, and he's, like, ready to go if necessary.

Another guy who'd, like, had just checked in that like, early on, and I hadn't even got to unpack yet, and me. So I guess the moral of the story is be aware when you are booking into a hotel, which floor you're on, what to do if there is an emergency, what things that you need to take with you, and make sure that they're not all locked in the safe at night while you're sleeping because nothing's worse than trying to get into the safe if, well, maybe the electricity's been cut or you're all nervous. Have a plan and a way to have a lucky get out bag of what you would need to be a because if everything else goes up in flames, what are the things that you need to be able to keep working and to get thanks for listening. This is Janice. I'm the Career Introvert, helping build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week, and, try to figure out what a fire alarm sounds like.