For the second time, I was a guest in a hotel that had the fire/smoke alarm go off. For those who have not had the experience, its quite disconcerting.

Both times its was late night and the alarm went off throughtout the building. Neither time was it a fire.

What I learned and noticed:

1.The front desk told us to stay in our rooms...?
2. Because of practice/ habit all my essentials were at hand and I was dressed and out the door in 30 seconds...
3. Except socks, which resuuted in a "hotspot" pre-blister in walking less than a block
4. I did forget to check the door for heat/ smoke BEFORE opening it
5. I was the only person in the stairwells
6. It took the fire dept 10 minutes to get to the hotel. Later on I located the fire station only 4 blocks away...Hmmm
7. The batteries in my flashlight were low -- Hadn't checked them before the trip

So, what can we learn?

Teacher RO

Sounds like you did better than everyone else. How did you find the stairs? Bonus points for
locating them before you went to bed. :-)

Low batteries shouldn't have been a problem IF you were carrying more than one flashlight. I have
one on my keychain (Arc AAA) and a larger one in my pocket (Arc 4). I use the larger flashlight for
everything, saving the keychain light for situations like this, where there's a problem with the
primary flashlight. (Sounds like a lot of flashlights, but the AAA is only a little bigger than the
battery, so I hardly notice it. And I like having a lot of flashlight in my pocket, so I carry the '4.)

Congrats for completely ignoring the "front desk". If a fireman tells me to stay in my room, well,
I might. Anyone else....

Oh, and most of all, good for you for not taking time to find out if there really was a fire. Get out,
then figure it out.

Did you remember to take your room key with you?

I used to work in Las Vegas. One day a welder set the Riviera hotel on fire (he was required by law to keep a fire extinguisher nearby, but it was a nuisance to carry it around full, so he kept it empty.)

First, smoke filled the casino. Casino employees nearly had to drag several people out, away from the slot machines. Others were vocally abusive because they wanted to finish their hand at the tables.

The alarms went off in the attached hotel, where there were a considerable number of handicapped people staying.

Many of the physically mobile people bolted and ran down the stairs, passing people who were waiting for the elevator. Firemen had to commandeer the elevator and transported only handicapped people, much to the dismay of totally able people who didn't think they should have to use the stairs.

One elderly man whose wife was in a wheelchair was trying to figure out how to get her down the stairs. A large young man plucked her out of her wheelchair and carried her down five flights of stairs.

Nearly everyone forgot to take their room key with them, as they discovered when they were allowed to return to their rooms.

Sue

Oh. Oh my.

I'm a firefighter.

First of all, you risked not only your own life, but by entering a stairwell, had there been a real fire, you may have risked the lives of others by moving smoke from where is was to where it wasn't.

Hotels in the USA have a number of critical safety features, including 2+ hour rated doors, in-room sprinklers and floor-by-floor fire communications systems.

If you're below the fire floor, you should stay in the room, with the door closed. Get dressed, get your room key and a wet towell in case there's an "auto-exposure" situation where the fire moves DOWN (almost impossible).

If you're on or above the fire floor, for the most part, your room is going to be the most secure place to stay, in the vast majority of cases. Smoke is your biggest problem, and you can hold smoke out of the room with a wet towel at the base of the door.

Sprinklers will also kick on, not to put out the fire, but to reduce the smoke levels.

FWIW - there has never been a fire fatality in a properly sprinklered building. Not one.

As far as the 10 minute fire response time, the national goal (NFPA 1071) is 6 minutes, which, if you are a firefighter, you know is often unrealistic due to staffing issues and funding. And - to be honest - an automatic alarm call is - 99.98% of the time - a false alarm, so you might not see the kind of huge response you'd expect. Especially with a "chronic" alarm system, as this one sounds.

That's good information to know. My first response--especially since 9-11-01, would have been to GET OUT as soon as possible. I'll rethink that now, especially if I am below the fire. But assuming the front desk doesn't tell you, how are you supposed to know where the fire is?

Regards, Vince

I do not think 10 minutes for the Fire Department to arrive is unreasonable, if that is the time from activation of the local (smoke/heat detector) to arrival. Keep in mind many local alarms are just that, a notice to the occupancies to evacuate the premises. Someone must still call 911 or if the alarm system is through a commercial alarm company, they must contact 911. From time of the call to 911 it can take 1-2 minutes to gather the information, depending upon the jurisdiction they may or may not have computer assisted dispatching, it still takes a minute or so to get the information into the system and the system to activate the appropriate Fire Department alarm systems. At night it might take an extra minute or so for the personal to wake up and respond with the equipment. I know when an emergency arises, it can seem like an eternity for emergency services to arrive on the scene, but as it has been mentioned in other posts time perception can be significantly distorted.

The only comment on the front desk informing you to stay in your rooms: They may have been having problems with their system, knew from where the alarm was activated and was able to check out that there was no fire. However, I still think you did the right thing and would have done the same.

Pete

Martin,

Interesting, my instructors taught that stairwells were designed as safe zones for building evacuations in case of fire and that they are constructed to reduce smoke entering them. We were taught that floors below the fire floor should be evacuated via the stairwells. I will have to check with a couple of current instructors, to see what the current SOGs are for hotel evacs.

Pete

I'm not a fire fighter, so I obviously can't disgree with you on procedure. Sounds reasonable, even.

But if the alarm goes off, I'm outta there. Especially if I see or smell smoke. I suppose if the fire was
burning right outside the room and I couldn't get out, I'd stay, but short of that...

It doesn't sound like it's going to be an issue, really. Nearly all people are lazy sheep. The stairs
should be relatively uncrowded (empty?) even in a real emergency. If the only issue with using the
stairs is admitting smoke, lets all make sure we close the door behind us. (I figured you'd say
something about so many people coming down the stairs that fire fighters would have a tough time
going up. Didn't that happen during 9/11?)

What's the advice given on the little door plaques in each room? You know, the one's with the map
about where you are, and where the nearest exits are? I've looked dozens of times, and can't
remember a word.

Martin, please understand... I'm not saying you're wrong. I don't know enough to argue. But it
just feels so... wrong. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Can you give us some idea of what people actually do in this situation?
Do they stay in their rooms? If they evacuate, do they make it out, or die on the way?

With all due respect, I'm not sure that I agree.

All modern buildings pressurize the stairwells when the fire alarm goes off. This keeps them from filling with smoke. (Older buildings, I'm not sure about.)

Most alarms are reasonably sensitive, so (in theory) if the alarm goes off, the fire *should* be relatively small. At that point, I'd contend that the best course of action would be to get the heck out before it gets big.

Also, if many people stay in their rooms and the fire gets big, firefighters would have to rescue everyone! Based on the number of firefighters responding vs. the possible number of guests...I don't think I'd want to trust those odds.

I'd think that the most secure place to stay would be across the street!

I hope that no one here has to test either theory!

A fireman in Las Vegas told me that most smoke alarms in the hotels have been set off by cigarettes smoldering in the ashtrays located in the hallways, often near the elevators. People are in a hurry, and just toss it in, neglecting to crush it out.

Martin, your info is interesting, probably true, but to stay in my room with the building possibly on fire might require more nerve than I've got.

Sue