Don't be alarmed.

Wow! There are a many disturbing things about this morning's "fire drill."

3:50am.

That's when the "alarm" went off. It lasted until about 6:00am on some floors and later on others. I'm not even sure that it isn't still going off as I type this! Me thinks that there will be a building full of tired people this evening. I know I will be. Because the alarms are in our bedrooms, I slept on the living room floor last night and it made for less than a restful evening.

Here are just a few troubling aspects to last nights incident. I think it brings up a number of others also which I don't think I'll even address!

The first is that it even happened at all. Can we find out what the cause was and perhaps find some way to alert tenants as to when something like this is an actual emergency.

Secondly, the duration of the malfunction. On some floors it lasted a lot longer than others. It was still going off on a number of floors as we all left for work. Perhaps a superintendent living in the building could have rectified it sooner.

Thirdly, the week signal from the alarm is very scary. This is our emergency warning system in case of a real disaster. God help you if you're a sound sleeper or your hearing is challenged in any way, because to me, that weak little static-laden drone that we all heard last night doesn't inspire much confidence in our ability to mobilize and evacuate. How about you?

I think it might be a good idea for management to distribute a comprehensive fire plan, approved by the fire department, and with a working building emergency number on it (my calls went unanswered). Who even knew what that pitiful little bit of feedback from the alarm meant? As I left my apartment to walk down to the front desk to find out, I met several neighbors who like myself, were wandering around confused as to what was going on.

I think this unintentional little fire drill might have been a good lesson as to just how unprepared we are for a real fire. This is a big building and it would not be a pleasant situation if we were all to evacuate at once. Trust me, if you've never been in one, as I have, a building fire is rarely a pleasant event!

It's also pretty disturbing that there isn't an official available during the evening hours to take a situation like last nights into hand. It sure seemed to me that in the event of an emergency, we're all on our own. The confusion that resulted after last nights bit of fun should be a teachable moment because I for one, take such things seriously.