Elevators and Fire Mix Like Potassium and Water

23 April, 2003 || 11:55

Ok, elevators and fire do not mix. D'uh. We knew that already, right? However, I feel that there is a need to discuss this particular issue. Yesterday, I was stuck in elevator #2 in the North Tower of San Jacinto. For 45 minutes. During a fire alarm.

"Now Sfida," you say, "who would be such a dumbass as to take an elevator during a fire drill?"

Answer: Not me. It started after we'd been in there for 10 seconds. The alarm went off and we stopped. Well, crap.

I was talking with the girl I was trapped with, a very nice girl whom I'll call Robin, and we decided that this was a bad system indeed. I mean, we both know that you don't take the elevator when there's a fire alarm, but what happens when you're already in it and the alarm goes off? You bake? Like we would've in a real fire? That would sure put a crimp in your plans.

It certainly did in ours. She was late for a quiz, and I was late for a lab. But we figured we had pretty good excuses. Anyway, we decided that something should be done about this, that this system was VERY unsafe. So we're coordinating our attack, writing to anyone in the admin who'll listen.

Situatsiya HELP, situatsiya SOS...

I think though, that the situation might have been different than it appeared to us. Now there is a sign on the elevator that says it'll be out of commission until next February, so maybe it's not a fault of the computer programming. Either way, I'd hate to find out again.