Sounding the Alarm: Building Evacuations Spark Fire Safety Refresher
For the second time in less than a month, smoke in elevator shafts triggered fire alarms in HSPH buildings, sending occupants to the streets and shutting down the westbound lanes of Huntington Avenue. Boston firefighters acted quickly. They found a burned-out capacitator to be the cause of the smoke and HSPH reaction to be a cause for concern: not everybody left the buildings when they should have. As a result, HSPH officials are re-educating the community on procedures that may seem confusing to the uninformed.
"We were all trained from school that when you hear an alarm, everybody leaves," said Paul Riccardi, dean for operations and administration. But that rule does not apply to the main HSPH complex, which follows state regulations for high-rise buildings (a high-rise building is defined as having more than four stories. At four floors, Building 2 is not a high-rise but is treated as one because it connects to the taller FXB building).
Evacuations of high-rise buildings begin with the floor on which the alarm was set off plus the floor immediately above it. Other floors may be cleared if necessary. The two sets of alarms is intended to provide a controlled evacuation of the building and to avoid situations like the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in which hundreds of people clogged dark and smoky stairwells.
This is the procedure followed at HSPH if a fire or smoke alarm is triggered. One set of alarms, accompanied by blinking lights, goes off throughout the affected building. The alarms are followed by a female, automated voice announcing there is an emergency. Then, a second set of alarms--different from the first--alerts people only on the specific floors that need to be evacuated, signalling them to leave.
"If you are uncomfortable, then you should leave," said Riccardi, whether the alarm is going off on your floor or not. People on the floors on which the second set of alarms ring do not have a choice. They need to leave, said Riccardi, even if it means abandoning time-sensitive experiments.
Riccardi remembers an incident in which researchers spotted smoke in their own lab, pulled the alarm, and then continued to work, apparently thinking the smoke to be non-threatening.
"I usually leave if I hear an alarm," said Andrea Wurster, a postdoctoral student in FXB, but added she was confused by the most recent incident because she had spotted leaflets that described systematic alarm testing going on throughout HSPH buildings. It wasn't until someone from Operations told her that the alarm was not a test that she left the building, she said. Her colleague, Jyothi Revagaragan, said she usually responds in case there really is a fire, but added that leaving experiments behind can be worrisome. "It would be really annoying to lose work if it were just a drill," she said.
Riccardi said he will provide plenty of warning before planned drills so that researchers can set up their experiments accordingly. The recent testing of alarms just happened to coincide with the scares.
Recalcitrant evacuees, be warned. In addition to risking their health and the safety of rescuers, people who refuse to leave buildings are breaking the law. Interfering with firefighters while they perform their duties is an arrestable crime, and people found guilty could face up to five years in prison.
"Most people leave the building," said Philip Murphy, a Harvard University patrolman, "but some are reluctant if they're working on an experiment. If they wait too long, there's going to be a tragedy one day."
The denial that a tragedy could occur vexes fire officials, but Riccardi reminds the HSPH community of the recent fire in Newton that claimed the lives of five people. Part of the reason the fire spread quickly was because the building lacked a sprinkler system; HSPH buildings have sprinkler systems, said Riccardi.
Riccardi and others from Operations plan to attend orientation meetings
for new employees to explain fire procedures. Also, an e-mail to the entire
HSPH community will be sent to refresh HSPH members of the rules, he said.
