tipper wrote:
yeah, we generally do them in the mornings, and try to pick a day with reasonable weather (we usually do them in october) and believe it or not, the legislation actually states that without a warning, it doesnt count as a drill. although, a pa announcement 5 minutes beforehand counts as a warning, so its what we do.
we also run warden training sessions. wardens are supposed to do 2 trainings a year, and a drill counts as training, so maybe your workplace just does drills??
agreed on the real alarms. this building has 900 people in it, and is 18 stories high. the fire dept have been at the fire control room before i can get there in a real alarm, and i was in the building! great response.
Our pa system has a variety of sounds and commentary, we have toolbox talks plenty of work safe inductions that educate us on what each sound represents.
We've had a few fires here in recent years, one jumped Port Wakefield Road on a hot windy day, it was pretty scary, we know once we hear "whoop whoop" it's time to just GTFO and stay calm.
I do understand the importance of the drills but when it's treated as a joke and a piss take it's annoying, moreso that I had to leave early to pick my daughter up from a dodgy train station and bring her back to work, we can't leave our site until the fire has been given the "all clear".