The Chelsea Chamber

Playing with Fire

3pm: the fire alarm goes off, waking Amanda up from her nap and catching me in the middle of brushing my teeth. So, with mild cursing and griping about bad timing, we make our way down all 20 flights of stairs to go chill in the UC for a while. We come back shortly thereafter and go back up to our room, where we just have the time to turn our computers back on and get resettled when... the fire alarm goes off again. With slightly less mild cursing and griping this time, we again make our way down, this time heading to the lounge area on the top floor of Montpetit. After conferencing via cellphone with our other 20th floor compatriots, we decided to head back. Trooping back up the stairs, we get only about halfway when, surprise surprise, the fire alarm goes off again. This time the cursing and griping is anything but mild. It is now 5:30 pm and I am back in my room, but for who knows how long? If it goes off again I am taking my Psych textbook and spending the night in Morisset Library next door.

It is not the huge inconvenience of it all that really bothers me. It is not the costs that will no doubt be incurred by continually summoning the Fire Department for false alarms, nor is it the extraordinarily bad timing (we are, after all, in the middle of finals here). I don't really even mind walking up and down 20 flights of stairs, because I do that anyways. Heck, my butt is probably better off for it.

There is a larger problem here. I seriously do hope that this was caused by some kind of malfunction, because if it was in fact some kind of prank, I have to question the thought processes of the person(s) responsible. Inconvenience and discourtesy aside, repeatedly pulling the fire alarms was a wholly bad idea. I know for a fact that many people didn't bother leaving the building for the third alarm. What if there was a real fire now? How many people would be hurt (or worse) because of some idiot's continuing insistence on crying wolf? Such actions are inexcusable, because fire safety (I'll risk sounding corny here) is crucially important and must be taken seriously. Also, could it not occur to the person(s) responsible for this that the Fire Department has more important things to do than investigate juvenile pranks? One thing springs immediately to mind: maybe they could be off fighting real fires. People in serious danger could be losing their homes or their lives because the Fire Department was delayed, thanks to childish students at the U of O. How do you explain to a child that Mommy died in a fire because the Fire Fighters were too busy running back and forth to a University residence that wasn't even on fire?

Speculation is widespread that the alarms are an attempt by a desperate student(s) to get their exams deferred. Call me crazy, but I'd rather just study, write the exams as scheduled, and go home for the holidays.

The children in this rez need to stop "playing with fire" before someone gets burned- literally. I am now sincerely hoping that my rant has been unjustified, that the whole fiasco was the result of a mere malfunction, and that certain Thompson residents are not as juvenile and selfish as they've appeared today.

Seeing as I've lost several hours of study time, I've lost my right to procrastinate any further. I'll now turn my slightly irritated self to the books.

Exit Chelsea, Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 6:02 PM