Editor:
The alarm started sounding as we were playing pickleball in the gymnasium the other day.
Most people stopped playing, but nobody left the gym. They stood around asking each other if they should actually leave.
I yelled, “Let’s discuss it outside!”
I went to the far end of the parking lot to be out of the way of firefighters when they arrived, but at least 40 others gathered around the main entrance doors of the building.
I ran over to them and pointed out that they were blocking the entrance and were preventing others from exiting, and they would soon be preventing firefighters from entering.
They slowly dispersed.
What is it about people that they think nothing can happen to them, or they don’t think their action – or inaction – can endanger themselves and others?
I would rather evacuate a building a hundred times for false alarms than not evacuate once for a real alarm.
Jerry Steinberg, Surrey
