Has anyone had the fire alarm go off while you were in a hotel?
This has happened to us 3 times. One, in Edison, NJ at a Marriott. It was Sunday morning in January and the fire alarm went off at about 6:00 am. It seems the was a fire in the kitchen. It was one of the suggested hotels by the show so a number of exhibitors were there. We had to evacuate into the cold January morning while the fire trucks arrived.
Another was in Troy, NY at a Fairfield Inn. At 7:30 pm on Saturday the alarm went off. The Staff is going room to room pounding on the doors for everybody to get out.
We left and watched all the fire trucks show up. We sat in our cars and kept warm.
The property is a non smoking place and it seems one guy in a room was puffing so much it set off the general alarm.
Then there was a time in Sturbridge, MA during July and a thunderstorm was raging. Cloud to ground lightning. We heard a loud crack of thunder and the alarms went off. We were told to evacuate the building. We had a patio room so we just stayed in the room unless things got nasty. Again fire trucks, etc. But it was just an electrical problem when the hotel was hit by the lightning.
These were all "host" hotels. And naturally we would talk to the other exhibitors at the show. What did we all grab when we evacuated?
Our money!
Replies
Great tips, David. And I really like the idea of having the money near the door too!
Like many areas of the country Michigan has been hard hit by this winter's weather. While I was taking shelter in a motel in Chelsea, MI, in January because the roads were too dangerous to drive on and the temps were too low to melt anything, the fire alarms went off with great regularity. The pipes were freezing and busting and setting them off. NONE of us went outdoors. It was -20, plus wind chill. We stood in the hall in the middle of the night and visited and kept an eye out. The fire trucks did come, the only vehicles on the roads. Don't know where it was more dangerous, inside or out.
It's just part of the job we do.
I've been doing this for so long, near the end of one season I got back to the hotel room and absent mindedly muttered "It's good to be home".
But I am stymied as to WHY hotels will place handicapped rooms (wheelchair accessible) on upper floors! Is the hotel staff during a fire, going to come up the stairs and carry the handicapped people down two flights?
What rocket scientist designed those hotels?