By Cassaundra Gail Tan
EchoCassaundra@gmail.com
On the afternoon of the 30th of January, Saturday, a fire alarm went off in Bugis Junction. Shoppers looked warily around them, but the sales personnel in all shops continued about their business. Life went on.
Then the fire alarm went off again. This time round, it rang shrilly for a long period, and the automatic shutters of some shops came slamming down. Shoppers looked around in panic. A Watsons salesgirl ran down the corridor to look for her colleagues. But outside of the shops a mother let her son play on the stairs. People stood around wait for instructions and when there were none, continued shopping...
Not too long before, shoppers at the Golden Mile Complex reacted to the fire alarm with nochalance and continued shopping as well.
Fire alarms have lost their impact on Singaporeans. With schools and offices constantly enforcing fire alarm drills, the sense of emergency so important to every crisis and evacuation has become lost. People no longer take fire alarms seriously because it could just be another drill.
But with this attitude, what will happen when there really is a fire? People are still going to stand around and wait for instructions, or worse, continue to shop.
Frequent Bugis Junction visitor Jonathan Woo thinks “people will leave if you tell them to, maybe you can do it via the PA system.” However, that might not be the most effective way to inform people of a fire; given the hubbub of malls nowadays, especially with the Chinese New Year songs blaring from shops, people are not going to hear much.
So what can be done to help Singaporeans break free of this nonchalant mindset? One way would be to do away with regular fire drills. Instead, informing tenants and visitors of exit routes out of the building, and displaying signs in prominent areas, would better facilitate evacuation.
Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Shereene Lim agrees: “ The fire drills are not only a waste of time but we go through it so often that we feel that every time the fire alarm goes off, it is 'staged'.”
Another way would be to check fire exits regularly. Most of the time, people are the focus of a fire drill. There is never, if ever, someone going around checking that all the doors and exits are accessible, that the sprinklers are working, and et cetera.
Finally, offices and malls could also eliminate fire hazards completely. While we cannot do away with wiring, we can make sure none of it is exposed, and that everything is insulated. There should also be a harsher punishment for people who insist on smoking indoors. Even Temasek Polytechnic, an institute of education, fails to enforce this: student Mary-Anne Lee says she often gets a whiff of stale cigarette smoke when using enclosed staircases. “ It's been like this for three years so evidently these rule breakers don't feel the need to stop because they get away with it so easily,”
However it is hard to tell whether these measures will work unless they are actually implemented. It is up to the individual to take his or her own initiative in the meantime. Though Singapore is a safe place where real fire alarms rarely occur, such peace should never be taken for granted.
EchoCassaundra@gmail.com
On the afternoon of the 30th of January, Saturday, a fire alarm went off in Bugis Junction. Shoppers looked warily around them, but the sales personnel in all shops continued about their business. Life went on.
Then the fire alarm went off again. This time round, it rang shrilly for a long period, and the automatic shutters of some shops came slamming down. Shoppers looked around in panic. A Watsons salesgirl ran down the corridor to look for her colleagues. But outside of the shops a mother let her son play on the stairs. People stood around wait for instructions and when there were none, continued shopping...
Not too long before, shoppers at the Golden Mile Complex reacted to the fire alarm with nochalance and continued shopping as well.
Fire alarms have lost their impact on Singaporeans. With schools and offices constantly enforcing fire alarm drills, the sense of emergency so important to every crisis and evacuation has become lost. People no longer take fire alarms seriously because it could just be another drill.
But with this attitude, what will happen when there really is a fire? People are still going to stand around and wait for instructions, or worse, continue to shop.
Frequent Bugis Junction visitor Jonathan Woo thinks “people will leave if you tell them to, maybe you can do it via the PA system.” However, that might not be the most effective way to inform people of a fire; given the hubbub of malls nowadays, especially with the Chinese New Year songs blaring from shops, people are not going to hear much.
So what can be done to help Singaporeans break free of this nonchalant mindset? One way would be to do away with regular fire drills. Instead, informing tenants and visitors of exit routes out of the building, and displaying signs in prominent areas, would better facilitate evacuation.
Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Shereene Lim agrees: “ The fire drills are not only a waste of time but we go through it so often that we feel that every time the fire alarm goes off, it is 'staged'.”
Another way would be to check fire exits regularly. Most of the time, people are the focus of a fire drill. There is never, if ever, someone going around checking that all the doors and exits are accessible, that the sprinklers are working, and et cetera.
Finally, offices and malls could also eliminate fire hazards completely. While we cannot do away with wiring, we can make sure none of it is exposed, and that everything is insulated. There should also be a harsher punishment for people who insist on smoking indoors. Even Temasek Polytechnic, an institute of education, fails to enforce this: student Mary-Anne Lee says she often gets a whiff of stale cigarette smoke when using enclosed staircases. “ It's been like this for three years so evidently these rule breakers don't feel the need to stop because they get away with it so easily,”
However it is hard to tell whether these measures will work unless they are actually implemented. It is up to the individual to take his or her own initiative in the meantime. Though Singapore is a safe place where real fire alarms rarely occur, such peace should never be taken for granted.
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