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What's the point in having a code word for a fire alert so that no-one freaks out...when everyone knows what the code word means?
Everyone doesn’t - often the people who are supposed to don’t in fact - so they do less than panic and pay no attention at all
but it doesn’t stop it being an effective system - I was in King’s Cross when there was an ‘inspector sands’ announcement sounding. A few member of the public would have known what it meant but nobody reacted because the point of the alarm is that the wider public doesn’t react. If you need them to do that… you set off the fire alarm
Hadn't cottoned on to the Inspector Sands announcement was actually an easily ignored fire alarm, you learn new thing everyday.
I particularly enjoy the "Listen mate, If you see somthink that just don' look right, someone who looks like a right likely lad up to no good or perhaps their eyes are too close together, you know the routine: See it. say it. Sorted, strike a light, Blimey guvnor, get 'I'm... NOW SHUT IT*!" station tannoy announcements that seem to be by an extra from a Guy Ritchie movie or perhaps someone who was partnering Carter and Regan in 1974 (I assume Network Rail couldn't afford Ray Winstone, John Thaw regrettably is no longer with us and Dennis Waterman would probably want to sing something instead).
*ok I may have made up some of that but you get the general idea.
When I worked in football stadia in the 90s there was a “coded” announcement which was similar (I don’t think it was Sands - but I might be wrong) and it was to allow stewards to get to the muster points before the masses, because dying in a fire was (probably correctly) perceived as lower risk than a crush from people exiting.
I think your assumption that such an announcement is known enough to cause panic anyway is wrong on a number of levels:
1. Even a full fire alarm doesn’t cause panic - the public all look at each other hoping someone tells them to ignore it!
2. Most people don’t know it. Even if lots of people have been told about it, many will forget, many don’t care etc.
3. Lots of people don’t actually listen to announcements. As soon as their brain says it’s not about their train etc they filter it and go back to social media!
4. People who genuinely know what it means know that it’s the first phase of an incident and that there may well be nothing arises from it when the initial investigation sees there’s no fire where the sensor activated or the break glass point was smashed.
5. I’d even 20% of people hear it, understand it and calmly exit because of their special knowledge is that actually a good thing? It’s not a mass rush for the doors but it’s 20% fewer people to evacuate if the first responders find a fire which cannot be contained.
Mr. Linus is in the pool.
Well I’ve learnt something new today.
Having experienced multiple fire and other emergency alarms in hospitals point 1 above is very much true!
We've had battery fires, chemical leaks and one time a fire whilst pressure testing the fire escapes that meant smoke was being wafted through the A/C so beds had to be wheeled outside. Most of the time nobody has a clue what's going on and just assumes/hopes it's a drill. Utterly shambolic.
The chemical leak was particularly odd. "Something*" got spilt in one of the labs. Everybody in the (non-patient) areas got evacuated after a considerable kerfuffle and then tagged with an emergency number on in case we felt odd later.
*not a virus!
*not a virus!
That's exactly what somebody who worked in a Wuhan virus lab and dropped a flask would say.
That’s exactly what somebody who worked in a Wuhan virus lab and dropped a flask would say.
Haha!
"Magnum Force" (1973 Dirty Harry film) gave this away. I guess you guys haven't watched it?
The airport that Harry visits, at the start of the film, uses a coded call to highlight their staff to a hijacking :o)
Something like "Would Mr White please call...." and Harry goes to investigate as he says "that's the airport coded call for trouble"
I know, I know, a mis-spent youth :o)
Every day’s a school day.
Tim Harford (of BBC more or less) did a podcast on this sort of thing recently - evacuations from theatres and stations, including a Vaudeville illusionist and the Kings Cross fire. General point was that the concerns about panic are valid but can be overstated compared to the risk of no one moving until it's too late. https://pca.st/episode/dadff9db-574f-4303-936e-50e744b1cf29
The episode and actually the whole series (cautionary tails) are really good. Recurring theme is "actually, it's a bit more complicated than that", but the point is usually made via a couple of really interesting stories.
When I worked in football stadia in the 90s there was a “coded” announcement which was similar (I don’t think it was Sands – but I might be wrong)
Was it constable ERIS?
Emergency Response In Stadia
I worked as a steward in my final year at uni in Glasgow.
A friend used to work somewhere where "Mr Sands is at reception" was code for "the sandwich van is at reception", as for some reason management thought that announcing that the sandwich van had arrived sounded unprofessional.