When the doors locked on the residents of the eighth floor of Lennox and Addington Sept. 5 due to a mechanical failure, those students had no idea that the evacuation was only for a false alarm.
With only one dispatcher, who was trying to focus on communicating with the ambulance waiting outside to help another student, the students’ first line of communication was occupied.
According to director of university safety Allan Burns, the safety officers followed the protocol of a true fire alarm and made attempts to get students off the floor by taking down the locked door. When this failed, safety officers attempted to communicate that the students were safe, and the alarm was false but their shouts through the glass were not loud enough.
Despite the other factors, communication with those students should still have been a top priority during the evacuation.
Communication is key.
Though the mechanical failure is still off-putting, had those students known they were safe, they would have been able to calm down, go to their rooms, and not been panicked and concerned for their safety.
In this case, as little as a hand-written sign would have sufficed. However, something needs to be done to ensure this kind of communication failure does not continue.
The Rideau River Association has issued a press release asking for a formal apology for the lack of communication and to acknowledge the fear and trauma students were put through. However, Burns said university safety did everything they could and therefore does not see the need to apologize.
An apology would go a long way.
