FIRE!

Wednesday, June 7, 4:12am

Just as I lying down to finally sleep, I could hear the faint sound of a fire alarm ringing in the distance. With no air conditioning, the window was open enough to make out that the alarm was coming from the hotel's lower floors. But then, another alarm rang on a higher floor, then another still even closer to my floor. Bewildered, I gathered my clothes and valuables, and stuck my head out my door for a peak. One or two others were doing the same, and no one seemed quite sure if it was for real, or if we could simply ignore it. Just then, the fire alarm in my own room sounded a piercing shriek - making it clear that I was not supposed to simply sit there and wait. The rest of the guests all seemed to come to the same conclusion, and took off running down the hallway. Yep, the entire hotel was being evacuated.

Floor by floor, we all made our way down to the street with relative calm (except for the guy who pushed several of us out of the way as he literally ran down the stairs). I made my way to the front entrance, where I saw a half-dozen of London's Bravest (the Fire Brigade) rushing into the building. We, of course, were told to wait across the street. Not too many minutes later, however, the "all clear" was given for us to return.

It seems that a careless smoker had managed to set something ablaze in his room, yet had been able to put out the fire himself. The resulting smoke was responsible for setting off the alarms that sent hundreds of poorly-dressed tourists scrambling for the exits.

Not serious, but fun to watch... and fun to write about!