Wow.
So I was playing FFXII last night around 1 AM, wrapping up for the night, when I hear people running up and down the hall and pounding on everyone's door. Then the fire alarm went off. Julia, our RA, burst in and said, "This is a real fire drill!" which confused me for a minute. (A real drill? Which is it?) I pondered grabbing my laptop, but decided that since I didn't hear screaming or smell smoke right away, it probably wasn't a large fire. So we all sleepily pour out of the building to go stand on the wet grass, and as we do I fall into step next to the girl across the hall from me, talking on her cell phone. "...put it in and forgot to come back. It says oven-safe, we do it at home all the time!" So we watched as little puffs of white smoke rose from the oven on the second floor kitchen, wondering why on earth someone didn't just discharge a fire extinguisher and let us get back to bed. Two UMW police officers and three firefighters in full gear arrived and stood around in the kitchen looking at it before they stuck a fan in the window. The fire marshall (the same interesting lady who gave us the slide show on how people die in dorm fires all the time) came out and was like, "Who was cooking a pizza in the oven? ...'Cause it was still in the cardboard box." Of course no one stepped forward. Seriously, who would in that situation? I watched the girl across the hall, and she was standing way in the back with a friend, talking at a very rapid pace. Finally the fire marshall asked again and said that no one was in trouble, and after a pause the girl came forward. I felt kind of bad for her, having to do that in front of the whole dorm. But then again, who would put cardboard in the oven and then walk away? It makes one wonder. (Yet on the other hand, I can see myself doing something similar...) A few minutes later we were allowed back in.
It amused me what a big deal everyone made of it. An ambulance and two fire engines showed up and we stood around for, like, forty-five minutes while they examined it. Then again, I guess better safe than sorry. Ball is an old building with lots of people in it, so I guess they wanted to be extra-safe. So now we can't use the kitchen until further notice, since the oven is pretty much toast. (HAR!)
It amused me what a big deal everyone made of it. An ambulance and two fire engines showed up and we stood around for, like, forty-five minutes while they examined it. Then again, I guess better safe than sorry. Ball is an old building with lots of people in it, so I guess they wanted to be extra-safe. So now we can't use the kitchen until further notice, since the oven is pretty much toast. (HAR!)