His Engine's Bright and Clean...

...Fireman Sam!

What a night I had last night. I stayed in the office late. Partially to chat to a friend, partially to watch movies, partially to do some extra work and partially to watch the England game (we now subscribe to Setanta at work. Lucky me!). At about 10pm the fire alarm came on.

Bearing in mind the late hour, and taking into account I was supposed to be the only person in the building it was a bit of a surprise. Actually, that's putting it mildly I was petrified. Was there someone else in the building? Was I trapped on the top floor of a towering inferno? After I'd calmed down a bit, I went downstairs, and out of the front door. I felt a bit of a lemon standing there on my own, people walking past looking at me but I didn't know what else to do. I had no idea if the fire brigade were on their way, no idea who to contact to turn the alarm off, no idea which part of the system had been triggered. I knew the correct procedure for a fire drill is to move to the cinema car park behind the building, but what was the point? I was on my own.

After a few minutes I ventured back inside. There was a strong smell of burnt toast on the ground floor, but it wasn't coming from the kitchen area. As I began to walk back upstairs the cavalry arrived. 4 burly fireman burst in, torches flashing around. Within seconds they had read the alarm panel and were off to investigate. I stayed on the ground floor with the chief. I kept apologising to him for the fact I was still inside the building, but he didn't seem too concerned.

It wasn't long before they found the sensor that had been triggered. Typically it was the one right outside my office, but the chief seemed to think it had gone off because it was too close to the ceiling light. I completed the paperwork with him and he was on his way..... leaving me in the office with the alarm still ringing.

I didn't have the number for the caretaker of the building, so I went back to my office. I tried working with the alarm bell in the background, but it was too much. I logged off, locked up and went home. I came back to work this morning at 7am and the alarm had been turned off, so I assume someone was called out in the middle of the night

...hope it doesn't become a regular event. Too stressful!