by Norm Rogers
Staff Writer

I was recently coming from class toward the Community Integration Program (CIP) in the 2900 building when I heard the fire alarm blowing. Small groups of folks were standing around with confused looks on their faces.

Thank goodness it was a false alarm, but here’s a question that I have: Does the college have a plan to evacuate a building in case of a fire or any other emergencies?

It’s true that students are going here and there for classes, and perhaps they don’t have time for drills. But it is really important to have them. Things come up and we have to be ready for them.

Rosemary Dunne, the program manager for SCC’s Community Integration Program, held an inservice training for the department. I have been on campus for a long time, but this was the first time I heard about the fire alarm procedures.

During the in-service training, Dunne explained to the group that there are two ways that a fire alarm might go off: A long alarm sound means to evacuate a building, while short alarm sounds mean to stay where you are.

If there’s a long sound from an alarm, there is time to exit from your location to go somewhere near, but if there is a short stream of sounds from the alarm, there is a danger nearby and people should stay put.

Fortunately, the departments on campus have an emergency procedure manual to educate the population in certain areas about unsuspected and negative events that can happen.

What about the Student Handbook? An emergency procedures handbook would be useful too. It would be beneficial in the case of a fire and if we had an earthquake or a terrorist attack.

Safety should be our number one priority. Maybe when we have an all-campus meeting, the campus security department could come and discuss some of the safety issues.

I wonder if the campus security knows how to engage and unengaged a power wheelchair. If we have a fire or some other emergency, can someone in the campus security help students who are in a wheelchair?

Members from campus security should consider coming to the CIP and learn how to operate the wheelchairs. Maybe having a phone number of a wheelchair provider on hand would be helpful.

Having a fire drill and other emergency drills during the school year sounds nice, just to have hands-on experience in case an unexpected event occurs.