March 17. Day 77. Where there's smoke

Apparently I am the responsible adult. This means in the event of an emergency or fire alarm sounding at my place of work, as the academic in charge of the tute room it is my job to ensure that everyone leaves the room in  a safe and orderly manner. I take this responsibility very seriously - now. This has not always been the case. There was this one time the fire alarm sounded and as per the manual I told everyone to leave everything and the vacate the building using the stairs. All good,

except for one small detail. I neglected to take care of the blind student in a wheelchair. He was normally accompanied by a carer who stayed during the class. This day the carer left and without help he was stuck. Fortunately it was just a drill. Fortunately the other students behaved better than I did. But I learned my lesson and take emergency evacuation procedures very seriously  - when it is on my watch. Apparently, I am not so compliant when it is someone else's responsibility regardless if it means I risk becoming a human torch. Like everyone else in the Playhouse at QPAC tonight, I did nothing when the fire alarm started blaring. The cast, the band, the ushers, the audience, no-one moved. In the first instance those on stage were living the motto of the show must go on. Later, the performers stopped, then hammed it up and finally left the stage. The smoke detectors continued to do their thing. Sure it was almost certainly a false alarm. Sure the smoke machine had been particularly active and the stage smoke was thick but that would be of cold comfort if there was a fire. Note to self, brush up on that evacuation procedure again.