On Tuesdays and Thursdays John
teaches a physics class, in English, to university students aiming to become
high school teachers. I, Erin, often
take the boys out of the house during these mornings. Last Tuesday was one such morning. Caedmon, Whitman, and I rode a public bus,
much like a large van, to a large soccer field.
Caedmon had been asking for weeks to go play soccer at this field. Caedmon and I kicked the ball around while
Whitman mostly just watched. Afterwards
we met John at the mall across the street to buy a cell phone as I had
misplaced mine last weekend. This mall
is composed of 6 floors, each packed with stores. The stores are more like small stands than
actual rooms to enter. Each floor seems
to offer certain items. The first floor
has clothing, the second, cell phones and accessories, the third, computers and
accessories, and so on. It is a great
place to buy used cell phones. After
visiting many ‘stands’ we bought a great phone, then headed to the top floor to
eat lunch.
After lunch the boys placed in a
play place. While John took Caedmon to
the bathroom and I watched Whitman play, a guy came running around the corner
saying, “3rd floor, 3rd floor,” on a walkie-talkie. He was dressed nice but didn’t have specific indicators as to whether he was, or wasn’t, associated with the mall. I was curious, wondering if there was a theft
or injury, but just kept watching Whitman.
A few minutes later I noticed many people sitting around the area
staring towards the corner of the room.
This corner was maybe 20 feet to our right, contained elevators and
was composed of windows to the outside.
As I looked that direction I saw smoke slowly entering the area. I began to more seriously question what was
happening. Though this building seemed
pretty basic, I knew it had a fire alarm (I had actually seen the alarm for the
first time this visit while looking for a phone) and PA system. The alarm was not sounding, no announcements
were heard over the PA system, and no other mall employees where providing information. It took only a
few more minutes for more smoke to collect.
I decided to pick up Whitman, calmly informing him it was time to go,
and we went to find John. We went to the
top of the escalators to be in view of the bathrooms and also maintain a clear
view of the smoke. Announcements began on
the PA system, but I couldn’t discern a word being said. I decided to text John to maybe hurry him up,
but of course my phone, newly purchased, didn’t have a charge. We waited a minute or two more while I
thought about what to do if we needed to leave separate from John and
Caedmon. At this time people, including
all food court employees, began panicking, running to exits. Thankfully John and Caedmon came out of the
bathroom and quickly saw us. There were
multiple elevators, which one employee instructed John to take when he exited
the bathroom, and two escalators. Both
these escalators went up and I had no idea where the stairs where. Thankfully by the time John and Caedmon met
up with us both escalators had been shut off so we could walk down them. We were blessed with peace and clarity of
mind as people were panicking, causing running and pushing. This was our first experience in those
situations you hear about where people panic and end up trampling others. Please don’t worry, in was a weekday, lunch
time and the crowds were not very big, exiting was quite easy and the panic was
no where near extreme. Even though we where
on the top floor, we were able to exit out the front door quite quickly and
easily, all the while calmly telling the boys a little about what was going
on. They too were calm and just
observant.
 |
| We were on the top floor near the round tower on the right |
 |
| both pics borrowed from a local newspaper |
Once outside we stole a couple
looks toward the building, but quickly grabbed a taxi home. As it turns out there was a fire in the
basement, the cause is still uncertain, but nobody was hurt, aside from a few
people fainting. It was a pretty surreal
experience. At no time were we worried
for our safety. We were so thankful for
previous teaching on fire safely and staying calm in emergency situations. Even more so, we are so thankful for the
provision of safety. Definitely a new, and hopefully rare,
experience for us here!
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