AIBU to think customers’ behaviour about evacuating in the heavy rain was childish

I was at work one day and just outside,a man was crossing the road and was hit by a car
He was killed outright
I shot upstairs (massive windows) and not one person would go downstairs

Why did they need to go downstairs, wouldn't they have been less in the way if they'd stayed where they were?

Regular customers would know you have a fire drill on a Monday so would ignore the alarm.

I guess the man dying in the toilets would be a problem if they were the only men's toilets otherwise diners need not really know or be forced to abandon their food. It's an unlikely place for a suicide I would have assumed a heart attack or stroke. Perhaps stop taking orders so the restaurant would empty naturally by the time the police and ambulance arrived.

Why would people have to go downstairs because there was an accident in the street, it didn't affect anyone in the restaurant. I would have been telling them to sit down!

The more general point about older people not panicking about things is perhaps because they have seen it all before and it's usually not a real disaster, and they can't move fast anyway more likely to get in the way or get trampled in the rush if it's really serious. If I had children with me I would assume the worst and get out quickly.

In a tiny, independent bookshop? Where you would be having your coffee about 15 feet from the dead guy? and you’d what, step over his body to keep browsing? While the owner was trying to do CPR, one of the staff was on the phone to 999 and the other staff member is telling you to get out? And it wasn’t a coffee shop - we served coffee in a wee corner of the shop, the manage basically said “just give everyone a fiver back and take them out the back door.” And back then, a coffee was not £5 so they were getting a bigger amount back.

See, some people are really very pathetic, me me me, assholes.

If it's a drill, it's generally announced on the PA system, warning both staff and shoppers to expect the alarms to sound.

Generally alarms are held at a similar time/day of the week.

e.g. my local hospital - every wednesday morning - with a fire engine parked outside just in case, but that is an extreme, I'll admit.

This.

YABU to make ageist comments. It gets tedious after a while, and shows a certain smallness of mind.

I'm in my 60s and volunteer for a lowland search & rescue unit. That involves going out in all conditions (and I mean all). The ages of team members are spread evenly between 25 and 65.

The old are closer to death. Maybe they didn't want someone else's run of the mill death (albeit traumatic and terrible for the family/friends of the deceased) to get in the way of whatever little life they have left, unless it absolutely has to

I know as I get older, I feel more and more like this. Obviously if the person is alive and space is needed to provide help, absolutely I'd leave, get out of the way or provide help, whichever is appropriate but if they have died, I can't do anything to help so I'd rather not have my life impacted unecessarily.

I certainly would not stand around and gawp or take photos/video which so many young people seem to do nowadays, but assuming I knew that the appropriate help had been called for, I would want to carry on and make my purchase (perhaps at another till) and/or go to the coffee shop - If that makes me callous -so be it

I always look for the green "running man" emergency exit signs wherever I go.

That's because of my previous job (and DH). You only get one life. I'd rather get wet than die in a fire.

The staff have to quickly close the tills/stop the conveyor belts etc. then get everyone out. The store need all staff on the shop floor evacuating to a place of safety. HOW is that unreasonable??

Anyone arguing should be banned from that specific store and all of it's other outlets. They are a danger to the staff.

Is standing in the rain for 5 mins, or coming back later/tomorrow assuming it's a false alarm that much of an inconvenience...there are other shops.

Woolworths Manchester fire - Wikipedia

taken from the wiki page - The disaster has become a significant object of study for academics interested in the behaviour of people in emergency situations, after research showed a number of customers (predominately in the public restaurant area) refused to leave despite the sounding of alarms, requests from staff, and even the smell and visibility of smoke; some even continued to queue at an abandoned check-out. The majority of those who perished were in this area.

I know! Imagine wanting older people to evacuate a shop because it might be on fire! How awful!

I used to work in a large hotel and felt second most bad for the people who had been in the pool, but the most bad off all for the ones from the hairdressers with foils on their heads. I hope no one ended up with strange hair colours and over developed highlights!

Yeah, course they did.

Since there is no record of who in terms of customers were in the store customers going to an assembly point is pointless, surely they would just go home or into another store.

When there was the dreadful fire at Manchester Woolworths some people refused to evacuate because they wanted to finish their meal in the cafe.

What an incredibly ageist post.

We have a fire drill at work every Monday (I work at a fast food restaurant)

99% of the time,we give a warning to customers and to ignore it unless told differently

One Monday,one manager thought the other had given the warning and that manager thought the first had

Fire alarm went off and not one person moved, not even battered an eyelid-they all just carried on chomping their food

Another was when a man walked into the toilet and im not sure if he meant to kill himself,but he died in there

Most where fab-they left with no issues but some didnt-they where eating their food,at their table and nobody was moving until they'd finished

Some even wanted to see the body still laid on the floor!

I was at work one day and just outside,a man was crossing the road and was hit by a car

He was killed outright

I shot upstairs (massive windows) and not one person would go downstairs

All where gawping out of the windows and some stood on tables for a better look

I was shouted at,spat at and threatened when I asked people to move downstairs

They finally left when they removed the body

Some people are dicks

I’ve been in a house fire. If an alarm is going off anywhere you need to get out and follow staff instructions, if the older ones weren’t doing this or were moaning at staff and security then OP is within her rights to point that out. It’s incredibly unsafe and stupid. It’s not ‘oldie bashing’ it’s ’ffs there’s a fire alarm, stop whinging’ bashing.

Why were they being kicked out though if they were away from the dead man?

OP, do you not leave your house very often? Because no one, unless there's actually evidence that this is a fire or genuine emergency, rather than a routine drill, is going to abandon shopping they might have spent half an hour amassing, and bound cheerfully out into a downpour smiling and waving like Fotherington Thomas.

Absolutely, fire drills are important. Absolutely people should evacuate promptly, regardless of weather conditions. But no one can make them do it without making it clear they think it's a total pain in the ass.

I love that you're getting a oneupmanship in this thread early.

I work in leisure centres. You can imagine how much the customers enjoy being evacuated from a swimming session when the fire alarm goes off 😂

(No, you can’t get your bag. No you can’t get dressed. Here’s a towel to put round you now off you go’)

When we had the Manchester Bomb in 1996 we were trying to evacuate the area and people were just complete and utter twats about it. Refusing to leave shops because they wanted to finish their shopping; arguing about being refused entry to particular roads etc etc. As we all know there was an actual bomb and thanks to the Police no one was actually killed although there were some injuries but no thanks to a lot of the general public.

Wow, thats insane. Do you think they were just trying to be completely oblivious about what had happened, or a general disregard for human life! Imagine a book or coffee being more important than the dignity of a dead person, likely shock and trauma of the staff nearby, and work of the emergency services who would I assume still have needed to come and get him?!!

The whole purpose of the drill is to find problems before it's a serious incident.

A finding from this particular drill should be that the lack of safe, undercover space meant people were unwilling to evacuate/ elderly shoppers were concerned about slipping etc. The correct response is consideration of a solution e.g creation of a covered walkway.

If people don't want to participate, that's their right. Stay put and wait to find out if it's real or a drill. Unfortunately this could result in elderly people trying to evacuate themselves at pace which increases their risk of falling, without any available support (because staff have rightly already evac'd) in a real fire.