Emergency Fail

I am going to start this post with a bit of a story, an anecdote to be exact. The anecdote begins, and ends, at Werribee Plaza last night (Friday 14th June 2013) around 7:30 pm. I was doing some shopping with my brother. We had just finished our shopping and had brought a Boost Juice (a drink, not the whole company) when, all of a sudden, the fire alarm goes off. So there are big whopping sounds occasionally interrupted by an automated message that was unintelligible throughout most of the Plaza. At first everyone looks around like "what's going on?" and people did not know what to do. The worst part was the alarm and the unintelligible message just kept relaying on a continuous loop and it was becoming annoying. No one had any clue what to do, there were people working in the shops looking around like they were lost. Some shops closed while the majority just remained open with staff not knowing anything. Then my brother and I decided to leave because we were on our way out anyway and what else would you do when a fire alarm goes off?On our way out we passed two security guards who had absolutely no idea what was going on and were literally shouting over the noise so everyone could hear how little they knew. I hate to say it but in an emergency when the authority has no clue what is going on, I think it may cause a bit of panic. It was a little after this that we managed to find a place where the roof was closer to the ground and we could make out the message relaying. The automated message was literally: "An automated fire alarm has being set off, stay calm and await further instructions". Ten minutes later the sounds finally stopped and things went back to normal. At no point was there ever a new announcement telling people what to do, even after it stopped. The only consolation was that the CFA had received an automatic alert about the alarm and Werribee, Hoppers Crossing and a few other brigades had already shown up. That was probably the one good thing about the whole night that if there had of been an actual fire (which there was not, this time) at least there were fire trucks ready. That was our excitement for the night and we drank our drinks and then left.

Image Source: 

http://wyndham-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-werribee-plaza-plans-questioned/

This simply is not good enough. It was a total and utter fiasco. There were staff not knowing what to do, security who were clearly out of their depth and an unintelligible alarm system. If there had of being a real fire lives could quite possibly have being lost. The alarm system in itself is a major flaw. In the busiest parts of the Plaza it was literally unintelligible aside from the whooping sounds it makes. The only place we could hear the words was in the most empty space in the Plaza with the lowest roof. Even then it was a struggle to make out what it was saying. If there had of being a real emergency no one would have known. Even as the alarm was going off we did not know it was a fire alarm until after it had all finished and we saw the fire trucks leaving. That is disgraceful! Werribee Plaza is always busy and even at 7:45 on a Friday night it was busy. All those lives were at danger as they had no idea what was going on. The security staff were not helping as even they had no idea what was going on. The worst part is that they did not even try and hide this from the people doing their shopping. How are people meant to remain calm when the people in authority have absolutely no idea what is going on? In a real emergency people would be lost both figuratively and, possibly, literally. At no point that whole night (we were still there 15 minutes after the alarm stopped) was there any other message than the automatic one. There was no explanation and this is Werribee Plaza, anything could have happened. Then there were the staff at all the shops around us. There are over 200 stores in Werribee Plaza and it would be lucky if, at most, 20 were closed. Most of the staff were standing dumbfounded out the front of their stores while others just continued working and serving customers. They had no idea what to do and how to handle the situation. This is a major flaw in the system and one that could be costly to many lives. This is a shocking wake up call at how ineffective the alarm system at Werribee Plaza is. This is deplorable and should never be occurring in 2013. The management at Werribee Plaza urgently need to update their alarm protocols and make sure they work as they should. I should never have experienced what I did last night, it was shocking.

Take a good hard look at yourself Werribee Plaza management, see you tomorrow.