Preparedness for when

nuatha

Following on from GQ's "mostly bulletproof" and an incident at the US Capitol Visitors Centre reported on UK news this evening.
Multiple shots are fired in your workplace. What do you do?

Yes, I know guns aren't as common in the UK, however they aren't unknown and its safe to presume the opening shots are hostile.

NewShadow

nuatha wrote: »

Following on from GQ's "mostly bulletproof" and an incident at the US Capitol Visitors Centre reported on UK news this evening.
Multiple shots are fired in your workplace. What do you do?

Yes, I know guns aren't as common in the UK, however they aren't unknown and its safe to presume the opening shots are hostile.

If safe, run.

If not, hide.

Stay as silent as possible (Remove heels and turn off phones).

Follow any instructions given over the tannoy.

Do not gather in the normal fire evacuation location (go home).

If you don't think the police have been called (you were there at the start) call the police.

Do not try to call the office/your boss for updates - wait to be called.

milasavesmoney

Call and report gunshots to emergency services. (911 in the US)
The next, accessing the situation, depends on how close the gunshots were heard to you. If at a distance, then exit the building and seek cover. If close by, lock doors if possible (if not, then try to block doors) and seek cover.
(Of course this 2nd one goes against my nature as I would want to investigate the situation)
I'd probably then call near coworkers to see if anyone knew what was hppening to keep myself from going to check it out.
Kick myself that I hadn't taken a consealed weapons course....yep, I live in the US and am a good shot...when I practice.

maryb

Most people in the meeting would look sheepishly at each other and carry on but worry. It is probably absolutely the right thing to do and you are safer indoors than in the street if there has been an incident in the vicinity. Especially now that terrorists are making a feature of multiple bombs in short order. But Bob is right - the ones who obediently carried on working at their desks on 9/11 in accordance with the instructions didn't make it out. If it was my building, I would phone down to reception - they usually know what is going on just outside.

As regards the fire drill when you are in a meeting away from your desk - as long as it's not an all female team, then one of the men will have his wallet on him. Head for the nearest coffee shop. The fire marshals only want to make sure everyone is out, they can't account for people on an individual basis. You don't want to turn a bad cold into pneumonia hanging around at the muster point. Since that happened to me I always made a point of taking my handbag with me rather than locking it in my desk drawer, so at least I had money and phone, but I never did solve the problem of how to deal with weather if I was turfed out of the building without a chance to grab my stuff because I was away from my desk

Doveling

I would start off the singing

Anything to do with bears

"we're going on a bear hunt, a bear hunt, a bear hunt -
we're not scared!"

Fire evacuation

"make a chain, make a chain, it's not a game, make a chain!"

Cannibalism

I would stay quiet as I'm on the weight loss thread and there is ample rump steak involved :rotfl:

Random gunfire

Seriously, strikes terror in my heart. I think I would have got the children under the desks and tried to barricade the classroom door. Hopefully.

Dunblane springs immediately to mind.

Today I am going to contact my son's secondary school to ask about their major incident plan. I have never thought about it before.

Something very positive out of the "What ifs"

Thank you New Shadow

(My reactions are mainly appreciated by the under tens audience :rotfl:)

Frugalsod

milasavesmoney wrote: »

Call and report gunshots to emergency services. (911 in the US)
The next, accessing the situation, depends on how close the gunshots were heard to you. If at a distance, then exit the building and seek cover. If close by, lock doors if possible (if not, then try to block doors) and seek cover.
(Of course this 2nd one goes against my nature as I would want to investigate the situation)
I'd probably then call near coworkers to see if anyone knew what was hppening to keep myself from going to check it out.
Kick myself that I hadn't taken a consealed weapons course....yep, I live in the US and am a good shot...when I practice.

I suspect that you are more likely to be killed by co-workers going "postal" especially when you consider the numbers getting laid off right now, and especially if they have firearms.

A lot of the school shootings in the US are the high school equivalent of a co-worker getting revenge on the office bullies.

As for practical advice hiding somewhere where you can avoid any confrontation is probably best. Actually getting any concealed gun out could also increase your risk of being shot by the incoming police SWAT teams.

Frugalsod

As you know I have recently moved and one thing I bought myself for the new flat was an ultra efficient fridge. I opted for an A+++ fridge freezer and after a couple of weeks of being in the new place my electricity usage has plummeted. It is currently less than one seventh of the previous usage and the only change has been the fridge freezer. I transferred all the food over. As it stands my electricity bill looks like plummeting from £567 annually to only £266 a year. So the extra cost of the higher efficiency fridge looks like paying for itself in a year, and the total cost will have been recovered in less than two years. As this will be a permanent reduction in living costs I now have an extra £300 a year for preps. :money:

pineapple

Frugalsod I don't want to rain on your parade but I doubt the reduction in electricity can be solely due to your new fridge freezer.
Plus you say you are in a new place so it's not the only change. :huh:
Are you on a different tariff at the new place? Is it smaller? Better insulated? Etc etc..
The maximum difference between an ancient appliance v the bees knees in A ratings/model is still only likely to be around £150 per year.
Are you saying your total energy usage is just one seventh of the previous or are you talking solely fridge freezer usage? Either way I don't understand the maths. The new fridge freezer is unlikely to be just 1/7 - unless the old one was over 20 years old and completely shot.
http://www.thegreenage.co.uk/buy-new-energy-efficient-fridge-freezer/
But if you are talking 1/7th of the total, that doesn't fit with your estimate of a bit over 50% annual savings.
Maybe I'm missing something (it happens!). I'll stop now as my head hurts.

Frugalsod

pineapple wrote: »

Frugalsod I don't want to rain on your parade but I doubt the reduction in electricity can be solely due to your new fridge freezer.
Plus you say you are in a new place so it's not the only change. :huh:
Are you on a different tariff at the new place? Is it smaller? Better insulated? Etc etc..
The maximum difference between an ancient appliance v the bees knees in A ratings/model is still only likely to be around £150 per year.
Are you saying your total energy usage is just one seventh of the previous or are you talking solely fridge freezer usage? Either way I don't understand the maths. The new fridge freezer is unlikely to be just 1/7 - unless the old one was over 20 years old and completely shot.
http://www.thegreenage.co.uk/buy-new-energy-efficient-fridge-freezer/
But if you are talking 1/7th of the total, that doesn't fit with your estimate of a bit over 50% annual savings.
Maybe I'm missing something (it happens!). I'll stop now as my head hurts.

I have all the same appliances running and in fact I use my TV more now that I have put it in the bedroom. The only difference is the fridge freezer. In my old home the power usage was around 9 to 10 KWhr per day, it is now running at 9 to 10 KWhrs per week. I use the Meters app to track usage. My previous home was unfurnished so everything plugged in was mine bar the fridge-freezer and washing machine, and that did not cause a particularly high spike when used.

The old fridge freezer could have been 20 years old for all I know. It was an integrated one so hard to tell.

As for the energy savings only being 50% it is because of standing charges which you incur no matter how low your usage is. I entered the figures into USwitch using the actual annualised usage figures from the app, and it shows my energy bill only dropping 50% to £267 annually. All of my lamps and bulbs are LED and my computers are already on all day so that is not making a difference. In fact every lamp on would still add up to less than 100 W. So the only appreciable difference is the fridge freezer.

Frugalsod

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