Fire!

While this is a bit off topic from research, many of us researchers are also frequent business travelers. So I think this topic is worthy of a few lines.

I have been traveling a lot lately. A few days ago, I woke up in my hotel room to the sound of the emergency evacuation message. It took me a minute or two before I realized it was not my alarm clock. Knowing this meant a fire in the hotel, my adrenalin kicked in pretty quickly. Fortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm. But, it took me more than 10 minutes before I was ready to leave the room. Sure, I felt the door to see if it was warm, or if smoke was coming under the door. I even had a wet towel from the bathroom ready. But, if it had been a real fire, that 10 minutes could have made a big difference in whether I survived. I was busy grabbing my clothes, finding my wallet, and trying to remember where I had my cell phone charging. Lesson learned – when you are in a hotel, and settling in for the night, put some thought into it. If I had just been a bit more organized the night before, I could have been out of the room in 2-3 minutes.