This is an emergency situation
The alarm bell in my room in the Excelsior Hotel rang loudly, shaking me out of my sleep. "This is an emergency situation. Please evacuate the building immediately," said a lady's voice on the PA system. It was 5:00am in the morning. I was in a daze, and ignored the bell for a while. However, the bell was persistent. Then the enormity of the situation hit me, as though someone had emptied a bucket of cold water on my face.
Looking around my room, nothing appeared to have changed. I looked out of the window, and saw nothing. Then the alarm bell rang again. "This is an emergency situation. Please evacuate the building immediately," said the voice urgently. I quickly put on my jeans, worried that something had happened. I opened the door and looked down the corridor. There were people walking along the corridor towards the emergency exits. Apparently I was not the only hotel guest to have been woken up.
I was horrified. Fearing the worst, I quickly rushed back to the safe to get my passport, the most important document I had. I had other valuables, like my laptop and my digital camera, but I left them in the room, in the belief that my life was worth far more than these things. My hotel room was situated at the far end, so I had to run for the emergency exit. Past the doors, I saw many people walking down the stairs. My room was located on the 15th floor, so there were 15 flight of stairs ahead of me. All I wanted to do was run, but there were just too many people ahead of me that I had to walk slowly down the stairs. I felt impatient at the snail-like pace the guests were making down the stairs.
My heart was beating rapidly, recalling the events of Sept 11th, wondering what would happen to me. The most plausible disaster I could think of was a fire, and I scanned around, searching for signs of smoke. As I got lower and lower, the air became warmer, and . When I reached the lobby, I found hundreds of other guests gathered there. There was no sign of anything I would have considered strange. The hotel staff was busy directing traffic. It had been a false alarm.
I was glad to learn that it was a false alarm. Although I thought the hotel was a little sloppy in handling the situation, I was ready to forgive them for it, for I was happy to find myself quite alive.
Looking around my room, nothing appeared to have changed. I looked out of the window, and saw nothing. Then the alarm bell rang again. "This is an emergency situation. Please evacuate the building immediately," said the voice urgently. I quickly put on my jeans, worried that something had happened. I opened the door and looked down the corridor. There were people walking along the corridor towards the emergency exits. Apparently I was not the only hotel guest to have been woken up.
I was horrified. Fearing the worst, I quickly rushed back to the safe to get my passport, the most important document I had. I had other valuables, like my laptop and my digital camera, but I left them in the room, in the belief that my life was worth far more than these things. My hotel room was situated at the far end, so I had to run for the emergency exit. Past the doors, I saw many people walking down the stairs. My room was located on the 15th floor, so there were 15 flight of stairs ahead of me. All I wanted to do was run, but there were just too many people ahead of me that I had to walk slowly down the stairs. I felt impatient at the snail-like pace the guests were making down the stairs.
My heart was beating rapidly, recalling the events of Sept 11th, wondering what would happen to me. The most plausible disaster I could think of was a fire, and I scanned around, searching for signs of smoke. As I got lower and lower, the air became warmer, and . When I reached the lobby, I found hundreds of other guests gathered there. There was no sign of anything I would have considered strange. The hotel staff was busy directing traffic. It had been a false alarm.
I was glad to learn that it was a false alarm. Although I thought the hotel was a little sloppy in handling the situation, I was ready to forgive them for it, for I was happy to find myself quite alive.
