Am I at the Crew Hotel or???

[Resume Writer]

Not sure if I am at the crew hotel or what! At 12:57 a.m. I woke up to the hotel fire alarm and it felt like I was back at the Omni Hotel in New York where the fire alarm went off EVERY night! For those of you that do not know, I am at a resume writer conference in DEN, so the last thing I expected was a hotel fire alarm. Not saying that fires or fire alarms never happen in anything but crew hotels, but my reaction to it was like being transported back to being a crew member.

Do any of you get to the point that when the fire alarm goes off, you barely move, with thoughts such as, "Well, I guess if it is serious, they will come and pound on my door?" I did get up, went outside my room and waited to see if it was real. I can remember being at the Omni and every night walking down about 30 flights of stairs only to find there was nothing wrong. Then it would always take about 30 minutes to get back to the room waiting with about 500 other people to get on the elevators. It seriously got to the point that I would not even get out of bed when the alarm went off.

Does anyone else get like this? It was kind of scary to me to watch as the other guests did the same thing that I did.

Kathy

 

[Metro752]

they need to put those things on the alarms like they have in high schools which explode all sorts of fun colored ink on you

 

[bafanguy]

Kathy,


I've been standing in hotel parking lots in the middle of the night on several occasions in my time. In a couple of cases, there was an actual, but small fire.

As for someone knocking on your door...like one FO told me, he was going to pull all the heavy furniture out of his room and stack it IN FRONY of my door !!

Other times, it was just a bunch of brats roaming the halls in the middle of the night creating problems. And...where were their parents ??

 

[FN FAL]

The fire alarm thing happened to me in MEM recently while I was down there for simulator training. It went off at 2:00 AM on a Sunday night.

Having the information from the Novemeber MKE Oak Creek hotel murders fresh in my mind, I just felt the door for heat and observed for a while through my peep hole. When I was sure the coast was clear, I then opened my door and smelled for smoke. Eventually, one of my sim classmates came to his door and we just chatted as the alarm blasted on. Since we were only on the third floor and there was a fire exit at either end of the hallway, we just waited to see what was going to happen.

While we talked, some business lady comes by fully dressed and dragging all of her worldly possessions with her on her rolling luggage and she stops, sternly advising us that if we know what's good for us we would follow her downstairs. I'm thinking, yea...go ahead and go get shot with the rest of the sheeples, but I said..."No thanks, but you can save a spot for us down there!". She gives me a dirty look and look and begins her waddle for the elevator. Duhhhh lady...don't use elevators in a fire.

The full PDF file of the behind the scenes look of the Oak Creek Hotel shooting rampage is available at:

http://www.asp-wi.org/Documents/OakCreekArticle.pdf

At 0226 Lt. Dan Marcou was jolted awake in his motel room by a smoke alarm blaring in the hallway outside. Minutes later he found himself on a telephone with a man who told him with icy calm, "Call me the paper boy. I deliver papers ... and death."

You may have seen the motel where Marcou was staying in the news recently. It's the Comfort Suites in Oak Creek, Wisc. a Milwaukee suburb, where on Nov. 5 an angry felon murdered his girlfriend, killed a German business traveler, shot several other guests and took a military reservist hostage during a middle-of-the-night rampage.

What is not widely known is how two off-duty Wisconsin officers helped a lone first responder begin to contain this hell storm and initiate a tactical strategy that ultimately led to the gunman's capture.

Here, constructed from exclusive interviews with PoliceOne.com, are details of their critical involvement:

The off-duty cops, 51-year-old Marcou, of the LaCrosse, Wisc. Police Department, and Sgt. Brian Puent, of the Trempealeau County, Wisc. Sheriff's Dept., had booked separate rooms at the motel while participating in a master-instructor course at the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Academy, a short drive away.

Rousted from his first-floor bed, Marcou initially thought the insistent smoke alarm had been triggered by a fire. Only later did he consider gun smoke. When the inside of his door felt cool and he could see nothing threatening through
the peephole, he pulled on some civilian clothes, made quick peeks around his doorframe and headed outside toward the front desk to investigate.

 

[GravityHater]

Unless I am below the 3rd floor I take all these alarms with some seriousness; Pyrophobia, maybe. But I have seen some places I was staying in catch fire and it is so easy to get out IF you get out at the first alert. Yeah false alarms suck if you are addicted to sleep like I am.

 

[EagleRJ]

It's good to keep a flashlight in your luggage in case you need to get out when it's smoky or during a power failure. They also sell disposable smoke hoods for the truly prepared.

And the only thing worse than having a fire in your hotel is having a girls' soccer tournament there. Crank phone calls, screaming girls running up and down the halls at 3am, waiting 20 minutes for an elevator, breakfast buffet picked clean- I'd rather run from a fire!

 

[KigAir]

I don't move until I smell my butt burning.

 

[91100 100 set]

It's been quite awhile since I've been in a hotel during a fire drill/test/false alarm. Come to think of it, I'm long overdue for it. I am also long overdue for getting checked into an occupied room or getting a key that doesn't work in my room. Probably next time...

 

[Resume Writer]

It's been quite awhile since I've been in a hotel during a fire drill/test/false alarm. Come to think of it, I'm long overdue for it. I am also long overdue for getting checked into an occupied room or getting a key that doesn't work in my room. Probably next time...

Ah, the memories! Nothing worse than that happening.

On a really funny note. The hotel I am staying at here in DEN had a very small room booked for me at first - you could not even walk around without running into something. So, since I was going to be here for a couple of days, I decided to upgrade to a room with a King Size bed for $20 more a night.

When you call down to the front desk, they call you by your last name. So, now when I call down for something, they address me as "Mrs. Upgrade!"

Kathy

 

[2000flyer]

Several years ago my wife and I were at a Holiday Inn in Annapolis. About 5AM the alarm went off and we (and others) headed down the stairs. 10 minutes or so went by before the first engine showed up. The fireman, who happened to be a Captain, began chewing each one of us out for "being stupid enough to leave our rooms...that they'd come to us." I told the guy I wouldn't wait until crispy and exit via body bag. Lets just say that didn't make him happy.

In the years since I have made several friends who are fire fighters. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE SAID EXIT THE HOTEL A.S.A.P. WHEN THE ALARM GOES OFF. Several also said they won't stay in a hotel room higher than the third floor (able to jump out and survive) and always count the number of doors between them and the stairs. Pretty sound advise if you ask me.

Finally, I've been in two alarms where there actually was a fire on the property. As usual, the alarm went off and I was slow to my feet. That is, until I smelled the smoke!

2000Flyer

 

[2000flyer]

One more thing, you'll really enjoy the Embassy Suites out by DFW when the alarm goes off at 2AM and the night manager feels compelled to apologize every hour on the hour until shift change! Made for a miserable day in recurrent.

2000Flyer

 

[cforst513]

And the only thing worse than having a fire in your hotel is having a girls' soccer tournament there. Crank phone calls, screaming girls running up and down the halls at 3am, waiting 20 minutes for an elevator, breakfast buffet picked clean- I'd rather run from a fire!

i keep reading this over and over again, yet i continue to fail to find ANYTHING bad about the situation!! granted i'm single, male, 21, and in college, and your situation might differ from mine, but this hotel situation sounds like a party dying to happen!

 

[FN FAL]

Several also said they won't stay in a hotel room higher than the third floor (able to jump out and survive) and always count the number of doors between them and the stairs. Pretty sound advise if you ask me.

2000Flyer

Yes, it's great advice. You should know all the possible ways out of the hotel and none of those should incorporate the elevator.

 

[GravityHater]

I am also long overdue for getting checked into an occupied room

Crap; you too!?

I bust in on a guy once in Santa Fe, NM at a pretty upscale joint....just what my lagged, weary eyes needed to see- some 60yr hairy potbelly guy sitting naked at the end of the bed, eyes plastered to the TV while he popped bonbons into his mouth. I'll bet he was thrilled too!
Thanks, computerized room assignment program! (C.R.A.P.)

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

And the only thing worse than having a fire in your hotel is having a girls' soccer tournament there. Crank phone calls, screaming girls running up and down the halls at 3am, waiting 20 minutes for an elevator, breakfast buffet picked clean- I'd rather run from a fire!

Not that there's anything wrong with being gay, but....oh nevermind!