Fire in Dundrum - I posted this on Boards.ie earlier
Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:05 amhttp://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=51254134#post51254134
Hi,
Tonight, Saturday 23rd April there was an incident in Dundrum Shopping Centre while i was out with my partner watching a movie; this incident was handled in a very non-professional manner.
Upon the film's completion my partner and I left the cinema casually heading towards the main entrance to the cinema complex. No notification of a fire alert was given although 2 fire brigade trucks had arrived on-site at the cinema and appeared to have been working away for at least 5 minutes... who knows maybe allot longer. This would indicate that at the very least 15 minutes had passed since the fire was first reported..... and yet hundreds of people were still seating unawares at various viewings within the cinema complex. Slightly concerned i felt the urge to get us as far away from the centre straight away. We approaced the entrance to the shopping centre to heading for the Car Park (Green Car Park Level -3) to be only met by almost 100 people congregated outside the 1 Doorway leading down to the carpark. Using basic intelect i assumed that the cause of this delay was something to do with the 2 Fire Trucks out front so proceeded to wait around with my partner and left the "professionals" do their jobs. As the minutes passed by and the numbers of people surrounding the entrance increased i approached the only security guard available who was telling people to relax, there was some smoke found rising into the cinema area but he couldn't give any more information...There was very little in the way of organisation and people proceeded to walk passed the security guard who gave the ocassional passer a quick "Don't go down there , come back... Sir" ; The lack of asecertion in his voice meant he was quickly ignored and flocks of people proceed down through the shopping centre in the hope of finding an alternative way down to pickup their cars.
Without boring anyone any further, my main rant is that no direct notification was given to pedestrians to let them know there is an issue, how hard is it to get onto the intercom system and advise that "We have an issue in the carpark, Do not attempt to collect your car, please be patient, we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation" ---- This is a basic task which would have saved allot of panic in my opinion. Approx 10 minutes later it appeared that the doors were back open and flocks of people headed on down towards the car park... i decided to wait around, my partner being 7 1/2 months pregnant detered me from walking down to a possible inferno as no update was given to anyone.... i found it suprising how so many people would rush straight on down without having a clue what could lay ahead of them..
I waited a further 5 minutes, approced the flustered security guard and asked if all car parks were open...being advised yes i proceeded down towards the 1 x lift and stairs to approx 500 car park spaces to meet up with the 100 + people around the corner... a queue for three flights of stairs awaited the eger instead of a safe exit from the situation... seeing this i immediately said "F**k that" and walked back through a mosh pit of people and walked straight out of the centre aiming to get a taxi home and worry about collecting the car on Sunday.. While walking back towards a road just of Dundrum mainstreet i noticed that a slow movement of cars were leaving one of the entrances so we both decided to walk down this way to find our car and get home. To my utter disgust and disbelief i saw why the movement was so slow..... The massive queue was down to the fact that the staff were still taking parking tickets and the barriers were all down forcing people to produce there ticket.... I overheard staff members of Dundrum being abused... people were shouting "Open the bloody gates.... I was told i wouldn't need my ticket" etc etc... The gates remained closed and only opened for persons with a valid ticket or a loud enough bark!!!
To end this here i managed to find my car 5 minutes later and got out probably another 15 minutes after that!
Apologies if this is a bit all over the place but its late and i wanted to get it out there before i forgot about anything...
Was anyone else there?
Regards
Russ
Hi,
Tonight, Saturday 23rd April there was an incident in Dundrum Shopping Centre while i was out with my partner watching a movie; this incident was handled in a very non-professional manner.
Upon the film's completion my partner and I left the cinema casually heading towards the main entrance to the cinema complex. No notification of a fire alert was given although 2 fire brigade trucks had arrived on-site at the cinema and appeared to have been working away for at least 5 minutes... who knows maybe allot longer. This would indicate that at the very least 15 minutes had passed since the fire was first reported..... and yet hundreds of people were still seating unawares at various viewings within the cinema complex. Slightly concerned i felt the urge to get us as far away from the centre straight away. We approaced the entrance to the shopping centre to heading for the Car Park (Green Car Park Level -3) to be only met by almost 100 people congregated outside the 1 Doorway leading down to the carpark. Using basic intelect i assumed that the cause of this delay was something to do with the 2 Fire Trucks out front so proceeded to wait around with my partner and left the "professionals" do their jobs. As the minutes passed by and the numbers of people surrounding the entrance increased i approached the only security guard available who was telling people to relax, there was some smoke found rising into the cinema area but he couldn't give any more information...There was very little in the way of organisation and people proceeded to walk passed the security guard who gave the ocassional passer a quick "Don't go down there , come back... Sir" ; The lack of asecertion in his voice meant he was quickly ignored and flocks of people proceed down through the shopping centre in the hope of finding an alternative way down to pickup their cars.
Without boring anyone any further, my main rant is that no direct notification was given to pedestrians to let them know there is an issue, how hard is it to get onto the intercom system and advise that "We have an issue in the carpark, Do not attempt to collect your car, please be patient, we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation" ---- This is a basic task which would have saved allot of panic in my opinion. Approx 10 minutes later it appeared that the doors were back open and flocks of people headed on down towards the car park... i decided to wait around, my partner being 7 1/2 months pregnant detered me from walking down to a possible inferno as no update was given to anyone.... i found it suprising how so many people would rush straight on down without having a clue what could lay ahead of them..
I waited a further 5 minutes, approced the flustered security guard and asked if all car parks were open...being advised yes i proceeded down towards the 1 x lift and stairs to approx 500 car park spaces to meet up with the 100 + people around the corner... a queue for three flights of stairs awaited the eger instead of a safe exit from the situation... seeing this i immediately said "F**k that" and walked back through a mosh pit of people and walked straight out of the centre aiming to get a taxi home and worry about collecting the car on Sunday.. While walking back towards a road just of Dundrum mainstreet i noticed that a slow movement of cars were leaving one of the entrances so we both decided to walk down this way to find our car and get home. To my utter disgust and disbelief i saw why the movement was so slow..... The massive queue was down to the fact that the staff were still taking parking tickets and the barriers were all down forcing people to produce there ticket.... I overheard staff members of Dundrum being abused... people were shouting "Open the bloody gates.... I was told i wouldn't need my ticket" etc etc... The gates remained closed and only opened for persons with a valid ticket or a loud enough bark!!!
To end this here i managed to find my car 5 minutes later and got out probably another 15 minutes after that!
Apologies if this is a bit all over the place but its late and i wanted to get it out there before i forgot about anything...
Was anyone else there?
Regards
Russ
