THE standard chartered fire hiatus.

here's my account of what happened on the trading floor.

at about 1130 or so, the fire alarm went off and an announcement was made for us to evacuate the building. thinking that it could possibly be yet another hoax, everyone continued to do their thing nonchalantly.

about 3 minutes after, i began to smell something burning so i turned around and asked a colleague (with a blocked nose) if he smelt the same, in which he replied "no leh" to. Fine, i thought to myself, maybe i was just being paranoid.

moments after, i realised something was not quite right when people began to stand up and point at the windows. it was then when we realised a fire really did break out. so without much hesitation, i dumped all the important stuff into my bag, turned off the aircon at our section, and ran for cover (i didnt really run lah, just walked and acted cool lol). good job we're only on the 3rd floor. (note: the smell was getting to me at this point)

if im not wrong, the entire building evacuated, and from the assembly point, outside of singapore land tower, this is what i saw. lotsa black fumes. im not sure about the others, but i actually got kinda excited about the whole episode haha. though tedious (with BCP activated and all), it was sorta the first crisis i've experienced and it's quite fun heheh.

but seriously, i finally understand how people can get killed from breathing in too much of these smoke. the smell was simply ridiculous. we went back 2 hours after the fire was put out in hopes of continuing with our work, but it was impossible to even be in there for more than 15 minutes. the pungent smell that lingered gave me an intense headache and i was feeling quite dizzy from it. my clothes, my hair and even my lungs maybe, were tainted with the smell. im not kidding. i was quite worried that my mum would think i skipped work and went out for a bbq.

so that's that.

have a good weekend while i try to detox myself from all the toxics (and fats)!