Evacuation

Last night was my second last shift at Ric's Grill in the water tower. It was pretty much like any other night, full of a lot of smiling, "follow me's" and the usual whole lot of nothing. That is until approximately 7:50 when the kitchen burst into flames and the fire alarm started screaming its warning for us to flee the impending danger. It was chaos as people began screaming and rushing toward the elevator, only to find that they had to take the stairs down instead. Soon the flames started following us down the stairs and we barely escaped with our lives.

Well, maybe it wasn't quite like that, but there definitely was some smoke and a piercing alarm. Apparently, the hoods on the stoves stopped working, causing smoke to accumulate and set of the alarm. Funny thing though, when the alarm went off everyone just sat there and looked around. No one jumped out of their seat or thought that they were in any danger. Good thing it wasn't a real fire. None of the staff really knew what to do (safety first..ha!) so we told all the tables that it was just a false alarm and that they didn't have to leave...that is until the manager told us two seconds after we told everyone that we did indeed have to evacuate the building. Did I mention it was raining outside? So everyone goes down the 150 stairs and huddles outside in the rain. The fire trucks and ambulance come to check everything out and make sure that the building really wasn't on fire. Many of the people who were eating there were still standing around, as if they were determined to get that steak they ordered a half hour ago. News flash: the building has been evacuated and the grill can't be turned back on, unless you want to go through this whole ordeal again. You won't be getting your steak tonight ladies and gentlemen.

Eventually all the tables left, leaving a lot of uneaten food and unpaid bills and only the staff were left to freeze outside. Thankfully, some of the servers who were able to think quickly in an emergency situation remembered to grab their cameras so we could take pictures of the occasion. What a lifesaver. After it was established that there was no fire, we were allowed back inside and it was decided to close the restuarant for the evening. But what did we do with all that food, uneaten and untouched, you might ask? We ate it of course! (Shameless plug: the crab and shrimp stuffed mushrooms are soo good...and I don't even like crab, shrimp or mushrooms!) The manager bought us all a drink and we called it a night and left the building...this time becuase we wanted to.