Yesterday I was saying goodbye for the day to one of my co-workers when I finally caught on to the sound of the third siren having gone down Main Street and stopping right behind the building. My co-worker and I went into the conference room and looked out the window to see four fire trucks, two ambulances, two police cars, and the fire chief’s vehicle parked strategically around three of our buildings with their lights flashing. About three minutes later the vehicles around one of the buildings turned off their lights and drove away. Then the vehicles around the back of one of the other buildings went away. Then the rest cleared out too. Non-event.

I couldn’t figure out if this was just a drill or if it was a false report (intentional or not, just didn’t pan out to be a real event) of something big. Either is such a likely scenario where I work. I finished saying goodbye to my co-worker and left the building. I was walking across the green from my Wednesday office to the parking lot when I turned around and saw more emergency response vehicles surrounding a different building with lights flashing.

It’s unsettling to me that my employer’s footprint is so big that I have no way of knowing if I was potentially in danger or if it was just a drill. I didn’t feel in danger, but I didn’t feel like things were “right” and I’m not quite sure what could have changed in that scenario for me to feel good about it. I’m also wondering who the hell is communicating to us during emergencies because our police chief is on leave while he helps to develop a very worthwhile national program. Perhaps the ability to respond to events while he is away is exactly what was being tested…? Dunno.

I think I’ll write to our president today to ask him what that was about, and ask who is making decisions about using our emergency response system in the chief’s absence.