The Fire-Alarm

It was my first time living in the United States of America. I was living in New York City in a five-star hotel called ‘The Grand Royal’, a fifty storey skyscraper. I was in the sixteenth floor. Being a skyscraper in America, every room was naturally very furnished in a genius way. In each room, the fan and lights would have sensors which would switch on or off automatically depending on your presence in the room. The temperature of the air conditioner adjusted itself on its own according to the room temperature. There was a huge bathtub and the showers were automatic. There was a grand view of the entire city from the front window.

Being an Indian, I was not used to all of this.

Another feature of the rooms was that—each room had a fire and smoke detector too. It could detect any smoke and turn on the fire alarms to notify the authorities who in turn would do the same to the residents. It was my twelfth day in New York and something happened which I would remember for the rest of my life. That day,

I had my breakfast and tea served in my room. The room-service people came within a few minutes, serving tea, bread, butter and boiled eggs just as I had ordered. I was about to close the door when a lot of cigarette smoke struck me in the face.I coughed as I have asthma. One of the guests was smoking ignorantly in the corridor between the rooms. When he noticed me coughing, he apologized.

I closed the door and got to eating. After around five minutes, I heard a siren. Some alarm was ringing in the premises. I went outside my room to find the siren ringing more loudly.After a few seconds, there was an announcement through the speaker in the corridor.

"I request all the residents to get out of the hotel. A few people, whom I recognized as the hotel staff, were rushed up to the floor.

"What is happening?, I asked.

"Sir, its the fire alarm", his reply came as fast as light. I rushed out immediately, most of the residents were already standing outside. More joined us in a short span of time. But strangely, we could not see any fire. The fire brigade came and started searching for the fire.

One of the firemen said, "We can see no external fire. Maybe, its a short circuit."

"Yes", said the confused person dressed officially, whom I recognized as the manager.

Here, I cut in,"A person was smoking on the sixteenth floor. Maybe.."

Then the fireman went upstairs to confirm my statement.

After a check of fifteen minutes, one of the firemen came down and whispered something into the manager's ears. The firemen,then announced that the fire has been dealt with and we could all go into our respective rooms.

The same fireman beckoned me aside and said,

"Thanks to your statement. You were correct, some person was really smoking on the corridor. We found the idiot smoking in the sixteenth floor, indifferent to the siren. He told us the story that he was escaping the smoke detectors and someone opened the door to let in smoke which turned on the central fire alarm!"

Redi.

16th May, 2019.