I appreciate your effort in giving citations, Rakuen, but I feel there is a world of difference between the Boston Marathon and the attack on our fandom.
For a start, we are much smaller than the immense masses of people talking on social media about the bombings. It is probably naive of me to suggest we are more rational and less likely to jump to conclusions, but I do think the openness of most furs would prevent a witch hunt. That said, given what the fandom did to Tumbles, perhaps you're right.
One of the most frustrating parts about this case might actually turn out to be an advantage. Media have completely forgotten about this potential terrorist attack. Either we are too weird for the public (confuses the story) or, all the misreporting about a gas leak combined with no further evidence, has caused everyone to lose interest.
There's really no way this could get as ugly as the Boston Marathon, when no media outlet will even acknowledge that 4000 people could have been killed that day by someone with a chemical weapon. If it were still making headline news around the world, then I agree with you.
Either way, my original post still stands here. If people want to follow this suggestion, they are welcome to do so. Until then, I will not be pursuing this any further. We don't need any more stress.
I'm still scared the same evacuation process will be followed if there is another gas attack.
At least 19 people wound up in hospital. Some of these people were forced to breathe chlorine gas because they were told to evacuate. Had they stayed in their rooms (with ventilation) they would have avoided injury.
Of those that made it outside without being poisoned, most were improperly dressed and could have easily suffered frostbite or hypothermia. There were also a handful of people panicking, I hear one of them was treated for a panic attack. It's lucky that con-goers are no strangers to fire alarms, or this could have easily turned into a stampede with terrible crush injuries.
Evacuation is not always a safe default. Look at aircraft, there have been a number of incidents where an aircraft has suffered an overheated engine or similar dangerous fire risk, and still the crew decided to keep the passengers on the plane (while the firefighters tackled the incident). If the fuel tank blows up, they will all die, but the risk of it happening is judged to be smaller than the danger the passengers will be placed in if they evacuate.
I covered my reasoning in my other post, but I will try and explain it another way here. The only smell a person needs to be able to determine is the smell of natural gas. This is a very distinctive smell that many people are familiar with, there is a deliberately added odor to aid detection with a human nose (tert-Butylthiol is added, thank you Wikipedia)
In any situation, if you smell natural gas, you evacuate. I'm not arguing against that, it would be crazy!
If you smell some other odor, evacuation is not necessarily the best process. Conventions are full of various odors (to put it one way) and nobody evacuates just because they smelled something. As far as I understand, nobody even considered evacuating until someone pulled the alarm, which was after people were reporting a chlorine smell (I haven't got confirmation of this). Understandably, things went sideways very quickly when people started coughing up blood. Honestly, I would have freaked out in that situation.
What would you do if all the stairwells were attacked with a much bigger chlorine bomb, or something even more toxic? Entering any of the stairwells is a death sentence, just opening a door could seriously injure you. I know it's not very likely to happen again, but what if it does? The evacuation process you follow for a fire, doesn't work when faced with a chemical attack. You may not even smell the chemical until it's already injured you.
What's worse, if the attacker pulls the alarm to draw people into the trap? The only safe way to evacuate now is through balconies or breaking windows, but people are streaming into the stairwells. There won't be anyone left alive to evacuate through the balconies.
I don't have any suggestions for the last one, it's been a recurring nightmare for me. The December 7 incident was scarily close to this worst-case, the attacker only needed about 3 more bombs and use a crate instead of a jar, and we would be in a world of agony right now.
I hope you can understand why I'm trying to raise awareness of evacuation processes. I want to find some reassurance that a process can be put in place, to prevent this nightmare becoming reality.
I appreciate your effort in giving citations, Rakuen, but I feel there is a world of difference between the Boston Marathon and the attack on our fandom.
For a start, we are much smaller than the immense masses of people talking on social media about the bombings. It is probably naive of me to suggest we are more rational and less likely to jump to conclusions, but I do think the openness of most furs would prevent a witch hunt. That said, given what the fandom did to Tumbles, perhaps you're right.
One of the most frustrating parts about this case might actually turn out to be an advantage. Media have completely forgotten about this potential terrorist attack. Either we are too weird for the public (confuses the story) or, all the misreporting about a gas leak combined with no further evidence, has caused everyone to lose interest.
There's really no way this could get as ugly as the Boston Marathon, when no media outlet will even acknowledge that 4000 people could have been killed that day by someone with a chemical weapon. If it were still making headline news around the world, then I agree with you.
Either way, my original post still stands here. If people want to follow this suggestion, they are welcome to do so. Until then, I will not be pursuing this any further. We don't need any more stress.
I'm still scared the same evacuation process will be followed if there is another gas attack.
At least 19 people wound up in hospital. Some of these people were forced to breathe chlorine gas because they were told to evacuate. Had they stayed in their rooms (with ventilation) they would have avoided injury.
Of those that made it outside without being poisoned, most were improperly dressed and could have easily suffered frostbite or hypothermia. There were also a handful of people panicking, I hear one of them was treated for a panic attack. It's lucky that con-goers are no strangers to fire alarms, or this could have easily turned into a stampede with terrible crush injuries.
Evacuation is not always a safe default. Look at aircraft, there have been a number of incidents where an aircraft has suffered an overheated engine or similar dangerous fire risk, and still the crew decided to keep the passengers on the plane (while the firefighters tackled the incident). If the fuel tank blows up, they will all die, but the risk of it happening is judged to be smaller than the danger the passengers will be placed in if they evacuate.
I covered my reasoning in my other post, but I will try and explain it another way here. The only smell a person needs to be able to determine is the smell of natural gas. This is a very distinctive smell that many people are familiar with, there is a deliberately added odor to aid detection with a human nose (tert-Butylthiol is added, thank you Wikipedia)
In any situation, if you smell natural gas, you evacuate. I'm not arguing against that, it would be crazy!
If you smell some other odor, evacuation is not necessarily the best process. Conventions are full of various odors (to put it one way) and nobody evacuates just because they smelled something. As far as I understand, nobody even considered evacuating until someone pulled the alarm, which was after people were reporting a chlorine smell (I haven't got confirmation of this). Understandably, things went sideways very quickly when people started coughing up blood. Honestly, I would have freaked out in that situation.
What would you do if all the stairwells were attacked with a much bigger chlorine bomb, or something even more toxic? Entering any of the stairwells is a death sentence, just opening a door could seriously injure you. I know it's not very likely to happen again, but what if it does? The evacuation process you follow for a fire, doesn't work when faced with a chemical attack. You may not even smell the chemical until it's already injured you.
What's worse, if the attacker pulls the alarm to draw people into the trap? The only safe way to evacuate now is through balconies or breaking windows, but people are streaming into the stairwells. There won't be anyone left alive to evacuate through the balconies.
I don't have any suggestions for the last one, it's been a recurring nightmare for me. The December 7 incident was scarily close to this worst-case, the attacker only needed about 3 more bombs and use a crate instead of a jar, and we would be in a world of agony right now.
I hope you can understand why I'm trying to raise awareness of evacuation processes. I want to find some reassurance that a process can be put in place, to prevent this nightmare becoming reality.