For the guy who posted up the video claiming that One Utama is shutting down the shutter door and thinks that they are trying to kill people, please think or you can read it carefully if you had the chance to read what I'm trying to tell you here.
Title: 1 Utama GSC catch Fire [HQ]
posted by Elvin Cheong
First of all, for your information, if they're shutting down the door and trying to kill everyone, why are the security guard trying to hold the shutter door and urging everyone to get out.
Secondly, is not that they wanted to shut it. Mostly, the shutter door will automatically shut down the door to prevent the smoke spreading to whole ONE UTAMA. If they did not shut down, then you can claim that they are trying to kill everyone in the shopping centre.
In addition, most of the door was controlled by system, not security guard. (maybe this can be say that I was wrong because nobody knows except One Utama)
Third, shutting down the door is also to prevent the smoke to be inhale by everyone. You, capturing the video and inhaling toxic smoke. You're killing yourself. Not they're trying to kill you.
Lastly, you can see the security going back inside. For what? To check what is the main causes of the fire happen and to check everyone has gone out from the cinema.
You blaming GSC for shutting down the door and say they're killing ppl. Do you know, you're pulling down their reputation? Shame on you. The security risks their life just for us and you're saying that they are killing the people in the cinema. They are not just hired to be a security for fun. They went for practical and training classes before they start they career as SECURITY GUARD.
You never learn about it in school??? Many firefighters came to school with their fire-truck and teaches us how to save ourself when a building is on fire.
See what you're doing there? Recording the fire. What is suddenly something burst there? What if it is done by terrorist? You may lost your life in few seconds.
I think you should apologise for pulling down their reputation. You're spreading the video in Facebook and do you know what is the consequences to the reputation of ONE UTAMA???
What you see from your eyes doesn't mean it is real. Please check out the real situation before stating the real situation.
P/S: I'm not trying to scold you or what. No offence here. Think twice before you do something.
"sorry if my English sucks"
21 comments:
support your post!!!
Actually I was there - I got out at about the 1 minute mark of that video.
So, the Facebook question is entirely valid. He didn't say the security guards are trying to kill us, but whoever allowed a system to trap all the patrons in by auto-closing all the doors needs to be investigated!
The fact is that the door had to be broken so the remainder (and there were still a LOT of us) could get out - we were not informed of any alternative to the broken door.
And I can assure you that the performance of the staff there before this video was not impressive either. The alarm went off for TWENTY minutes before we knew there was a fire - we didn't know it was a fire alarm as it was not very loud. The movie (Mel Gibson one) was not stopped. There was no announcement over any intercom or from any staff. The ONLY notification we got in our cinema was from 2 patrons who got nervous (or maybe went to the washroom) then came back & told us to evacuate. The only security guys or cinema staff I saw were all bunched at the exit.
There was no mention of refund for us and also there was another big bottleneck at the car park where we had to queue to pay to get out despite not knowing if the whole shopping center would collapse around us.
All in all I give the place VERY low marks for their response to the whole incident. It could have been a lot more serious.
Ei - Ok, so maybe some of my point was wrong. But no matter how, the guard went back inside as you can see in the video. If you wanted to survive, you wouldn't take your car along. Like you say, "big bottleneck at the car park where we had to queue to pay to get out". You can know that these ppl queueing to pay, they would have drove their car along. Getting out from there by car will cause traffic.
As I mentioned, primary & secondary school learn how to escape. The 1st thing when you know the fire start, run out from the building. Not packing your belonging. Don't you know how to save yourself first? My friend claim that the alarm rang, but no one responsed to the alarm and CONTINUE with their movie. So?
Do you expect when u watch your movie and the sound is low??? Of coz u don realize that the alarm is ringing and you say it is not very loud. The sound of the movie had cover the alarm larh. =-=
anyway, i wasn't trying to be smart here. Just use common sense. Anyhow, that guy should not post a question like "Trying to kill ppl?".
Patron is patron, security is security. Patron never attend training like security guard. If you expect them to act like security guard, you pay for them to learn it. Do you expect your employer will supply you a such training before you start your work? Of course NOT.
And the movie did not stop because they save their life after they heard the alarm. also then, the floor of screening is different.
Anyhow, many ppl know that when there is fire burning, they will run for their life. Not recording, not packing their valuable stuff or take their car along unless you're the 1st one or maybe you're the one start the fire.
Oh ya, talking bout this. Everyone is busy watching movie. how can they notice that there are fire burning some where? and not much staff work at late night. so it is very common the alarm rang after few minutes the disaster happen.
GSC is not 7-11. bout the door. do you also expect that when you go to GSC, they will tell you "Mr. XXX, the shutter door is broken".
Is a no right? Yes I know they're not respnsible by putting a notice there but perhaps, maybe on the spot, it is BROKEN.
anyway, thx for your comment.
Seems I need to clarify as I was there & you weren't:
a) Car bottleneck - we didn't know what kind of danger we were in - car-park attendants were not opening the gates to let people out & were insisting on everyone paying. That was my first time in 1 Utama (& my last by the way) & I really had no idea of where we were in relation to the fire. The point is that there was nobody in charge & nobody helping out the people who were unsure. I came in a car - I do not even know the way out apart from in the car - to me that was the best way out. I can drive faster than I can run & if they had opened the barriers then we could have all got out much more quickly. The newspaper said the fire started at 12:05. I rang my friend at 12:35 while I was in the queue waiting for pay for a ticket - couldn't anyone make a decision to open the boom gates in 30 minutes?
b) Yes, I do know how to save myself - I work on oil rigs & have done maybe 50 or more safety & fire-fighting courses in my time working on rigs. I have done mock evacuations from oil rigs in the middle of the night, climbing into safety boats in 2m high waves. We did evacuate the known danger area as soon as we realised there was a danger. We were NOT helped by doors being shut on us. I was not able to get through that closing door & had to go through the broken one shown in the video. To clarify one of your later points - the staff BROKE the door in order to let us out. If they hadn't broken the door we would have been trapped inside. Nobody is complaining that the door was broken - we are complaining that if the door had been a bit stronger they might not have been able to break it & we might have been trapped. The building I work in (Citibank) has a fire team - actually 3 fire teams. They train for these eventualities. Either 1 Utama has nothing or they didn't respond. Their FIRST job is to get everyone to safety - if everyone is safe then it doesn't matter if the building burns down although their second responsibility is to put the fire out - only if there is no risk to themselves.
c) Yes, an alarm did go off. I was there - I heard it. I did not recognise it as a fire alarm - it sounded more like the feeble alarm at my condo that indicates someone left the access door open. I thought it was an alarm for the normal exit door left open myself. It was totally inadequate as a fire alarm. There was NO other announcement from any staff. Your excuse is that they all ran away? Then you then get upset that we complain about them not helping?
And to answer your other question - I did not smell ANY smoke at all in the actual cinema room even after we started heading out. The first smoke I smelt was on the steps on the way down.
So, the main point still stands-there is a design flaw in having an auto-door system that traps people inside. If it had been built more strongly it mightn't have been able to be broken & would have killed people. The facebook guy is right - you had it wrong by thinking he is complaining about the door being broken - he is complaining about the DESIGN of the door.
And the other main point is that the response from the cinema staff & shopping center staff was completely inadequate. I got out with no problems, but the ONLY help I got apart from myself was from whoever managed to break down a door that was designed to trap me inside.
Look, i work at GSC. Maybe people didnt inform all of you earlier maybe they know how Malaysian attitudes is as if we say there's a fire, EVERYBODY will be panicking. It will be hard to control the people.
As for the refund, come back to the movies ok. WE ARE DOING REFUND and cramping our heads with all sorts of problems. The fire was caused by a short circuit by Glitters Cafe.
Night shift people is not as many as you think. Did you ever think that the 'whole bunch of staff' at the door was leading the way to exit?
In one Utama there are thousands and millions of people even the car park is full. Security is not for each one in OU. And if your fire rescue team is better, promote to One Utama manager. End of story. So if the refund thing is a big problem, come back and find our staff for refund
Did I say the refund was a big deal? I listed the 2 major problems & you as a staff member of the cinema ignored both.
And I dispute your assertion that everybody will be panicking. Were you even there? I was actually very impressed that nobody panicked. I saw ONE guy who was coming down the stairs a little fast & tripped, but the flow of patrons was quite orderly considering we were all fending for ourselves.
Maybe the only panicking was done by your staff? I didn't see ANY - apart from the security guards at the exit & they are probably mall staff. They were probably all out having supper by the time we were exiting.
As a staff member can you answer what I DO consider a big deal - why the door is designed to shut while people are still inside & why the staff had to break it? THAT is the big deal.
There were NOT millions of people in 1 Utama at 00:05 - exaggerating doesn't help your cause. What there was, was a big bottleneck of people trying to get out because 30 minutes after the fire nobody had the brains to order all car exit gates to be raised.
There has STILL been no announcement as to whether patrons that were in the effected shows would be refunded - only for people that bought for the next day - read the articles yourself if you don't believe me. It wouldn't surprise me to see GSC try to haggle with me for 50% discount because the show was half finished!
Personally I won't be bothering to go back to either that cinema or that entire shopping center again. And you might want to look for a safer job - according to some reports this is the THIRD fire affecting cinemas in the Klang Valley in recent time? Maybe YOU should be suggesting a better fire fighting team if you want to continue working there. I won't go anywhere near the place!
i dun wanna write it damn long as i hate reading too much. in my way, i would have run out from the building. who cares that the gate was not open or anything? ok, it's ur 1st time to 1U but for more than million ppl have been there, they know the exit. then, the alarm thing. ppl like me will be very curious why a alarm is ringing? i shud have check it out, not waiting for ppl to shout and yell "FIRE".
probably tat time ppl shouted fire, i would have be trapped inside the cinema and waiting to die.
this is the 1st time you guys facing fire disaster, yet you guys felt like it is totally 1utama GSC WRONG. do you guys ever thinks that a lot of possibility will occur? 1U is an old building. not new. the new wing area, i think is aged more than 5years. jus for 1 fire stuff, you guys like "omfg, stupid 1utama damn sucks. everything is broken and suddenly fire came and probably would have bbq us"
no one will predict this would happen. so stop blaming all the problem to 1utama. is not fully their responsible to this matter.
why you wanna make it such a big deal. like i said, i got no offence or trying to say them bullshitting but it is my opinion and i use my commonsense before i post it.
every point of you like shooting me right away. btw, thanks for sharing your knowledge here. =)
honestly, the fire shutters are meant to auto close... for those uneducated people, all mall's have these auto close shutters in case of fire to contain as much smoke or fire from spreading and causing more damages. And next to these doors there are also smaller doors for emergency escape when the shutters comes down. ( I know cause i worked in One Utama before.. if you dun believe.. go survey) And if any of the fire alarms "Break Glass In Case of Fire) was broken, at anytime.. go try... the shutters at that area will auto come down too... seen it many times... cause some hooligans decides to break the glass.. false alarm.. yet shutters still comes down.
indeed, it may seems like shutting down to contain people inside as well.. but there are more than one way out besides tru the shutters, and they are called fire exit routes. However.. as people panic.. they only can see one way out.. "The Main Entrance" which is wrong.
Yes... the staffs didnt managed to alert the people on time, but its also Malaysian mentality that people basically ignores fire alarms... thinking its nothing, until they see the actual smoke and fire itself. However.. GSC should retrain their staffs as well. To alert the people faster, and to switch on the lights (if possible) and lead the way out... the right way out. Besides tru the shutters...
Yes.. security should have opened the barricades of the car parks also... but there's no right or wrong answers here... however, to learn from lessons.
Sigh.. of course.. we should be thankful no lives were claimed by the fire. But.. complexes managements should learn from this lesson.
Geez Amandah - do you have shares in 1 Utama? :-) You are very vigorous at defending them for some reason despite 1st hand evidence from at least 2 people who were actually there & have reported the problems faced. And just because the place is old doesn't mean the safety standards should drop. Why would nobody predict it? That is the whole point of having safety systems & procedures. However, in this case the systems failed as did the procedures - the patrons themselves were pretty good in fending for themselves. Yes, I would have rammed through the gates but I would have had to ram through about 100 cars in front of me to get to them as well as the 1 Utama staff standing in FRONT of the gates to make sure nobody got out without paying.
Hazel - thanks for the info - definitely the doors are designed to close in the event of an alarm. The problem as I see it was that the guards were directing us through these safety doors, even though they were closing. They also deliberately broke one of the safety doors so that it couldn't close. I didn't see any guards directing people elsewhere - no need to once they had broken the door. I agree 100% with the rest of your post. Lessons need to be learnt - especially seeing this is the 3rd fire effecting cinemas in KL lately.
Sorry, Amanda, not Amandah
Ei - Anyway.. I am terribly sorry 4 d bad experience u faced. However.. don't let it be ur last to One Utama. I hav no shares in them.. just speaking frm experience.. its one of many nice shopping places to go to.
I am happy to know dat u understood fully wat I tried to deliver in my message. sorry if I did sound like saying u r one of those "uneducated people". However.. its only true dat most people don't know much abt fire escape routes, but tru main entrance. Seems the same for staffs and the security team on site.
I work in the mall. indeed trust me.. even when the fire alarm has been raised, people still continue shopping like there's nothing wrong. Maybe PA system didn't start shouting evacuation or security running about alerting people that's why.However if they see smoke n fire,people will start to panic.
Once I was working at Pyramid years back. I was looking out towards the entrance of the shop at 1st Floor. Maintenance guy was up on a step ladder adjusting lighting on the pillars deco. Next... I saw him clambering down the ladder in haste. I wondered why.. suddenly I saw smoke frm below rising... I ran inside to my store room, told my colleague..I think there's fire. (yes, I did say "I think")
We both went out to the entrance of the shop.. and see more smoke rising from ground floor... no fire alarm though. Then the whole place seems to be engulfed in smoke.. one guy was shouting "lari lari! Sana Sana... " to some customers pointing towards farther ends of the mall.. Some of them was running quickly with their children.
Then only me and my colleagues started to panic. We quickly take our belongings, and kept the money into the safe. Pulled down the shutters while trying not to be choked by the smoke.. But its harder to breathe.
We both quickly walked past other shops.. without turning back.. (wondering why they are just standing outside their entrance) towards the fire exit and outside to the park safe from the smoke.
Once outside, only do we both realized why the other tenants didn't run. The fire came from a Giant Xmas tree. Short circuit by electrical points there. The tree stood next to the Information Counter at the mall's entrance. Plastic once burnt, emits lots of smoke and fire spreads fast. They managed to use fire hose to contain the fire.
My point is.. when we see smoke, only do we start to panic. So did the lady who ran to safety with her kid.. cause some guy was shouting "run run Run". Who wouldn't panic. Only those who saw wat happened, from the 1st floor.. as its in clear view, stood still and waited. ( I didn't cause I didn't stop to ask, or look back.)
But 1st instinct on my part, is to walk hastily to safety. We didn't run, just walked fast. I went back to shop later after its safe.
But that incident was some time after TGV Pyramid fire happened way back.. maybe a few months back. Maybe you can google it.
Anyway.. Ei.. you seems a nice person to get in touch with. Knowledgeable and straight to the point.
And to others, If in any ways, any of you feels offended, I only speak my heart out, and with views, based on my shopping experience, and also working experience in malls that has had fire, false alarms, and auto shutters that closes way too often, when some hooligans strikes the case, or when sensitive fire or smoke sensors are triggered...
The point is.. people should be more alert towards fire alarms, ask to know if its a real situation, or not.. ask the staffs... or security. Don't just wait to see smoke, then run, and don't simply panic and hurt yourself in the event of a false alarm.
And as a gentle reminder to all, malls have safe fire exits.. open your big eyes, and you will notice it. Panic and everything is a blur. Most time, people die in fire due to being trampled when people rush to safety in panic.
Security personals and fellow staffs, please know your fire exits well.. show the safe way out to your valued customers. If I am not mistaken, judging from the video, the shutters shown in it, the one people are exiting, is too near the fire scene.. Glitters is a few meters away only. What if there's explosions?
And lastly... I am glad, my current work place, my shop have fire exits that brings us right out of the mall. And yes, our shops entrance is also equipped with auto shutters that goes down, whenever an alarm (false or real) has been triggered). But we are well informed, to handle situations, and guide customers to safety. Definitely not to pass through the shutters that are slowly coming down, which is actually very dangerous. Anybody can get squashed.
Lessons are meant to be learned.. but being well informed, is the best. Prevention is better than cure. But never let one bad experience, kill the whole idea of a good shopping experience in any malls.. even to one that gone through disasters, like fire, or explosions.
Amanda - I am not saying you are wrong to defend either.. you merely speak your mind. But everyone gets to share experiences, and knowledge now. Thanks to everyone, we all will be more alert, and well informed.
Management staffs - retrain your staffs, and security personals. Wouldn't want to spoil the image of a good shopping mall, do you?
hmm.. today i actually just finished watching the video posted.. last nite i only viewed part of it.. Oh My God.. the people actually tried to stop the shutters, and more are trying to "escape" underneath the shutting shutters.. imagine anyone squashed like a frog... who to blame then? urgh.. horrible death.. not by fire or smoke inhalation, but simply squashed by shutters closing.. due to own stupidity to run underneath when there are many more exits. People.. in future, please don't be that crazy, even when Panic, try use your common sense please.
Sorry...the security guards were very bad at the scene! I was there to when this happend and had to run out of the cinema and the shutter wasnt even open!
That not even it, still didnt believe I had to pay for parking and and get out when it should have been opened automatically in the first place!
When the movie was going on, my cinema (Hall 6) we did hear some noise..but it wasnt an alarm or anything. It sounded like something got caught and it was going on for sometime. You wouldnt even have noticed it as you'll be watching the movie. When the sound suddenly stopped, thats when the guards came in.
In my observation...the security guards were very lost..infact the fire department did take a while to get there which was even worse! By right...GSC should be questioned about their alarm/security system.
I have yet to watch the video but if someone can post me the link it would be great.
Oh, you got guards? Guess they didn't make it as far has hall 12.
By the time I drove out there was a fire truck there, but no hoses out. Presumably firemen were inside the building by that stage.
The link to the video is in the first post above:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#%21/video/video.php?v=376145404156&ref=nf
You did that for us and I don't think anyone who was in the fire had any intention of being kind - that doesn't prevent future incidents.
Yes, it does seem as though Amanda is fiercely defending GSC and 1U despite not having been there herself and even to the extend of saying that those who decided to drive out were those who started the fire.
As Ei (and later Gayathri had already mentioned, the alarm didnt sound like a fire alarm. Amanda, you yourself said that "The sound of the movie had cover the alarm larh. =-= " so the alarm has definitely got to be more significant than that.
And "why you wanna make it such a big deal"? Because those people were there in the incident, they could have lost their lives due to some mismanagement of the situation.
let me tell u what i had gone thru ytd at sepang circuit.
i was working there doing F&B and there is fire alarm.
what is the response that i get is, everyone is still watching the F1 and did not even care about it. =-= see...we cant fully blame everyone.
everyone back to their work, busy their stuff till the alarm went off eventho the alarm damn noisy and annoying.
Welcome to Malaysia, I assume if you don't respond to a fire alarm it shows how much you love your life. :)
By the way, nobody really cares about the RM10 tickets or the refunds...its just the way the entire thing was handled. I mean..I still don't understand why the barrier at the carpark was not open. Just to pay the RM1 ticket to get out of the building shows what 1U is and how much their value customers that come in.
I have written to them and currently awaiting for their response. Clearly the entire situation was handled poorly. To be honest, the entire time i was watching a movie at theater 7...it was terrible.
About 20/30 minutes into the movie there was an extreamly loud noise that was coming from the screen. What is was..nobody knows. That was going on for let's say...30 seconds and suddenly we heard footsteps of people running outside. Just as the sound stopped at that moment, the guard came in asking people to get out of the building and we all ran out.
I mean...by the time I came out with my friends it was already smokey and the freakin' exit by the cinema didn't open!!!! That was the worse thing as the other exit through the bowling alley was closed. I mean...the shutter was not even open fully..it was only half way which was really dumb.
Nobody cares about the refund..really. I mean..a little appreciation is all that is needed. People that were not there won't understand and maybe its a good thing that it happend at midnight. If it did happen during peak hours it would had been worse.
You can't blame the people if they do not respond to an alarm as expected. NOBODY wants to die!
I would ask whether there had been fire drills in the past & what the results were? I'll bet they had the same problem in the drills (if ever held and wouldn't surprise me if they weren't) but never did anything about it. Usual tidak-apa attitude on the part of the management. If they don't already know that the alarms are insufficient, then why not? And if they do know, why didn't they put in extra warnings - like 1 staff running to all 12(?) halls & telling everyone to get out?
Amanda, are you SURE you don't work in the GSC? :-) Or maybe in the F&B area where the fire started?
sorry.
i never work there before. =-=
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