Dear Brother Ken

First I would like to congratulate you and your staff for preparing the Year 12 students in an admirable way. The exhibition held on Tuesday night was inspiring and enjoyable. Please thank the students, staff, and volunteers for their kind hospitality and delicious and generous snacks.

I write to you to highlight a few areas of OH&S that need some attention. I am always security- and safety-conscious. Upon entering the school grounds for the first time last night Tuesday 8 September, I noticed the metal fence along the perimeter. My first thought turned to how students might escape in case of an emergency. The sliding gates, in the dark of night, seemed to me to be a hazard for any form or egress. If the gates did have some non-electrical release mechanism, I failed to locate it in the dark.

Nonetheless, during the exhibition, I could smell something burning, perhaps a minor matter in the kitchen from the kind catering crew. I looked around to rehearse an escape and I was alarmed at what I noticed. I share some photos here with you for your reference.

If there were an emergency, the lights might go out. There might be smoke and panic. This exit sign was not illuminated. This was at the front of the hall.

One of the exits had this table in front of it. As you know, no exit should be obstructed. When I see one anomaly, I go in search of another.

Upon opening that door, I noticed that the passageway was dark. There was a brick right in front of me. Not to the side where the brick might sometimes be placed to hold the door open. The door has a hook and latch. Therefore, not only is the brick unnecessary, it is dangerous and illegal. The brick is only visible as a result of the camera flash. Otherwise, anyone could trip over it in the panic of an emergency exit. The photo on the left was taken without a flash. In a fire, with smoke and panic, people would not see the brick. Several hundreds people making a mad dash to the exits could hurt themselves in more ways than one.

Beyond the brick was this garden hose. It was not visible in the dark. Here, it is visible due to the camera flash. This is completely against all fire-exit regulations. The hall was crowded with hundreds of people, ranging from infants to frail senior citizens.

There were three designated fire exits. Above I showed the first two. This is the third, being to the left of the stage. Again it was blocked. I did not have an opportunity to open this door to see what is behind it.

The stage had a long, loose power cord. The stage was an exhibit area, showcasing dresses. Many people went up and down the stage. This cord was neither secured nor taped down.

Cords were also loose near the doorway to the front part of the hall, just off the kitchen. This area was extensively used. The image on right shows part of a coffee table, designed by one of the students. The table contained a water feature (much like a fish tank). In all, not a good combination of glass, water, electricity, and an obstacle on a potentially slippery floor just near a kitchen, via a narrow doorway, in a crowded room.

I had never been to your school prior to last night. I was not familiar with the lay of the land. Upon leaving, I could not find the exit point for pedestrians. The place was completely dark. I could see a multitude of vehicles departing. I wanted to stay off the road, as your signs had advised. However, there was no signage directing me, a newcomer, to the exit point. I made my way towards the main road, and noticed a gate. It was too dark to work out or understand how it opened. I finally noticed that it was locked with a padlock. It was completely dark. Keep in mind that even older folk would have found it darker. As you know, age diminishes luminosity. The photo on the left was how it appeared without a flash. The inset is of the heavy-duty lock. If there were any need for a mass evacuation, there would be no way that anyone could climb that very tall fence/gate, which I assume was the intention: to prevent criminals and vandals from climbing in.

The letter to the Principal concluded thus:

If your school does not provide a safe exit, I fear that whoever installed these gates for you might have failed to comply with standard OH&S regulations.

Please do not allow a disaster to become the catalyst for a full review. As a person highly experienced in these matters, the scenarios in my head were causing me great distress, and I wondered if you and your parent-community were aware of the real dangers.

Occasionally we read about dozens becoming trampled or several killed when they could not escape from a venue. It is negligence of this nature that creates untold misery. And while, thank God, nothing has happened so far, people might snigger and mock and dismiss these observations. Such people ought to go and hold the burnt corpse of a child, while its mother is contorting with hysteria and disbelieve.

If you do not have advisers whom you trust, I would be happy to visit your fine school and carry out another informal inspection for your personal benefit.

I would welcome your call if you feel that I might be of service.

The Principal wrote, ‘…I have passed your document on to the OH&S committee for their consideration…’

You can see from this image on the left that these fire exit doors are lockable from the outside. This is a big no-no! Of course I am concerned about people’s safety. I would not work in a place like this. However, all that aside, I am more fascinated by why and how this kind of thing does not bother anyone else. This office has been functional for many years. Dozens of people work there. Hundreds of visitors would have walked through. The office has an OH&S person. It has a safety committee that is supervised by the Board of Directors whose legal obligation is to ensure the safety of workers. Their office would have fire wardens. It would have a facilities manager. It would have an owner and a landlord and an agent. Why does it not dawn upon anyone that this is illegal, irregular, against all fire department policies, and downright risky?

What about the person who installed the fire-exit sign? Did that electrician or engineer or carpenter or contractor not pass an exam that highlights the function of a fire exit? What about the tradesperson or locksmith who installed those locks on that door, or the company that installed the doors?

Is it any wonder major scandals do take place? When newspaper headlines speak about the CEO who embezzled funds, or the bank that stole or squandered everyone’s life savings, people wonder why the authorities did not see it coming. How can people expect the authorities to prevent such embezzlement and fraud, when they, themselves, do not have the eyes to see something that puts their own life at risk?

I once worked for a major computer company. My office was on the third floor. As is my practice, I test the fire stairs. Down I went while colleagues poked fun at me. The stairwell was dark, dirty, filled with broken bricks, newspapers, chunks of cement, and lots of dust and the odd empty beverage can. It was obvious that no-one had ever used those stairs since they were built.

To make maters worse, the final door, that leads to the street, would not open. Why? On the other side was a pallet, stacked with computers. The warehouse used the space outside the fire-exit to place stock, so as to free-up room in the warehouse. Despite a sign on the door saying, ‘Do not obstruct’, it seems that no-one cared. Over 80 people worked in the office. More in the warehouse and manufacturing area. For years, no-one had so much as conducted a fire drill.

And we wonder how hundreds of partygoers can burn alive when sprinklers do not function, or alarms do not work, or stairs are blocked. We just wait for the disaster, and then some CEO or minister promises a full, independent inquiry. The time for saving lives is before the death!

There are two hair dryers at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne change room. The one on the right shows the correct style of protective front panel. The dryer on the left shows the dangerous heating element, completely uncovered. It has been like this for two years, and despite reporting it, no one has done anything about this danger.

One of these days, a guest could be electrocuted if any metal object touches the dryer. This could be an item of jewellery around the wrist, around one’s neck, or hair pins and such like, not to mention a raw finger! What if a child, while using the hair dryer, drops something inside the large opening and sticks a finger thinking that it can be retrieved carefully. I suspect that one little touch of that element could be fatal.

For this reason, over the past two years, I have taken dozens of photos, and I have told a staff member each time. And still, no one has done anything about it. Pray tell, why don’t people recognise a clear and present danger? What kind of apathy exists throughout an organisation?

I love it how organisations boast about their service to such a degree that they begin to believe their own words. I happened to be staying at that hotel during the noisy renovations, and one evening, the hotel had held its staff annual party in the ballroom. Staff in formal dress and black ties were greeting each other as they made their way to the annual event where no doubt the CEO was the host. I really felt like crashing that party to make myself known to the CEO. The urge was strong because at that time, the hotel’s reception was moved downstairs (while the upper level reception area was being refurbished). The young man at reception could well have been Basil Fawlty’s protégé, and as rude as they come. It jarred with me that such a grand hotel with a huge budget for new carpets and lights, can have such a well-dressed lout (at the front line) who was the type of employee I would have sacked on the spot. Yet, all around us that evening were staff members clutching awards and congratulating each other. Sure, I know that it’s the ‘one bad apple syndrome’, and that not all staff are like that. But it was ironic that it all happened simultaneously.

This article is not only about a dangerous dryer, but about a management attitude. If you really want to work out how robust your staff members are, please hold-off on awarding end-of-year awards to the best-this and the most-that, and place a clear and present danger in their midst and wait and see who cares enough to do anything about it. If a lethal weapon in the wet area of the hotel, that has been pointed out so many times by me, does not spark anyone to care enough to do anything about it, then pray tell, what else is being neglected? What other invisible, intangible aspects of the hotel and its management are being neglected? What is going on in your organisation that stays under the radar?

Equally intriguing is why other guests of the hotel do not speak up? Maybe they have.

The holster into which the dryer is supposed to be neatly stored could pose another sort of problem. As you can see, it is screwed into place. What if that metal screw becomes loose and is raised a little? Or what if someone drops a small metallic item (like some hair pins) into the cup-like holster, and a guest places the dryer into the holster while the dryer is still turned on? If the guest is not served up by some wattage, they could trip a safety switch (if there is one) and cause a blackout for the hotel. We then have to hope that the back-up generator kicks in, or we would have hundreds of people in the dark, trapped in lifts, or evacuated in the middle of a fancy celebration.

Incidentally, there are two dryers. The one on the right is damaged from the back end. The dust and flint is clogging the inlet vent. The cover is broken. So let’s see how many years it will take before anyone notices that this is a slow build-up to another type of danger.

By the way, Fitness First at Carindale (Brisbane, Australia) has a range of safety issues. I pointed out some of them, and I was pleased to see that they listened. I am yet to re-inspect their hair dryer which, in my opnion, falls in the same category the one at the Hyatt. As you can see in the photo below, one of the dryers could well electrocute a gym member. I dare say that Fitness First at Carindale has huge traffic. Perhaps a thousand times more than the Hyatt. The risks there are heightened. I shall write an article about some of their safety issues shortly.