While busy coding away at the Envoy San Francisco office, I noticed a strong electrical burning smell. I immediately stood up from my desk and looked over at my coworker sitting across from me, trying to determine where it was coming from. Was something burning near our desk pod?
Shortly after, a crowd gathered near the windows, mentioning that a nearby building was on fire.
Because the smell was so strong, many of my coworkers began packing up and heading toward the exits. Soon after, our workplace admin triggered an Emergency Notification alert from Envoy Mobile, sending text messages, push notifications, and emails to everyone at the Envoy San Francisco office, notifying them of a fire in the vicinity and instructing them to evacuate.
The alert also triggered a takeover of our Visitor, Room, and Screen devices, displaying a red active alert instructing everyone to evacuate immediately.
Everyone complied and exited the building without issue, gathering outside at our designated meeting area. As people reached safety, they responded to the Emergency Notification, marking themselves as safe.
As an engineer who has been working on Emergency Notifications at Envoy for the past few years, it was remarkable to witness how people responded during a real emergency, leveraging the features we’ve built to get to safety.
I’m grateful that everyone evacuated safely and that Emergency Notifications helped make the process clear and coordinated.