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Community Corner

Fire at the Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library?

Nope, it was just a surprise drill.Fire officials monitored evacuation Thursday; employees had building cleared of more than 50 people in 2:14 minutes.

When a fire alarm sounded Thursday afternoon inside the , surprised employees calmly cleared the two-story building in 2:14 minutes.

A crowd of more than 50 library patrons and staff members walked in an orderly fashion toward the northern end of the library's parking lot, near Beech Street, to await further direction.

The exact building evacuation time is known because the unannounced fire drill was being evaulated by Capt. Ray Durkee and Sandy Ray, the department's safety educator.

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The training exercise for employees was set up by Douglas Dotterer, executive director of the library, for a time when he knew there would be a good number of patrons at the institution.

The drill – which both Durkee and Ray said went well – is just one of many safety related training events Dotterer has set up for library staff.

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"We put a lot of emphasis on safety," he explained. "We have many children, seniors and other patrons who feel like this is their second home – and they need to feel safe here."

Ray was one of the featured speakers during an in-service training day held last fall for library staff. Her topics were fire safety and fire extinguisher training. Dotterer said health-related issues were also part of the training program that day.

About three months ago, Dotterer said, he had a representative from the Ohio Fire Marshal's Office do "a top-to-bottom (fire safety) inspection of the building and we received an excellent rating. We're proud of that."

Durkee said only schools are required by Ohio law to conduct regular fire drills, but that it's a good planning for other public institutions and businesses to conduct them periodically.

Stow Fire officials, he said, are more than happy to attend and evaluate drills conducted by area businesses. Unfortunately, he said, very few take advantage of the free service.

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