40,000 Take Part in Valley Fire Drill

Hundreds of people were evacuated from Phoenix City Hall this morning as part of the world's largest fire drill. It was all in preparation for National Fire Prevention Week, which begins Monday.

By the end of the day, Mike Sandulak of Phoenix Fire said thousands of people would participate.

"We have approximately 60 buildings and we're going to evacuate people safely and quickly," Sandulak said. "About 40,000 people were anticipated to evacuate from the downtown area by the end of the business day."

Sandulak said City Hall employees had no advance warning.

"They're in meetings, they might be in the elevator, they might be getting a coffee," he said. "All of a sudden, an alarm goes off. There's floor wards to make sure each floor's accounted for."

Tom Graybeck works in one of the towers and said it's good to be prepared for anything following 9/11. "I have no problems with it. And I don't think anyone else does either.

"After 9/11, I explored every stairway in the building so that if anything ever does happen we have easy exits," said Renaissance Square worker Gerald Shelley.

Shelley works in on the fourth floor of a building, but both towers are more than two dozen stories high and to make the scenario realistic, no elevators were allowed.

The focus of the drill is to emphasize the need for emergency fire plans for businesses. As well as homes," Sandulak said.

"The No. 1 priority of the Fire Department is rescue. We want people to make sure they're out safely. There might be some people who are physically challenged or need help, so the floor wards are in charging of making sure they get down safely, as well. "We all get out to a safe place, we account for the building, then the building is clear."