Last week, my family went to one of our favorite restaurants, Chuy’s. It’s a chain here in Texas and it’s just a fun place to go for dinner or lunch. It was a beautiful day and we decided to eat outside. I did the normal restaurant thing and looked at the layout and where I could escape if we needed.
The outside deck let me look at the front door and the door to the restaurant from where we were sitting. It was decent for protecting my family, but there were only two ways in and out. The restaurant is built on a hill. Normally you can go over the half fences and escape (a good reason for eating outside at a lot of places), but here, the deck was 20 feet up. So going over the fence wasn’t an option with the wife and my three year old. That left us with the two real exits.
The one you see in the photo was the outside exit that had a ramp going down to the parking lot. My truck was parked on the other side of the restaurant, an oversight I won’t make again, but sometimes you just end up there. The other exit from the patio went into the restaurant. Not the best escape route. When I sat down, I looked to see which way the doors opened.
Most people don’t pay any attention. In an emergency, that could get you killed. This gate opened into the patio area. I was trying not to laugh when the family next to us got up to leave and couldn’t get out the gate. They where trying to push the gate open and had forced it open about a foot, but couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t go any further. Instead of looking at the gate, they just started squeezing out one by one. I tried to help by saying the gate might open the other way. The father of the group was trying to help and obviously noticed the same thing, but the rest of the family didn’t care. If they won’t listen during a normal day, do you think they would have listened during an emergency?
While I was in Iraq as a private contractor, I had the same problem. I was outside our main building inventorying some ammo and some Pakistani workers were cleaning up the street in front of the building. We were in a secure base, but had been getting rocket and mortar attacks almost regularly. A rocket streaked overhead and I hit the dirt. I looked over and saw the Pakistanis had beaten me to the ground. That rocket landed harmlessly in an open area of the base. I heard number 2 a ways off and sprung to my feet running for the door into the hardened structure (it had and would stop a rocket). I already knew that the door opened out, so I ran for the door and stepped aside to open it. Well, the Pakistanis, all three of them, were monkey, see monkey do, and had run after me. As I opened the door, all three of them ran straight into it like the three stooges. It would have been funny, if I didn’t hear rocket #3 in the air. Luckily, these guys were small and I am big, so I easily pushed them back enough to pull open the door and get inside.
I can manhandle three people, but a larger group can crush you. Knowing which way the door opens is a good idea when you are trying to escape. After that story, obviously the best way is if the door opens out from where you are, but doors don’t always work the way I want them to.
So, when you go someplace new, while you are taking note of where the exits are, also take note of whether you will have to pull or push the door open to get out. You don’t want to look like this guy.
Stay Safe,
Ben