Help needed! Evacuation directions in a hotel room

[Guest Artem]

Hi all,

I am making a fire evacuation plan for a hotel room in a non-English-speaking country. I have drawn up directions on what a guest should do in case of fire, but I'd like to make sure the text is written in good English. Could anyone please read it and say if it is ok?

Please familiarize yourself with the location of

the nearest evacuation exit as indicated on the plan.

IN CASE OF FIRE

If an alarm sounded or you smell smoke:

1. Test your door for heat and smoke before exiting.

2. If the door is not hot and there is no or little smoke in the hallway,

leave, close the door and proceed to the nearest evacuation exit.

3. Should the door be hot or the hallway impassable,

place wet towels or blankets at the base of the door, dial the

FIRE HOTLINE ________ (112 from a mobile phone), stay in your

room near an exterior window so as to be seen from the outside.

Thank you!

[green-foam]

Hi, its readable in English, but I have a few questions.

1) Why is it in English if its for a non-English speaking country?

2) If its for a non English speaking country, what use is it to dial 112 ? (Surely they will not be able to understand English?)

3) What does the fire alarm sound like? (In England you could say, continuous bell ringing or high low tones etc)

4) How does some one "Test the door" (It does not state what to actually do.)

I doubt you will reply, or read this because it has to be vetted by a moderator first, which can take days, by which time you will have asked elsewhere and received a response.

[Guest Artem]

Thanks for your reply and your questions, Green-foam!

I doubt you will reply, or read this because it has to be vetted by a moderator first, which can take days, by which time you will have asked elsewhere and received a response.

Better late than never... I didn't ask anyone else and I would really like to have a good English translation. As for your questions,

1. It is a trasnlation for English-speaking guests. You may have seen translations of this kind in hotel rooms abroad.

2. You're right, there's not much use in dialing fire dept in a country where they don't speak English. But I've left an empty space where the hotel can write their telephone number for fire and emergency. Plus 112 is a 911-like service, I guess they can track back locations by phone numbers. I'll also find out if their operators have basic knowledge of English. This is not impossible since they really pay attention to fire safety here. (Even the minimal possible fines for fire safety offences vary from £3000 to £20000)

3. I've never heard anyone describe a fire alarm sound.... But it really is a good idea, since something obvious for us here may be confusing for a foreign guest. The sound is the same everywhere throughout the country and is a very loud and sharp whistling one, like many car alarms... How would you describe that in a couple of words?

4. Test the door... I've taken the sentence from somewhere on the Internet. You arу right, the directions must be as definite and simple as possible. By the way, hotel doors are mostly made of wood or plastic, right? If there is such a fire outside that a plastic/wooden door gets hot, then you would definitely not want to go outside :) and you really have not that much time left... What if I change the line to "Before leaving the room, make sure there is no flame or heavy smoke in the hallway"?