Emergencies & outages

Emergency evacuation

If an evacuation alarm sounds, use the stairwells to leave the building. Do not use the lifts.

OC maintains a list of people who aren’t able to use the stairwell, which is shared with emergency services. If you need to be added, please let OC know. It is also recommended to arrange an emergency plan with your immediate neighbours if you need extra help.

Routine tests of the alarm system will be announced beforehand. If you aren’t sure whether an alarm is a test, assume it is real and evacuate the building.

Avoid setting off the alarms accidentally!

If your apartment’s internal smoke alarm goes off because of cooking smoke or another non-emergency cause, do not open the door to the hallway! Smoke will hit the central detectors and trigger an evacuation.

Instead, open the balcony door, and turn on the range hood and bathroom fans.

Power outages

If the building’s power supply is interrupted:

Lighting: Emergency lighting in the hallway and stairwells will switch on.

Front doors: The front doors have battery backup and will operate as normal unless the power is out for more than about half an hour. They will then switch to manual push/pull.

Garage doors: They will be out of action during a power outage. There is a manual chain to open and close them in an emergency.

Water: Water pressure to the buildings is supplied by pumps, which will deactivate during a power outage. Expect water interruptions during a prolonged outage.

Hot water: The hot water systems are on the top floor of each building. A pump disruption will interrupt the hot water systems too. The systems take a few hours to heat up again afterwards.