Baywest shoppers too busy to react to evacuation appeal

BARGAIN-hunters were deaf to an appeal to evacuate the Baywest mall yesterday, choosing to shop until they dropped instead.

Penny-pinching shoppers blithely carried on snapping up bargains in the mall’s opening week rather than heed a call over the public address system to exit the centre.

When the announcement was made at about 1pm, some stores told customers to wait while they tried to find out what was going on.

In other stores, the announcement was not even heard. It was barely audible in the passages.

Assuming after a few minutes that it was a false alarm, those people who had heard the announcement resumed shopping.

Some security staff said the evacuation order was due to a small fire caused by an electrical short in one of the shops, while others said a security guard had accidentally pressed the wrong button in the control room.

However, centre management said it was nothing more than the public address system being tested.

“The announcement was made just to make sure the PA system was operational. There was never any danger to our shoppers,” marketing manager Samantha Hewitson said.

“If there had been a real emergency, our security personnel would have helped people to the proper exits.”

She said there had been no fires in the mall.

Shoppers and most of the staff at Checkers said they had not heard the call to evacuate the mall.

Checkers customers continued their shopping, blissfully unaware, while the staff who did hear the announcement had no idea why they should evacuate.

Sherwood resident Erich Duvenhage, 32, said he had heard something over the PA system, but was inside Incredible Connection and could not make out what it was.

“My wife came inside, telling me it sounded like an evacuation notice. But when no one told us to leave, I thought it was probably a false alarm. Besides, it’s my first time at the mall and I haven’t even seen half of it. Why would I leave due to a false alarm?”

Walmer mother Jaqueline Smithe, 38, took her daughters, Micaela, 5, and Tarryn, 3, to the mall for lunch and said she had asked a security guard about the announcement and was relieved when he told her “it’s probably nothing”.

“Every new place will have some teething problems,” she said.

“Half the mall is still under construction, so if a few hiccups do slip in, it won’t be the end of the world.”