Yes, it was a "real" fire.

The building was evacuated. Fire trucks came. I've now been down and back up eleven stories of stairs (got my exercise for the day!). It was something minor in the upper penthouse floor (didn't know the building had a penthouse until now), probably a false alarm considering how quickly we were allowed back in again and the absence of visible smoke. No sprinklers went off or anything like that. Needless to say people were making joking comments about aeroplanes and such in the stairwell on the way down.

Of course I best not tell you what side of the building I exited on...

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/174310.html