Fire Drill

Yesterday I spent most of the work day standing outside in the parking lot. One of the other offices had an autoclave that started to smoke. The fire department was called, as were the building managers and hazmat units. The machine was taken outside to cool off. The office staffs were also taken outside to "chill out". We stood in the misty rain under a small awning waiting for the fire department to slowly evaluate the situation. If the machine was outside and the fans blew away the smoke, why did we have to stand in the cold for 2 hours as the men controlling the situation chit chatted? My workload is now a day behind.