Fire alarm in LHR T1 baggage hall

[Ash W]

Arrived at Heathrow T1 on Friday night, got to the baggage hall and the fire alarm started to go off. Luckily for me the bags from my flight had started to come out and mine was one of the last bag out, before the whole system stopped. When I say out I could see it, but it hadn't quite made it to the belt but was visible in the output chute, so I jumped up, grabbed my bagged and legged it out of the place.

It had me thinking though, if my bag hadn't come out, what is the procedure for retrieving bags? I assume even if the all clear was given 5 minutes later you wouldn't be allowed back in, so what's the go? Report it as a lost bag and wait several days for it, or something else?

Also I must say it was rather disorganised indeed. The alarm message told passengers to wait for instructions from staff about how to evacuate but none of the staff leaving the place had any idea what so ever, and of course passengers had concerns about how they would later retrieve their bags and no one had the answers for them. Then to top it off a group of Japanese decided to stop just outside the doors and hold a conference about god only knows what, thus stopping the free flow of passengers out of the place.