Fire alarms forced an evacuation from Orange City Centre on Saturday morning.
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About 10.45am all shoppers, shop keepers and store employees were made to leave the centre and firefighters from Orange Fire and Rescue responded when a fire alarm sounded.
Leading fire fighter Dave Beattie said the evacuation was caused when an alarm malfunctioned and he praised the response of those who had been within the centre.
"Everybody did exactly the right thing," Mr Beattie said.
"Everybody stayed nice and safe.
"We tend to find not everybody to be as conscientious as that."
Mr Beattie said as soon as the NSW Fire and Rescue crew verified that the emergency was a false alarm the shoppers and shop employees were allowed to return to the shopping centre about 15 to 20 minutes after the alarms sounded.
He said false alarms were relatively common but they did not always see such a good response for calls to evacuate.
"We treat every alarm as a call for a fire until we know otherwise and we would like everyone else to do the same," Mr Beattie said.
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
