Tornado alert, fire alarm causes confusion at Windsor Walmart

Like many people in Windsor-Essex, an alert warning of a tornado came onto Jen Senechal's phone Tuesday night. She was inside the east end Walmart and wasn't sure what she and her friend should do.

"We decided we should just to wait it out there instead of driving across town," she said. "Next thing you know, there's alarms going off in the store and workers are yelling at us to go outside."

Environment Canada issued a tornado warning Tuesday at 8:38 p.m. advising people to take cover immediately if threatening weather approaches. There weren't any reports of tornadoes, but wind damage was reported from the storm.

At the time, Senechal wasn't sure how dangerous it was outside and stayed around the foyer. She saw people checking out and figured she and her friend would get in line.

That's when a worker said they had to leave.

"It was just like chaos," Senechal said. "We even said to the one girl, 'You realize there's a tornado warning right now.' She said, 'You just have to leave.'"

In the pouring rain, she saw workers running to a nearby store.

"It just seemed like they didn't know how to handle it," she said.

Although Senechal said a fire would be bad, she was hoping the store would have provided some shelter instead of making her go outside.

"It was slightly disappointing. It was just scary, because it's like, okay, there's a tornado warning right now and you're kicking us out," Senechal said.

Environment Canada cancelled the tornado warning at 9:25 p.m.

Inside is the safest place for people during a tornado, said Ihsan Al-Aasm, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Windsor. 

Although Walmart​ is a large place, Al-Aasm said customers should go there if there is special room for protection or go into the middle of the building.

"Find furniture to go underneath or a table to go underneath, because there would be a lot of wind," he said. "There could be a lot of damage coming from the wind and the flying objects."

But the addition of a fire alarm adds a secondary concern.

"She should stay inside and observe and if she sees smoke or fire she has to go outside," he said.

Walmart's response

In a statement to CBC News, Walmart representative Diane Medeiros said the "safety of our associates and customers is a top priority."

"On the evening of September 25th, customers were instructed to evacuate the Tecumseh store following a fire alarm. Fire Rescue Services arrived on scene within minutes and customers were instructed to stay outside while fire officials investigated the cause of the alarm," the statement reads.

She said store management followed proper procedures and customers were allowed back into the store once it was deemed safe by fire officials.

"At the time of the store evacuation, the wind and rain had calmed down."