Worst Fire Alert Message Ever?

If there were an award for bad industrial design...

I recorded this fire alarm in a mixed-use building I was visiting:

Here’s what it announces:

Attention. Attention. An emergency has been reported in this building. Please cease operations, and leave the building utilizing the nearest exit, or, fire exit stairway. Do not use elevators. Repeat. Do not use elevators.

Rather than leave the building, I began laughing, pulled out my phone to record it, and wondered how anybody could have written that, much less recorded it in a serious tone, and approved it for use in a commercial alarm system.

“Please cease operations.” I guess that’s fancy-speak for, “Stop what you’re doing.” (Again, most of the building consists of residential apartments where I imagine “operations” consist of eating, sleeping, relaxing….)

“Utilizing the nearest exit.” In a real emergency I would replace the four-syllable “utilizing” with a two-syllable word like “using.” (But maybe that’s why I’ve never been hired to write emergency notifications?)

So there I was wondering what the distinction between an “exit” and a “fire exit stairway” might be, and how I should choose which to utilize, when the voice commands everyone to repeat the phrase, “Do not use elevators….”