An hour after full-time, the fire alarm was activated at the near-empty Stadium of Light.
Perhaps whoever triggered it was taking the same 'calm and patient' approach as sporting director Kristjaan Speakman to appointing the club's next head coach.
Because the real conflagration had already been raging on the pitch for an hour-and-a-half as Sunderland crashed and burned against bottom-of-the-table Doncaster Rovers, with their promotion chances in real danger of going up in smoke.
READ MORE: Mike Dodds left 'shellshocked' by Sunderland's first half display against Doncaster
It is about time somebody sounded the alarm, however, because there seems to be no sense of urgency to address the growing crisis.
The current scenario would have seemed unthinkable just over a week ago, prior to Sunderland's visit to Bolton.
At that stage Lee Johnson's side was second in the table, had a shot at going top, and were gearing up to make the final few additions on transfer deadline day.
But that disgraceful 6-0 defeat at Bolton has proved to be the catalyst for calamity.
Today, Johnson is gone, Sunderland have slipped to fourth and are now closer to dropping out of the play-off places than they are to the league leaders, and for all the razzamatazz around the return of Jermain Defoe, deadline day was a bust with Tom Flanagan allowed to leave without a replacement coming in.
And for all the fine talk of succession planning, the club completed a full week without a new head coach being installed leaving U23 coaches Mike Dodds and Michael Proctor to mind the shop.
Perhaps the board thought it would be simple enough.
Ditch Johnson and there was no hurry - basement side Doncaster on Saturday, followed by away games against two more sides still fighting relegation in Cheltenham and AFC Wimbledon.
Well, they know better now.
This Sunderland team is capable of losing to anyone.
As for promotion, Johnson was jettisoned with 17 games to go because the club began to doubt he could deliver.
His replacement will now have 16 games to make an impact - 15 unless they take the reins before Tuesday's trip to Cheltenham, and 14 if they are not in place by the weekend.
How much worse might things look by the time the new man arrives?
Be in no doubt: promotion is still the be-all and end-all this season.
Changing head coach changes nothing on that score.
If promotion is secured, there will no shortage of people queuing up to claim the credit.
But if, one way or the other, promotion is not achieved, the end-of-season inquest will be long and painful.
The events of the last week will be front and centre, and it is the decisionmakers at boardroom and executive-level who must accept responsibility.
All that is for the future, however.
For now, back to the present.
After that defeat at Bolton, there should have been a reaction against Doncaster no matter who was in charge.
Yet a Harley Street doctor would have failed to find a pulse amongst those wearing red and white, so lifeless was their first-half performance.
Instead it was Doncaster, who were thrashed 5-0 at home by Rotherham in midweek, who were stung into action with Reo Griffiths putting them ahead and Tommy Rowe doubling their lead on the stroke of half-time.
In reality, they could have been four or five goals up, having also hit the post and failed to convert a couple of other good chances.
More than 38,000 fans had answered the call to welcome Defoe back to Wearside but, with their man on the bench until he and fellow new arrival Jay Matete came on 20 minutes from time, they booed their team off at half-time - and deservedly so.
Sunderland did improve markedly in the second half, although that was not difficult.
They hit the post through Elliot Embleton and eventually pulled a goal back in the final minute through skipper Corry Evans.
Had the officials not failed to spot that Ross Stewart's header had clearly crossed the line on the hour, they would have had more time for a comeback and might have put Doncaster's leaky defence to the test.
But to talk about bad luck or bad decisions would completely miss the point.
Sunderland were outclassed, out-thought, and outfought by the team that is propping up League One.
For a second successive game, the Black Cats looked a million miles away from a side challenging for promotion.
They, not Doncaster, looked like the relegation candidates - certainly in the opening 45 minutes.
And given the circumstances, the opposition, the result, the performance, the lack of a reaction, and that they let down the biggest crowd of the season, that makes this defeat every bit as bad as that at Bolton.
In fact, it makes it worse.
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