Thread: Fire Drills
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Lissa Kristine 03:03 PM 12-20-2017
We had our second fire drill today. Definitely NOT what I think a fire drill should look like.

We had 7 babies under 2 years old who were put into cribs for evacuation (the 3 youngest in one crib, the 4 oldest in another).

In the back room, we had 7 kids ranging from 2 to 4.5 years of age. The oldest 3 held hands with each other while a coworker and I each held hands with the 4 youngest (one child on each side).

In order to get the cribs out, we have to move the feeding table. We spent 20 minutes preparing the kids by putting on coats, moving tables around, and making the older kids sit and wait until it was "time."

I've always been a firm believer in NOT preparing kids with coats, etc. After all, if there is a real fire, we aren't going to have time to gather jackets for 14 kids (and with the layout of the school, there's a good chance we aren't even going to be able to just grab jackets to distribute to children outside. If anything, we may be able to scoop up some blankets from the crib area when grabbing the cribs to put babies in, but that's about as much as we can be sure of. The truth is, if there is an actual fire, many children will be going outside in their sock-feet.)

Older kids can be given a warning "Some time today, we are going to have a fire drill," but I wouldn't give them any idea as to WHEN it's going to happen (it would just be used as an opportunity to review fire drill rules). I think ALL of the older children need to learn to hold hands and/or walk in a line. Most of the time, it will be just the ONE teacher back there with all of the 2-4 year old children. (My boss would actually have each child's hand held during the fire drill since we do cross a little side-street/ driveway which does have traffic from the elementary school next door).

Of course, my boss thought our 90 second evacuation time was great, but I'm not so sure. After all, we had kids in the cribs ready to be wheeled outside before the alarm was even pulled. I'd love to see a random/surprise drill where everybody is doing normal activities.

How are fire drills done for you? Am I crazy for thinking that they shouldn't be so staged?
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