Fire Drills

[Duke87 1,070]

After moving into a college dorm for the first time in the fall of '05, one thing that really bugged me was that, even with college students, legally adults, they still found it necessary to have fire drills for the residence halls. It's never been quite so annoying, however, until last night, when some asshat in the security department decided it would be a good idea to have a fire drill at 3 in the morning. Seriously. Myself and many other people were trying to sleep. I had to get up in the morning and go to class. Being woken up in the middle of the night for some stupid fire drill understandably pissed myself and several others off.

Okay, but enough with the rant. On to the actual points here. I really don't understand why people feel it's so necessary to have drills for what to do if there's a fire. Because, honestly, any idiot can figure out that if the buildings on fire they should probably leave it. And if you're too stupid to realize that, then you're better off dying in a fire before you have a chance to reproduce and pass on those stupid genes. Now, there is a point to educating kids about safety and whatnot, and even maybe have fire drills in elementary schools. But beyond that, it just becomes unnecessary rehash, everyone already knows the drill (literally).

Besides, there's an actual negative impact that fire drills have, the same way that continued false alarms have a negative impact. I've been in a building having a fire drill too many times to count. But I've only ever actually been in a building where the fire alarm went off due to an actual fire once, an even then it was a small fire. So, naturally, due to classical conditioning, when I hear a fire alarm, my first thought is "oh, there's a fire drill", not "oh, there's a fire", and I'm sure I'm not alone on that. This is detrimental because it can make people not take the fire alarm as seriously as they should if there actually is a fire.

...alright, I'm off the soapbox now. Time for your responses.

[Meg 368]

The impose them upon the adult work force as well.   At least the place I used to work had them.  I suspect it varies by jurisdiction.

Oddly, in the case of an actual fire in a large office building, they only evacuate the floor where the alarm was set off and the floor above and the floor below it.  They claim that evacuating everyone causes more problems than it solves.   Especially since the most common reason for a fire alarm going off in an American office building is a bag of popcorn that was left in the microwave too long.

But having a fire drill at 3 a.m.?  That uncalled for.  Sleep is a valuable, and often rare, commodity especially on college campuses.

[pickled_pig 7]

Originally posted by: Duke87 So, naturally, due to classical conditioning, when I hear a fire alarm, my first thought is "oh, there's a fire drill", not "oh, there's a fire", and I'm sure I'm not alone on that.quote>

 

Great point.  Usually when the alarm goes off, I don't even think (like you do) of whether it's a fire drill or not - I simply assume it's a fire drill, especially if it's in the second or fourth periods of the day.  I've been to high school in two different states, yet both districts I've been in like to put their fire drills in second and fourth period.  Strange.

[Zelgadis 638]

They were annoying when I was in college. But at the very least, they should be more considerate. There was a fire drill in my dorm the night before I had to take the GRE exam. Now that had me steamed. I mean really, somebody should check the GRE, GMAT, etc. schedules before they pull that crap.

ISF

[hamsterTK 93]

two days ago 3 employees at a suburban midrise office building in houston didnt make it out after a medical office exploded caused the upper floors to be completely gutten by fire. According to reports the alarms didn't work. Maybe if they tested them...

[IDS2 3,429]

IMO fire drills are pointless. I never have liked them, particularly to the fact that I am mildly afraid of loud noises and the unknown. 

However, only once have they actually been a real fire, and even then it was our mindless cooks burning some crappy burgers that gave me food poisoning anyway...

So, basically, the law in Minnesota for all schools is 4 fire drills a year (used to be 9, thank goodness it's been lowered) They lowered it to make room for (5) lockdown drills, which I personally think is more important. I mean, it's many, many times more likely that you'll be shot than burned alive, eh?

[Duke87 1,070]

You know, that's an interesting point. Most states require public schools to have a certain number of fire drills a year. I wonder if New York has a law about that for college dorms....

[wolverine 12]

Man, I remember the fire drills 4:00 am in the morning at my college dorm. (To top it off, one morning it was snowing and -4 degrees F. Horrible! A lot of people would try to stay inside, but apparently there were penalties (inflicted by the state gov) for not leaving during a fire drill. My sophomore year, I stayed in my dorm room, and little did I realize the building was actually on fire. But as well all know, it takes a lot to burn down those large concrete, steel, and brick dorms.

[Firebird 40]

Hmm. Sounds like the guy who cried wolf. One day there's actually going to be a fire. We'll go on treating it like a fire drill, instead of a real fire. Who's fault is it going to be if lives are lost? *Points over there at the school district*

Fire drill at 3 am!?! Who the bleep would think of that!?! This is ludicrous!

[defcon pilot 0]

I remember in elementary school when we'd be getting fire drilled every other week. I hated those days. Loud noises! Rrrrg!

Instead of wasting their time on this crap, schools should be teaching SAR.

[Duke87 1,070]

SAR? Super Adventure Rockman?

Please explain your acronym.

[MayorTim 16]

SAR could stand for a bunch of things, the first thing that comes to my mind is Search And Rescue, since my dad is a firefighter.

Still, I don't think it would make much sense teaching elementary kids search and rescue techniques and procedure, so I'm guessing it means something different..

Personally, I think that while occasional fire drills are necessary, they are used way too often. Once or twice a year is more than enough for people to learn their emergency exits.

It would be a good idea to use the current time alloted to fire drills to teach something more useful, like fire safety and prevention, or even CPR.

[Goldfish4209 9]

Looks like (almost) everyone unanimously agrees. It seriously should stop at middle school. Adults get the point, and yeah, it gets wired into you that it's just a drill and nobody really panics, like you're supposed to.

[Rymac91 15]

you've got a point...excessive drills means you don't usally panic when there is a fire...but if they do it often enough that you ignore it altogether...then it's rather pointless.

[defcon pilot 0]

Originally posted by: Duke87 SAR? Super Adventure Rockman?

Please explain your acronym.quote>

Search and Rescue: CPR et al, starting in sixth or seventh grade.

[___idiotbox 0]

Last year, we actually did have a fire in the computer lab. A computer just spontaneously burst into flames when 13 or so kids were in the computer lab. Our school was tiny and it was just a rental building while our actual, quite large school was being built. So, it didnt have a fire alarm (I think we actually got in trouble for that by the health and saftey people...) So we had a blow horn. My Spanish teacher was running around like a mad man honking this thing  

We had firedrills everymonth (and still do, I think its a requirement in Maryland) with certain exits classes take when there is a fire. But everyone was running around the building saying "FIRE! FIRE! WOOO!" 

The fire spread pretty quick throughout the computer lab. I think 2 or 3 computers were damaged. Sadly my Spanish teacher was not harmed  

I think firedrills are useful, but they are not important to wake someone up at 3 am or drag 100 so kids out into the 10 degree weather.  I think it should be done once or twice so that people get the point but come one..! If the fire alarm goes off I hope no one decides to just sit there and burn to death  

-Ellie

[IDS2 3,429]

Originally posted by: Duke87 You know, that's an interesting point. Most states require public schools to have a certain number of fire drills a year. I wonder if New York has a law about that for college dorms....quote>

According to Wikipedia, there are no strict regulations for NY. I'm looking to see how many per year, though. Regulations as in who has to be there for the drill, what times, etc. See, that's interesting because apparently NY has no assigned number for any school. No special accomodations...weird.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Fire drills are necessary to save lives.  People just don't realize how quickly you can die from "smoke" inhalation in a fire situation and need to be reminded what those bells and/or klaxons are all about.

When I was working at the University of Waterloo, we had klaxons installed in all computer labs to drive users out during fire alarms.  The level was set to above 120dB, which will damage you and is quite painful if you don't leave quickly.

When I worked at the Honewell HQ building in Canada, there was one in which the Fire Marshall announced to the people who were standing around outside that they should consider themselves lucky to be alive.  Those who didn't come out were "declared dead".

Holding one of these things at 3 a.m. is a little extreme, but when do you suppose fires occur?  Dead of night is the most likely time.  Staying in the sack can be fatal.

[hummer0328 6]

Fire drills are a necessary evil. We had a fire in our barracks several months ago. It was the middle of the night and I was on CQ/guard duty at the time. Some stupid Air Force guys were smoking in thier rooms and had started the fire. It's about 2 am and suddenly we(me and the other soldier on duty) hear a faint alarm in the distance. We go into the courtyard to check it out and sure enough the fire alarm is going off in another section of the building across the courtyard.

What was wierd was that the alarm wasn't going off on 1/2 the building. The sergeant on duty puts me in charge (i'm a squad leader anyways) to get everyone awake and to safety. So we spend the next 10 minutes running around, breathing in smoke, trying to wake everyone up and direct them out.

Anyways the point is that fires do happen and you should be prepared just in case. 99% of the time it may be a drill, but that prepares you for the other 1% of the time when the danger is real.

[Ratieya455 1]

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the 3AM fire alarm was not a drill but a prank. I've luckily never lived in a freshman dorm, only upperclass, and we have only had prescribed fire alarms plus one real fire. I wasn't in the building at the time, but some smokers had been throwing cigarette butts into a vent on the ground for the heating system and it started whatever crud was lying at the bottom of the vent on fire. This is a high-rise building, which really scares some people fire-safety-wise. It is a lot of students crammed in 9 floors up.

I would agree that fire drills are a necessary evil, but the only times I feel like I wouldn't be close enough to a door in a fire is at a large public building where they would never have a drill, such as a mall or airport.

[DFire870 2]

Ah yes, the college dorm fire alarms... The ones here in my residence hall have gone off quite a few times, though they haven't gone off that late at night (yet). The problem here, however, is that the alarms are extremely sensitive to smoke/heat/whatever activates them, and most of the time they go off because someone burnt popcorn. Because they go off frequently here, a lot of people just stay in their rooms, although they are so loud I can't imagine why they'd want to.

I know in February the alarm went off at about 9 pm 4 nights in a row because it was malfunctioning.

[wbelac 0]

Heh, at my school no one pays attention to the fire drill anymore. The school has had problems all year with them being set off on accident in the gym, and after the first few times everyone ignored them. Just last week one went off before school, and my friends and I just stood there waiting for them to turn it off.

Also, we always know when a drill is coming up, so it's never unexpected. It's not officially anounced, but word always gets around.

[SuperPenguin 0]

The point of any drill is to make sure that you know the procedures and can perform them without fail every time. That's why late night fire drills are essential, especially at colleges. If you've just moved into an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar building, you're going to be at a disadvantage. If a real emergency occurs, will you be able to wake up, orient yourself properly, find the correct exit, and so on, all while coming out of a deep sleep?

Panic, confusion and disorientation are natural human responses to some situations. They can be overcome by drills. Saying "it's only a drill" and failing to act is a conscious choice. You must make the conscious choice to respond to every alarm as if it's real.

[Pirates29 0]

Originally posted by: defcon pilot I remember in elementary school when we'd be getting fire drilled every other week. I hated those days. Loud noises! Rrrrg!

Instead of wasting their time on this crap, schools should be teaching SAR.quote>

 

SAR?? Science... Arithmetic and Reading??

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

SAR = Search and Rescue.

How about joining my new organization named Delete Acronyms Now (DAN for short),

[IDS2 3,429]

Very clever, N_O_Body. But seriously, back on topic. As mentioned, fire drills are very necessary to save many, many lives. The proper escape equipment is needed as well. However, they are a nuisance when they're at 3 AM!

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: IDS2As mentioned, fire drills are very necessary to save many, many lives.quote>

Up to a point, definitely. It's great to do with kids. But as people grow up it becomes less and less necessary and more and more of a nuisance. Because, honestly, were I never to be in another fire drill ever, my ability to evacuate a building would not be hampered. I've done it enough, I get the picture, it's just annoying. Adults don't need fire drills as reinforcement. Because dropping what you're doing, going downstairs, and out the nearest exit doesn't exactly take a lot of thinking or special skills. Because honestly, what's the logical response to a building being on fire: "I should leave for my own safety" or "OOOOOOOH!!!! FIRE!! FIRE SHINY!! ME STAY HERE AND PLAY WITH FIRE!!!"

It's not exactly rocket science. You'd have to be absolutely retarded to not be able to figure it out.

The proper escape equipment is needed as well. quote>

Escape equipment? You mean like fire escapes on tall buildings? Because that kinda stuff is necessary, but you don't exactly need drills to practice with it. Especially since in the event of a fire drill, you go down the stairs and out a door on the ground floor, not out the window and down the fire escape. Fire Escapes are only meant to be used if you can't go out any other way.

[SIMCITYRULEZ 0]

When I was in Primary School we had an actual fire. My class was still inside, we were the last ones in the school class rooms. We didn't here the alarm because our door was shut and there was loud music in the classroom. It was only a small fire.

[SIMCITYRULEZ 0]

When I was in Primary School we had an actual fire. My class was still inside, we were the last ones in the school class rooms. We didn't here the alarm because our door was shut and there was loud music in the classroom. It was only a small fire.

[daniel01 0]

I remember just 2 weeks ago we had a fire drill, we all had to go to the oval and wait.

God was it a hot day, i think it was 30 or something, anyway to make it worse, it was windy, and our school cops allt he dust

ahhh, so annoying when they do that.

daniel01