The Low-Tech Fire Drill

Enrolling in a child care program means learning about fire drills.  While regular fire drills are mandated, we really want to hold them regularly because we are in responsible for the safe evacuation of very young children.  That can be an awesome responsibility in the event of a true emergency.

Our child care facility is high-tech with a wonderful sprinkler system and bright flashing strobe lights that go along with the piercing bells.  True enough, everyone should be able to see and hear the alarm.  The problem was the jolting affect it had on the very small children.   In some cases they were nearly immobilized with fear because of the alarm system.  One child  had  nightmares after the experiencing the alarm and her mother begged us not to have another or that she be notified so she could be with her child during the drill.   This child had the same response to the family’s home alarm system.

One day the high-tech alarm went crazy and soon the fire company was present.  After a complete evacuation of the center and inspection by the fire department it was determined that workmen in the next building  had inadvertently caused the alarm to sound.   The problem was, the system did not want to re-set itself.  The trouble signal beeped the entire afternoon.  Eventually a repairman came to take care of our problem.

In the meantime, to keep our fire drills going, we decided to go low-tech. And I do mean low-tech.  I went to the kitchen and secured a saucepan and large serving spoon.  They made a beautiful banging sound...one the kids loved.  They also loved trying the banging out for themselves.  It was a worthy cause.  After talking with the teachers and children about our new “fire alarm” we decided to hold our first drill.   The kids filed out orderly and lined up to be counted.  The entire evacuation had taken less than two minutes which was very good considering we care for children as young as two-years-old.  And the after drill assessment by the teachers proved to be very interesting.

It seems the very young children did not panic or cry like they do when the big alarm goes off.  I thought about this.  Maybe banging some pots together is a sound they are used to.  Whatever the reason, the teachers enjoyed the orderly evacuation process for their children.