How effective are fire drills in preparing people for an emergency?

I’ve wondered this myself. During a drill, at least all the ones I’ve been through, everyone knew it was a drill. If it were a real fire I believe the panic factor would be a lot higher and probably cause a lot of problems. On the other hand, in a panic situation I guess having some kind of muscle memory and subconscious guiding the way might help quite a bit.

The only way I see them useful is that you learn where the closest exit is. If shit went down I would be pushing old people and children to the ground if I could get out of the building faster.

I think the drills are pretty effective, because there once was a fire at my school (well one was starting anyways) and so everyone got out pretty fast

Same goes with emergency procedure if an airplane goes down.

I taught CPR and first aid to help pay my way through college. I used to wonder the same thing about the classes I taught until a former student approached me saying she had saved her grandfather’s life because of the training. She told me she did not even think- just acted, somehow remembering step for step what needed to be done even though she had not even given the class (which was not voluntary but a requirement for her job) a thought since taking it.

So I think perhaps the fire drills are the same thing. Information that the person can lock onto in crisis rather than panic because of no mental plan.

I think drills are better than no drills, and are in the end fairly effective. Going through the actual physical motions makes it more likely you will be able to do it from rote, even if you are in a situation of high stress and/or Panic, and everyone will know the expectations during the situation avoiding behaviors that contradict the most expediant way for everyone to get out. Moreover, to your point about the door being jammed, if they had a drill a week before, maybe it would ave been realized the door was jammed before the actual emergency situation and that would not have happened.

In the event of a fire, I wonder if there isn’t at least a few people at my job that in the event of a fire, would hang around just to get that last email out because it was “that important”.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic I’m sure there are people like that.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic I could see someone on Fluther till the cable burned through…

@Dog If someone in my building needed to Fluther that bad, I’d advise them to IM “Flutherbot” from their mobile device. Or I’d give them my iPhone so they could use the Fluther App.
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lol4rl!

I work in low-income housing. Someone had snuck into the secure building and pulled a fire alarm in the middle of the night. So there was no reason for tenants to think it was a “test”. Only about ¼ of them left their apartments. When I asked others about it the next day they told me they put a pillow over their head and went back to sleep, assuming that it was a test. Ya right like we would get up at 2am just to test their fire alarm. Scary.

@RedPowerLady I lived in a dorm where some RA’s trying to catch boys in the girl’s dorm did just that. I also lived in one where it went off all the time. Like every day for a week, many times in the middle of the night, a couple of times during the few days of finals that year… If you’ve lived in enough places where it goes off at 2 in the morning or whatever and doesn’t really mean a fire, its easy to ignore.

—@avvooooooo The whole idea of ignoring a fire alarm just scares me but I guess you are right about that, when I was in college I did the same.—-

@The_Compassionate_Heretic – sounds like the people in your building need more drills! We had a fire alarm on Thursday (caused by a maintenance person accidentally messing with the alarm wiring.) We got about 80–85 people out in 2 to 3 minutes. We were all out before the fire department got there, and they’re right down the street.

I think fire drills, tornado drills and knowing how to get out of a plane are extremely important. Yes, I’m one of those nerdy people who knows how many seatbacks she has to touch to get to an exit!

There is no way of knowing the effectiveness in any given situation, but overall, they are useful in making people aware of the proper behavior, and especially in uncovering any problem areas that need attention.

I read an article in Time magazine a couple of years ago about a security specialist who worked for a company that rented space at the World Trade Center. He made the employees do drills all the time, much more than most companies would allow. On 9/11/2001, every single employee escaped with his/her life.

I forget his name now (Ben Sherwood, maybe?), but the security specialist talked about how some people remain calm and know what to do during emergencies, while other people just freeze, unable to think or move. For this reason, he believed many practice drills are essential. When a set of actions become automatic and instinctual, even the people with brain freeze know to just go. His strategy saved every single employee of the company he worked for.

So in answer to the OP’s question: fire and other drills are very effective in helping save people in real emergency situations.

@avvooooooo And the RA never got in trouble? Most business, institutions, etc are charged a fine for false alarms, and I think there are laws against it because you take resources away from the community when there might be an emergency somewhere else. And, it promotes a “cry wolf” syndrome as you have stated. And, I can’t imagine an RA caring if there is a boy in your room, although I 100% believe you, but when I went to school we have boyfriend stay for days, sometimes weeks, nobody cared.

@JLeslie She should have. She was one of those horrible people who got a little power and abused the hell out of it. I could have told them that she would, it was obvious before she ever got any power that she was like that, but they didn’t ask me. When another horrible person was applying and I had an appointment with the housing director to discuss something else, I let her know to head that one off. She had a huge stick up her ass and was a prude when it came to everyone else, even though her own behavior wasn’t something to brag about. I think they called it a “drill” so nobody really caught hell, but I’m not sure. The next time she abused her power with me, I let her have it outside the dorm supervisor’s office. She started bitching when I left (because she wouldn’t do it to my face since she didn’t have a leg to stand on) and the dorm supervisor told her, “Shut the hell up, she had a point, take it.” :P

I don’t think they help at all. At my last job, it was a freaking joke. Some people didn’t even move, particularly those in Upper Management, and no one paid attention. None of the fire drill “leaders” even knew what they were doing. No doubt in my mind that if an actual fire happened in that place, hardly anyone would make it out unharmed.