Fire Drills 2014-2015 School Year

Fire Alarm General Discussion
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Sorry to change the topic so abruptly, but:

On October 23, we had our first fire alarm at the high school, and it wasn’t a drill!

Due to rewiring, the school only conducted their first fire drill on the 22nd, and the Grade 9s missed it because of a field trip. It was 8:52, and I had just sat down in my Period 1 classroom, when we all heard 10 inch bells in code 3 (I was right, the coding was upgraded with the new panel!). For the first few seconds, we all kind of sat there, looking around at each other, waiting for someone to tell us what to do. Even our teacher looked somewhat confused. She finally told us which exit door to use, and off we went.

The atmosphere was calm and relaxed, as students walked out the exit, with some moderate conversation. Once we were outside and the teachers were finished roll call, the four classes who had left through that exit branched off into their social groups and chatted.

At about 8:55 or so, I could hear the assistant principal on the two-way radio my teacher was holding instruct the teachers: “Do not treat this as a drill.” Aside from the teachers, who looked somewhat concerned, no one really took notice. Apparently, the fire chief showed up in a pumper truck shortly after that, but we didn’t see it, as the bus loop was on the other side of the school.

Apparently, at around 9:05, the alarm was silenced, and an “All Clear” message was announced over the P.A. Unfortunately, the only outdoor notification appliance was on the opposite side of the school from us, and there were no outdoor speakers on our side of the school, so it took five minutes for an EA to realize we were still outside and let us in!

In all, the fire alarm went well, with the exception that some tardy students didn’t bother to tell staff they were present. Period 1 started about 15 minutes late. Our social studies teacher later told us that a student had pulled the alarm. We were informed that we would be having a lockdown drill in a couple of weeks, but in light of Wednesday’s events in Ottawa, and today’s events at Marysville High School, that drill may be coming much sooner than that.

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Ours will probably be on monday.

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Same

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We had a lockdown drill a few days ago that scared the living daylights out of me, due to an actual threat to harm a group of students at my school, which included me. At the request of the police department and administration, I won’t give out specific details about it, especially not here on the internet for all to see. But the basic idea of it was that several students who reported suspicious behavior were threatened by that same student. All of our lockdown drills start as “the real thing” and then it is announced as a drill after the all-clear message. I think the initiative for the drill was clearly the incident with the student, but I think a bigger time cushion between the event and the realistic drill should have been used for the sake of us who were involved.

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[quote] Ours will probably be on monday. [/quote]

You forgot to capitalize Monday.

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your correcting is getting annoying, You know that?

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I have heard of Guylène Proulx, although I’m not really that familiar with her work. She was actually from my area. I’ve only read http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.3.5010&rep=rep1&type=pdf one of her studies, in which she examined the efficiency of Code-3 as an evacuation signal. It is definitely a very interesting article.

Also, thanks for the replies! It’s great to have the chance to hear a professional’s opinion on this situation.

My high school used a similar approach. Lockdown drills were unannounced, and they were often held during the lunch hour in order to simulate realistic conditions. If I recall correctly, the administrators also activated the fire alarm on one occasion, probably to see if people would react appropriately by not evacuating the building.

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Really? Is this all you care about? your pushing your luck…

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Now now, let’s not try and cause any un needed drama on here…

On another note, I went for a quick visit to my former high school the other day, and I actually got caught in a fire drill. As I was walking up to the main entrance, about to open the door, I started hearing the familiar clang of the Edwards Adaptabels in their march time. My former principal was in the lobby, and he had informed me it was just a drill. After the drill, I did get to talking to him about some of the work I noticed going on around the school. He told me they weren’t getting the $16 Million from the government for repairs, but would be doing annual work on the school instead. So looks like the 6500 system might be there for a while longer than expected.

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Our fire drill was today at 9:40 am in first period. I was hosting a so long party for my science teacher at the time.

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Today 8:30
Spectra’s scare everyone. Firedoor breaks

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Was the drill a surprise or did they tell you about it beforehand?

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You guys have to get over them. XD

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Why? Hell a AS on high would have done the same. And the damn SS sync on the SK 5208? is HORRIBLE!
This is what it does:
MWAAAAAAA-MWAAAAAAA----MWAAA----MWAA----MWAA------------,Ect…

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and how did a fire door break? O_o they are also lockdown doors too.

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Magnets quite working… Also, fire only

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Hmm at my school when we go into lockdown they close as well as fire alarms.

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At my school when we have fire drills, the fire doors close. But the HVAC doesn’t shut down.

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There was a false alarm today during one of my criminology courses. Nothing really special about the situation, but alarms are rather rare occurrences at my university since there are no drills. I happened to be in a building equipped with an EST3. The signals are 757-1A-H horns (older Integrities with the 792-style sounder) that were sounding in continuous. Hearing those horns was a unique experience since they are somewhat rare compared to the newer Integrities, which I’ve had the chance to hear on many occasions at my former high school.

Surprisingly, everyone in my class actually reacted to the alarm and evacuated the building quickly, unlike what happened during the recent lockdown; our professor, however, looked very confused. It seems that the building only has a local alarm system since the firefighters didn’t show up.

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My dad recently conducted a fire drill at the school he’s the VP at (IFP-1000 system, with a mix of Classic and Advanced Spectralerts and SD500-PS pull stations). Apparently, the HVAC did not shut off when he pulled it. I wonder if the IFP-1000 is losing its programming or isn’t configured properly…