Fire drills--Are they as pointless as I think they are?

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I hate fire drills. I've hated them since I was in elementary school. People just run around like there's a fire when there clearly is no fire. The only reason why I leave the school at all during a fire drill is because the fire alarm at my school is so unbearable--it makes a humming noise like a hairdryer and a really high-pitched noise at the same time and lights flash. It's horrible. I guess they put that in to get all of the AS/autistic kids out of the building lol. Anyone else hate fire drills?

I hate them with all of my soul. Alas, they do serve some purpose....right?

I hated the bell itself, let alone the drone it made to announce a fire drill. I hear ya dude.

Well if it works for them...

When I was a kid, I would cover my ears during much of the class period out of fear the fire alarm would go off. I'd rest my head on my right shoulder, put my other hand on my left ear, and use my right hand to write class assignments. Still managed to get straight As, so I guess the teachers didn't get too worried about me, once they used me as an example of why things were too noisy when a class got too loud "look [my name] is covering his ears you all are being so loud!"

Of course, this was back in 1993 and 1994. Had it been a few years later, that, combined with my social awkwardness and intense interests (in things which are very common special interests for AS folks) would've raised some AS/HFA red flags in the teachers I'm sure.

Lol...for future reference, I'm not a dude. I'm a girl. I know how that could be construed; my username and avatar look very...dudish, for lack of a better word. I'm a bit of a tomboy.
When I was in Kindergarten, getting back to the original subject, I actually thought they would set the school on fire for the fire drill. The teacher kept alluding to it all week, and I got really nervous about it, because I had no idea what was going to happen. It turned out that everyone just left the room. I felt really gypped, because there was all this hype over nothing. I was scared of fire then too (now I'm a pyro) and I felt like I had worried to death about it for no reason. That was probably the only thing I learned in Kindergarten: that fire drills suck.

The thing I hated about fire drills in grade school was that I knew when they would come becasue I could see the fire trucks outside the school.

The alarm was bad enough - watching the seconds count down on the clock knowing when the alarm would happen - ten times worse!

me in elementry school,I never liked the fire drills becuase of the tone it made it sounded loud monotone like a car horn going off right in ur ear. the teachers tryed pulling my hands off my ears. The only time I was forewarned was in 4th or 5th grade when they had fire safety prevention week. In middle school it wasn't that bad it was a ringing of a real bell that wasn't really loud at all but loud enough to get attention and lights letting people know it was a fire drill. In a way I didnt mind middle school's or high school's I started to see a pattern they used to always pick a nice day to do it
2 times a month. high school's bell was a constant ringing of a bell with high school I seen more of a pattern if it was during 1st 2nd or 4th period (each period was about 92 minutes long) (3rd period being about 207 minutes long) I started to observe that if the drill happened during 1st 2nd or 4th and shortly b 4 the manner the teachers and janiters walking and talking on walkies i knew it was a practice and when to the exact second it will go off!! if for any reason it went off during 3rd it was taken as a serious fire and the fire dept would arrive.

Technical trade school's fire drill alarm was a bell but it was pulse with about 2 seconds ring 1second off and back to 2 seconds of ringing and off again

Technical trade school it was even better same thing teachers and janiters with walkie talkies and the "halls" were set up more like an atrium in the middle and classroom doors along the outer walls. i also started seeing a bit of paranormal things going on with one door making a hissing sound when closing (sounded like a storm door closing) on back door of shop i was in. i used to fix the door many times and after a while the days I'd fix the door were the days the fire drill went off (not connected to security system) I seen that it was following the pattern of when that drill would go off. also weird was it woudl be silent after the drill. Odd but that thing wasn't connected in any way to alarmor electrical systems and that thing has been accurate. i was never verbally told by the teacher when it was going to happen. it was a secret me and my teacher shared that me and him knew when exactly it was going to go off by how the back door of shop acted. so at that school I had alot of prewarning of when to expect it to go off. when i was warned before the drill I would not jump as if I got electricuted. when it went off and then get asked if i stained myself. to many this was funny to see me jump when fire drill alarm went off.

Sorry if it sounded alittle looney or crazy but it actually happened i'm not dilusional or have any hallusonations (spelling)

jess

We had a fire drill today. It came as a complete surprise to me...as they usually do...I kinda forgot my usual reaction to the fire alarm, because we hadn't had a fire drill in a long time prior to today. I, upon first hearing it, almost jumped out of my skin. My initial thought was that I should take my coat, because it was snowing today, but I remembered that we wern't suppoed to take things with us during fire drills. Then, after maybe three seconds of hearing it, I felt like either running out of the room, putting my hands over my ears and rocking back and forth and screaming at the top of my lungs, or putting a gun to my head. We all walked down the hall, and, of course, I had to walk past the alarm. It sounds like a hairdryer and a firetruck at the same time. Like, both noises combined. I hate those noises separately, but those two noises combined is pretty much the worst noise ever. And lights flash at the same time, when you walk past the alarm. Really bright lights. And nobody really reacts at all. They just keep on talking like nothing's going on, while I'm trying to walk as quickly as my legs can carry me, with my hands in my pockets, so I wouldn't hold my ears with them. It's like they don't care or something. It drives me crazy, that noise, and no one else notices. It makes me feel freakish, in a way.

I think there was a tornado drill and only some people had rooms we could be in and we were looking for a place to stand and it was really crowded in the office I dont know how people got out. And I think someone pulled the fire alarm when there was no fire once.

When I was in school, I loved fire drills. Elementary school age, they were like an adventure. Everyone got to leave class in the middle of the morning, go stand outside, and there'd sometimes be a fire truck there too.

The loud noises never bothered me much for some reason - the only noise I've ever had trouble with is the sound of people talking loudly.

I never liked the noise of the fire alarm, but it was kind of cool to get out of class, if only for a short time. In the schools I went to, at least they were random and we could never tell when they were coming.

In one school my sister went to, it was always the same person, the nun who was here teacher, who pulled the fire alarm for a drill. One day towards the end of the day someone pulled the fire alarm and it wasn't the nun. There was a slight panic because the alarm went off and she didn't pull it. They never found out who did it but they still talk about how that nun went around yelling "Who pulled that fire alarm?"

It was probably kind of funny.

Yeah. On the last day of High School, the fire drill rang I think 5 times at various periods in the day because kids were pulling it. Gosh, that was a blast. We even had firecrackers going off in the cafeteria (that caused yet another alarm). The administration actually had to tell us over the announcements to ignore the fire alarm for the rest of the day.

Sometimes we had bomb threats and we had to wait for the bomb squad to go through the school. That usually happened halfway through a test so I got to go home and study for the things I knew were gonna be on it since I had to finish the test the next day.

we only had a few through out high school years. i remember in middle school we had alot of bomb threats they were all fakes from kids calling using cell phones or the pay phone on/in school building. most would happen before school would start. the oddest fire drill wasnt really a drill at all, it was in 6th grade and it was caused by a bad oder eminating from a locker, turned out to be someone's 2 YEAR OLD TUNA SANDWITCH!! ! (wasn't mine lol) and also someone once lit a fart bomb. i just hated how the kids were so immature back then.

jess

We had a bomb threat once when I was in high school. It was zero degrees outside and we were all standing out their for 20 minutes while the police went through the gym to make sure it was clear.

Fire Drills Suck. My school is really good about warning me when they plan a fire drill. Cause I completely freak out. But with warning I can get earplugs in and things aren't so bad. This year, we've got a really screwy system and it randomly goes off ALL the time. We've had probably 30+ this school year. and they don't know ahead of time to warn me. The one thing certain about after a fire drill is that all the walkie-talkie people are looking for me. Boy, do I hate fire drills. Then you have to try and get on with the rest of the day - which possibly includes tests. I've failed a test or two because of those things.

I found the new ADA-compliant fire alarms are a lot better than the old ones. The old ones would just go off with startling, ear-splitting noise. The ADA ones, with their lights to alert deaf people, seem to "warm up" about a half second before going off, and start flashing, thus taking the suprise and startle out of it all.

Anyone else who remembers pre-and-post ADA fire alarms agree? Disagree?