Home Fire Drills - do you do them?

[cgcw]

I am required to do home fire drills/tornado drills every month because I run a home daycare out of my home. We are pretty good about setting off the smoke detector and running out to our meeting place in the front of our home.

Today, I put some bacon in the oven to cook and went out in the backyard. DS8 & DS3 were watching a DVD. I heard the smoke detector go off because of the grease from the bacon (makes you really want to eat it, doesn't it... ) so I come inside. Where are my children....sitting out in the front of the house waiting for us at our meeting spot. I've always wondered if they would react without my telling them it was a drill and apparently it's been instilled in them.

So, now I'm curious. Do you do fire drills at your home? I know if I wasn't required to because of my licensing I probably never would have. But, I saw first hand that it does teach the kids what to do in an emergency.

 

[katerkat]

Nope. We actually had a tornado alarm a couple weeks ago (the tornado was 12 miles away and ended up skimming to the north of us) and DH and I realized we were so not prepared. Now we've stocked the bathroom with water, flashlights and such.
But we don't have kids, so I guess my drill would be frantically running around the house trying to rescue the cats.

 

[pumba]

were young.....then when they stressed so much because of them.....we stopped until they were a bit older......they were always saying......what if what if......will we die.....then they would not sleep at all........BUT we own an apartment house and the third floor was being used by my daughter and her husband and the two grandkids and one over size rotteweiller........dd was cooking chicken chimmichungas in a large t fall pot and the grease caught on fire.....her husband put the cover on the lid and walked across the kitchen to put it on the side board....and being t fall and the no stick stuff......the fire went up the side of the pot blew the cover off and the kitchen was burned pretty good........our sil had second and third degree burns over his head and arms .........his bike racing jacket melted on his back.....he and we were very lucky.......the kids immediately ran down to our place with the rotti and screamed to call 911......they were 4 and 6 at the time......husband ran to the third floor to make sure they were no exaggerating ......the fire was out but they did the right thing......got out of the house.......my son in law came down and I could see he was still sizzling......put him in the bathroom and threw a big bath towel in the tub and got it wet and threw it on him........this is things that we do not know that we have it in us to do..but we do........get out.....do not look back........houses can be replaced but you can't.......

 

[DVC-Don]

We sit down and discuss them a couple of times a year, but have never done a drill.

 

[disykat]

We did and our kids loved it - they got to knock the screen out of a window. Unfortunately, DS #1 liked it too much and did it again. At least I know he can get out!

We haven't done it in awhile, I suppose we should do it again.

 

[debster812]

Yep! Once a month. My dad is a retired firefighter, and growing up, we ALWAYS did them. I don't actually even remember when we started, it just always WAS.

DS knows he is to get out, and meet us in the yard.

DS's daycare does fire drills often, but have also just started 'safety' drills. If an unwelcome intruder gets in and things like that.