Overview
Fire exit drills are extremely important in educational facilities. Drills ensure that all persons in the building participate and an emphasis should be placed upon orderly evacuation under proper discipline rather than speed. Fire drills are conducted in all public, private, and parochial schools.
The Fire Department has established an excellent rapport with the City of Elgin school systems which benefits all parties. Mutual cooperation between the Elgin schools and the Fire department resulted in coordinated fire drills and improved safety and welfare for administrators, teachers, and students.
Exit Drill Form
An exit drill form is completed after every school drill, which is used to measure performance. Results such as exiting time, degree of orderly exiting, number of fire doors and windows left open, and proper use of exits, are recorded and utilized to evaluate and improve future emergency exiting responses.
Scheduling a Fire Drill
A letter is e-mailed to the school principal at the beginning of the school year requesting the following information:
- Dates between September 10th and November 9th that are not available for conducting a witnessed fire drill at the school.
- Starting and ending time for the school.
- Lunch period times.
- Any other conflicting times.
The letter also includes detailed information regarding the procedures for conducting the fire drill.
The information is to be e-mailed to elginfire@cityofelgin.org no later than August 31st
A Fire Prevention Bureau personnel along with a fire company will show up unannounced on any of the available dates to conduct the drill.