Fire drills with under 2's?

[lisbet]

All but 1 of my mindees are currently well under 2yrs old. I currently practice fire drills by setting my alarm clock to go off, rather than pressing the smoke alarm test button. A colleague pointed out that it is good to get children used to the sound of the smoke alarm and what it means, but I am not sure these very young children will be able to do that yet? I think it may just upset them unnecessarily as a few of them are very sensitive to noise.

My current evacuation plan with these children does not rely on them walking calmly outside - it involves quickly putting 2 children in the pushchair (no straps, but bumper bar) and scooping up the 3rd, then pushing them quickly out of the door a few feet away.

I would welcome advice and voices of experience on this, thanks :)

[tulip0803]

I have always used the smoke detectors to signal a drill whatever the age of the children. It is good to get them used to the noise and what it signals as if there is a fire they will suddenly get this very loud, non-stop, noise which could startle them and cause them to panic and then you would be trying leaving the house with possible 3 hysterical children moving in opposite directions.

Also what happens if the fire means you are unable to leave by the door that you use at present? You cannot predict where a fire will be and which door you will be able to access. I alternate back door and front door evacuation. Back door is more difficult for me as I have a flight of slate steps to negotiate outside the back door so I cannot take a buggy let alone a double down it so I have to be sure that I can get out that way too.

During an OFSTED inspection the inspector asked about fire drills and a 3 year old piped up "If the fire is in the kitchen we go out the front door. If the fire is in the front we go out the back door. If the fire is at the front and back door we go out the window. We dial 999 and ask for the fireman." - just like to point out we never tried a window evacuation:laughing:

[Bluebell]

tulip - well done for your child piping up about your evacuation procedures! Hope you got brownie points!

I too sound the smoke alarm - I warn them and say its a practice and it might be a bit loud. had a couple that put their hands over their ears but they don't get distressed, well not had any yet.

[tulip0803]

tulip - well done for your child piping up about your evacuation procedures! Hope you got brownie points!
.

She said well there was no need to ask for more evidence after that:D

[lisbet]

Thanks for the advice tulip0803 and Bluebell :)

I can push the buggy to the front or back door quickly, and the room children sleep in upstairs is the one we evacuate to if other exits are blocked, and the actual manoeuvering them out from either exit seems to work fine.

I will start using the smoke alarm - I think it is going to terrify at least 3 of them :( and take a long time before they understand a warning about the noise, and that nothing bad happens as a result of the noise, but I can see the wisdom in making conditions as close as possible to the real situation.

Hopefully when they are 3 they will know the drill as well as your little boy, tulip0803! :thumbsup:

[clairer]

I specifically use the actual smoke alarm as they can then relate the noise of the alarm, to the actual process of evacuation, and would be calm hopefully in the actual event.

[lilac_dragon]

I use a hand held battery fire alarm for practises as although loud it's not as loud as our main linked in one. I use the test button which goes 5 times then stops. The first time I did it we talked about it beforehand and that it was VERY noisy, and I told the little ones to put their hands over their ears. We did it a few times that way and then moved on to the main ones and never had a problem. I don't use it when the babies are here though, don't want to hurt their ears or scare them to bits. If there was a real fire they'd have no choice, I realise that, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
We can leave the main room by 3 different doors and the craft room by 3 doors so lots of alternatives.

[sing-low]

Hmm, think I need to practice sounding our very loud fire alarm with just my two year old so she knows what to do whilst not scaring the babies (or damaging their ears).

[lisbet]

Lilac Dragon - I like the idea of using a battery smoke alarm, thanks :thumbsup: Our mains one is really loud and will scare them to bits without them understanding why (all 18mths or younger), so this may be a good compromise :thumbsup:

Hmm, wonder if I should ask parents to practise at home too, to help them get used to the noise???

[Glitter]

At the moment I only have one 18 month old during term time so I have only done a very simple fire drill.

I picked the child up and carried him out of the house, just as I would in a real fire. There didn't seem much point in setting off the fire alarm for me and one child. Ofsted said this was fine.

If the smoke alarm goes off while my children are at home they ignore it as they think it is just me burning food again!

[bunyip]

I have always used the smoke detectors to signal a drill whatever the age of the children. It is good to get them used to the noise and what it signals as if there is a fire they will suddenly get this very loud, non-stop, noise which could startle them and cause them to panic and then you would be trying leaving the house with possible 3 hysterical children moving in opposite directions.

Also what happens if the fire means you are unable to leave by the door that you use at present? You cannot predict where a fire will be and which door you will be able to access. I alternate back door and front door evacuation. Back door is more difficult for me as I have a flight of slate steps to negotiate outside the back door so I cannot take a buggy let alone a double down it so I have to be sure that I can get out that way too.

During an OFSTED inspection the inspector asked about fire drills and a 3 year old piped up "If the fire is in the kitchen we go out the front door. If the fire is in the front we go out the back door. If the fire is at the front and back door we go out the window. We dial 999 and ask for the fireman." - just like to point out we never tried a window evacuation:laughing:

I agree.

We all need to have 2ndary routes built into our fire plans. Be aware that you may have mere seconds in an emergency. Also, the big killer is smoke, not fire - and that smoke may already be at the height of a child sitting in a pushchair by the time you're putting them into that pushchair.

Does your local fire & rescue sevice still do home visits? Or is it at least possible to get an appointment where you can take your fire plan into the station with a few relevant photos of the house interior, pushchair, doorways, etc. and ask an officer to review it?

It's always going to be a problem with very young children. I do think this should be the first consideration and not an afterthought when any CM takes on another child. It really does scare me, especially when a woman in my CM group did herself a variation for an extra lo. Her fire plan was to grab 2 lo's, run outside and pop them on the pavement, then run back in for the other 2. :panic: She simply didn't understand how wrong this is on so many levels. I was even less impressed with her glib response of, "well it won't happen, will it?" :mad:

I don't know the OP's unique situation/setting, so please don't take this as criticism.

[lisbet]

I agree.

We all need to have 2ndary routes built into our fire plans. Be aware that you may have mere seconds in an emergency. Also, the big killer is smoke, not fire - and that smoke may already be at the height of a child sitting in a pushchair by the time you're putting them into that pushchair.

Does your local fire & rescue sevice still do home visits? Or is it at least possible to get an appointment where you can take your fire plan into the station with a few relevant photos of the house interior, pushchair, doorways, etc. and ask an officer to review it?

It's always going to be a problem with very young children. I do think this should be the first consideration and not an afterthought when any CM takes on another child. It really does scare me, especially when a woman in my CM group did herself a variation for an extra lo. Her fire plan was to grab 2 lo's, run outside and pop them on the pavement, then run back in for the other 2. :panic: She simply didn't understand how wrong this is on so many levels. I was even less impressed with her glib response of, "well it won't happen, will it?" :mad:

I don't know the OP's unique situation/setting, so please don't take this as criticism.

No worries, Bunyip - I posted looking for advice/ constructive criticism from more experienced CMs :)

Yes, the fire safety officer and 2 Ofsted inspectors have said my evacuation plan is fine. It's hard to explain without attaching a floor plan, but it's quite an evacuation friendly layout. I have 4 routes of escape that I practise and getting the children out goes fine. (Not that we've actually gone out of the upstairs window! I do have a plan for how we would do it if no fire engine turned up, though.)

It's whether to use the proper alarm sound or not that's been niggling at me.

I didn't plan to have 3 under 2 either, but that's how it ended up and I did consider it carefully from all angles before taking them on. I kept to 2 for several months until they were a bit older, and I only have them all together for part of the day. No schoolies either.