The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-01-26
WoMA Anr,yrv
The School Children
And Their Fire Drill. S.


Since the tragedy of the Iroquois the
atre when hundreds of persons were
crushed to death as result of a panic,
the instances where several hundred per-
sons escape from burning building with
out the loss of a single life furnish such
striking contrasts that they teach a lesson
of self control, and remarkable discipline.
Close upon the Chicago disaster comes an
account of a fire in one of the public
schools in Toronto, where six hundred
children marched out like soldiers in one
minute and q half after the fire gong
sounded, The flames were spreading with
great rapidity. The gong sounded its
alarm of three rings, but few of the pupils
had any idea that there was any real dan
ger. They fell in line and obeyed orders
as usual. They suspected the smoke was
trick to make the fire drill more effect
i've. A remarkable instance of discipline
was shown by the senior second who were
halted upon the stairs just outside their
room and waited in thick smoke for the
order of their teacher who sent the mes
sage over the metrophone. SO free from
panic were the children that the senior
first halted outside their room while the
junior third passed out from the floor
above
When the building was discovered on
fire" says the Toronto Evening Tele-
gram. the signal for the fire drill was
at once sent through the whole school;
then the value of this drill, with its
discipline, which has been taught the
children, became apparent. Every teach
err went to his or her place. Elder boys.
who had previously been instructed
what to do flew to the great doors.
throwing them open, and then. class by
class, child by child, the whole of the
living occupants of that building, more
than five hundred in number passed
into the open air-unharmed, unhurt. The
excellent discipline displayed by the
scholars was equal to that of crack
army corps This occurrence empha-
sizes the Importance of the fire drills.
With the exception of the children and
their mothers, II is probably not known
that the teachers in the public schools
of Birmingham have fire drills regular
ly. In case of actual fire the children
mere WOulu De put 10 the same test -
We're those in the Toronto school. 1t
is almost impossible to appreciate the
fine control the teachers have over
their pupils without having been present
at a fire drill. Take the Powell school,
for instance, of which Miss Catalan. is
principal The regular drills in this
school could not be finer examples of
thorough discipline. Within a minute
and a half after the alarm of the
gong the building has been emptied OF
its six or seven hundred children.
1t is perfectly natural that mothers
should be almost constantly in dread of
fires and where hundreds of children
are shut up in a large building the alb
sence of panic in case of danger is
most remarkable.
II established a fire drill nearly twenty
seven years ago. said Inspector Hughes
in recent interview, Gin consequence of
terrible panic in school fire at st.
Louis, where number of children were
the fire drill enables the scholars to
leave a building in a very brief time, the
fundamental principle of the fire drill is
not speed, but the avoidance of panic.
We have not a school in Toronto in
which a fire could occur either by ac-
cident or be deliberately started, in
which every person in the building could
not leave in absolute safety before the
fire obtained headway."