On a warm November afternoon recently I heard a kindergartener, who attends Northeast Academy, tell his father that they had another fire drill that day at school. My first thought was that the principal was smart; fire drills are much more pleasant on warm days than when it’s cold.

The current standard in Groton is to hold seven fire drills and three lockdown drills each year. Every teacher reviews fire drill procedures on the first day of school.

Especially on the secondary level, it is a good idea to hold drills at different times so that students would be familiar with escape routes from various classrooms.

When I was a student at Mystic Academy in the 1950s, we didn’t have lockdown drills but we did have air raid drills. During those, we would all go out into the hallway between the classrooms, kneel down and put our arms over our heads. This, of course, would protect us from Russian bombs!

During fire drills at Mystic Academy, everyone would evacuate using the metal fire escapes on the sides of the building. I still remember the noise!

As a sixth grader in Mr. Franzone’s room, I was assigned to check the other three classrooms on the second floor of the school before following everyone else down the steps. I suspect that such a protocol would no longer be acceptable in Groton.

Years later, as a teacher, the fire drill that I remember best wasn’t a planned drill at all. As I have written before, when work on the boiler at Cutler Jr. High sent a burst of soot into the air, the smoke detector set off the fire alarm and trucks began to roll. That’s when we learned that in Cutler’s kitchen, where George Sneider and I were enjoying some fresh corn muffins, the fire alarm wasn’t audible. I didn’t know the alarm had gone off until another teacher informed me of it, while I was trying to stuff rags under the interior door of the boiler room to keep the soot out of the hallway.

Later in my career, on a nice spring day, I suggested to Mr. Scott, the principal of Fitch Junior High, that it would be a nice day for a fire drill. Apparently he agreed since that afternoon the alarm sounded.

Unfortunately, fire drills don’t always happen on pleasant days. I remember one drill at Fitch Junior when it was really cold. One student was shivering, so I took off my tweed sports jacket and put it over her shoulders. Within seconds two other girls had joined her with the coat draped over them. On another occasion I had a few frozen kids sit in my car until we were recalled.

During one drill when we were standing near the cafeteria exits, a girl came to me in obvious distress telling me she really had to go to the bathroom. Obviously she couldn’t go back into the building. I told her to go into the Town Hall and go downstairs and she’d find a ladies room.

At one time my classroom was on the second floor of Fitch Middle, near the elevator. During my prep period I was standing in the hallway talking with Bob Dawson, our head custodian, when the elevator doors opened and two sixth graders on crutches emerged. A second later the fire alarm sounded. I looked at Bob and he looked at me and we realized that these kids couldn’t get back into the elevator. So we each picked up a child and got them safely out of the building.

One of the absolute rules in a fire drill or lockdown is to take attendance. That’s one of the reasons why I always kept a written grade/attendance book. Today classrooms have an emergency plan in a holder near the door that can be grabbed as the class evacuates and various people are assigned walkie-talkies to report in to the principal.

One thing I never did understand about fire drills was why, when I was in a portable classroom, I had to take my class outside. It seems to me that these structures that are not attached to the main building would be a good refuge for other kids during inclement weather.

When I mentioned this to my principal at the time, his response was that it is possible that the portable was on fire. I suggested that if the building I was in were burning, I’d probably be aware of it. I even said that maybe the local fire marshal would be willing to come over and give me directions on how to determine if my classroom was on fire.

Needless to say, the policy did not change.

Three years ago when volunteering in the library at S.B. Butler Elementary School, the fire alarm went off. The librarian led the children out, and I followed. The kids knew exactly what to do, and they were quiet and well behaved, and I didn’t have to take attendance!

Robert F. Welt of Mystic is a retired Groton Public Schools teacher.