Fire Alarm

Today during sharing time something completely unexpected happened… The fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the building! The kids were terrified, the noise and lights scared them half to death. Luckily, there was a long pink ribbon on the table that I was sitting at. I remembered our walk that we had gone on last week, where everyone was required to hold onto the string and not let go, and I thought this would be the best way to keep track of all 7 kids. One was so scared that I had to carry her outside, but with the presidency able to lead and follow the line of children, we were able to safely get everyone outside in a surprisingly short amount of time. Several parents stopped in the Primary room on the way outside and picked up kid’s coats (since it is winter time here, it was in the 20’s) and met us outside and tended to the kids that were upset while we kept counting and recounting all the kids to make sure we didn’t lose any. Thankfully, it was a false alarm and we were able to go back inside within 10 minutes of the evacuation. There was no way we could have prepared the children for the loud noise and lights that come with a fire alarm, but I was so glad that just last week we had gone on that walk with the string around the building. They had something familiar during a time of distress that helped them cope and not freeze up in the craziness, which also helped us get them out of the building in an orderly fashion. I think we will be doing fire drills in the future every couple of months or so to make sure that we are all prepared for that type of evacuation again.