lost campers and fire drills

[Allan72]

hey all! Do any of you guys practice lost camper drills or fire drills during the summer?

During our pre camp we are put into search teams and are assigned a search area which we learn every inch of. The waterfront go directly to their assigned areas as soon as they hear the horn while the rest of us get grouped up after we bunch the campers up and leave 2 or 3 with them. Then we grop up in front of the camp map where we find out who is missing and what they are wearing and that. Then we are dispatched to our areas we have 2 team captins who carry walkie talkies to stay in touch with the director and nurses. We search till the camper is found. We usually practice once a session even when the campers are there. We usually use 1 of the more independent campers as the "victum".

During fire drills we all move into our playing field where we are grouped into our cabins and the sr counsellor does a roll call of both campers and staff. Last year we had a real alarm and we did not know what was going on and were already on the field doing a game. so some of us staff just said contine the game while other staff just stopped dead and would not continue the game. We thought keep the campers busy until we see the rest of camp move to the field then we would get in our cabins what do you all think or been told.

[Melk]

For land searches all the campers are saposed to report to their waterfront benches unless they are all in the same place (like at the picnic tables or the lodge for snack) so roll can be taken and we can find out whos missing and all the staff report to the boat house where we get cards of places to look around camp. Then we go off and search and come back and get a new card untill the camper is found.
For water seaches the staff are trained for a certin part and when the horn is sounded everyone runs down to the waterfront and when the minimum amount of people show up for the team they start. All the campers sit on their cabin benches and face away from the water and roll is taken.
We have never practiced a fire drill since I have been at my camp but I have seen other groups that use camp do a drill and they also go sit on their cabin benches at the waterfront.
We practice land search a few times during training and one of our head counsleors will go and hide and we practice waterfront search almost every day of training and at the begining of every session (6 times).

[audur]

We have a fire/lost person/whatever drill every week, all we have to do is radio in the numbers of campers and the numbers and names of staff we have... if we don't have a radio we send a counselor running to the nearest phone or radio. After that, we just wait for the all-clear or for further instructions on the radio before continuing activities - we never practise actual searches, and in fact our camp property is so huge that I don't know how we would be able to search all of it! The waterfront staff are the only ones who're involved with the water emergency drills, so I don't know anything about that.

We also get a lovely little message from the "lady of the lake" every week... there's a dam close to camp and they do a weekly test of the equipment they'd use if it'd break. It doesn't affect us at all, except it really freaks the campers out... it's a kind of a scary old-lady voice saying "this is a test" or something like that over a really noisy sound, but her voice echoes so you can't understand what she's saying at all. But when we tell the campers that if the dam would ever ACTUALLY break, camp is the evacuation spot for all the towns close to it, they feel a bit better ;) (it actually is - we have a HUGE hill right in the middle of camp)

[Dave]

We actually don't do any of that, surprisingly. During our pre-camp sessions we're told what to do in each case, but we never act it out. We're also told what to do in other events: pool emergencies, camp lockdowns, evacuations, etc. Luckily we've never had to put any of these into action.

Last year we did have a fire drill of sorts though. During our lunch period, a younger kid (probably five years old) pulled the fire alarm. Of course, everyone thought it was for real because we never heard the alarm before. So we all got out of the cafeteria. After they gave the all-clear we went back and finished our lunch. I don't know what they did with the kid (or his/her counselors for that matter). I'm sure they got in big trouble though (the counselors).

[camper]

yeah, i agree with dave...we never really do drills that don't involve the waterfront. we do one of those during orientation. but one time we did really have somewhat of a fire emergency at camp...a wire had a short circuit or something and broke in the middle and was on fire...it was so weird and eerie...the lights went out like only in the back rooms of some of the bunks and blowdryers and stuff stopped working, it was right during showertime. since they didn't know if the fire would spread at all, they got the whole camp up to the softball field. we counted everyone and then sang some songs until the fire people came and told us that things were all clear and we could go back down to the bunks.

[June Bug]

We practice a fire/emergency drill with all the campers on the first night of each session.

We have procedures to follow for dealing with lost campers on the Waterfront and on land, but we only do drills for the Waterfront. LBDs are done once or twice a session and involve a systematic sweep of the swimming area of our mud-bottom lake by counselors. I'm sure there's a similar procedure at every camp situated on a lake. On land, the "lost" kids are almost always in their cabins, at the wrong class, or sitting in the lodge/nurse. If we've done all of our checking and double-checking, the Senior Staff will proceed from there with car searches. Because none of the regular staff is involved, we don't do drills.

[prettysocks]

We don't do drills with the kids. It would be an incredibly stressful and hectic time for a lot of the kids (seizure disorders set off by stress or confusion; confused, worried, upset kids who do and do not have mental disabilities; etc), so forcing them do practice would be cruel. The counselors practice during precamp.. sort of. We didn't do a mock or anything, but we sounded the alarm, walked around camp as the CD talked about what we'd do, etc, etc. It was informative. I'm glad we do it each year, though, because I don't remember what we'd do from last year. :D

[Pooka]

State law requires that we do a fire drill within the first forty-eight (or is it twenty-four?) hours that campers are on camp. It's hectic. We don't have walkie-talkies so we send runners down to report and to check that all the program areas are cleared out (or that all are accounted for at the horse corral), while the other counselors lead the campers to the games meadow and have a roll-call. We'll then lead the kids to a camp exit until the all-clear is blown.

We do lost camper drills twice every summer or so, but if kids are missing during fire drills, we'll launch into one. I can't remember when we actually last had a real lost camper. Usually the admin staff would lure a girl away from her unit so we could launch into a drill. It teaches the counselors to keep closer tabs on their campers, but it's still a really stressful experience.

Lost swimmers are pretty much the same, with the addition of a sweep of the lake like Jenna described. We keep careful watch on our buddy board while campers are swimming and do buddy checks every few minutes to make sure that everyone's accounted for.

The sound of air horns always makes my stomach turn!

[JBean]

A waterfront I worked for a while ago used to do surprise drills with the staff. The director would manage to get a girl out of the water without a lifeguard in the water and see how long it actually took for the lifeguards to notice during their counting and buddy-checks. It was pretty much to keep us on our toes--it can be easy to become lax on counting and re-counting campers every 30seconds when it's hot, and you're tired, and the kids are screaming, etc.etc.etc.

Then of course, we'd start the lost swimmer procedures...getting everyone out of the water, searching, etc. I've never lost a camper--but the drills were scary enough!

[clarabelle1985]

we do a lot camper drill in staff training ur ment to take u kids to dinning hall wehre voulnters will look after them every other staff is inpair with a serach area and one walkie talkie, the director is in the dinning room cordianting the search via walkie talkie. i hated the practice last year as i was in staff hosuing at bottom of hill so had to run up hill to dinnign room run back down to search area then back up to dinning room once area was lear then we had to do search of woodlands across the road in sweep. and the hill at camp is mamoth grrr.
We did water frount practice serches with diving gear every few weeks to insure we could do it.
a fire drill practice is held every week with cmapers and coucncellors meeting at cottage or graddy knoll dependant wither u are a top or bottom of hill info is communicated on walkie talkie to ensure everyone is there.

[CAMPFRIEND]

We do a fire drill with the campers on the first night of camp. We don't have a waterfront so that is not a problem!

[Sparkes]

You know...I can't remember doing a drill. Though, I did miss lots of the pre-season stuff, so its possible it was done then and I missed it? I do know that three short rings means fire, and you head to the parking lot from your activity - we did go over that

[runrachrunn]

at the day camp I worked at last year, we did do a drill - good thing too, because there were some major kinks that needed to be worked out. The fire alarm did go off in our facility a few weeks later, and we were most definetly prepared for that.

[runrachrunn]

Just to throw something else in here, my camp has told us that should there ever be a situation where we need to get off camp, we are to walk the 5 miles to the nearest firestation with the kids. all the camps in the area have a deal with a schoolbus company that should there be a need to get the kids, they will drive buses over ASAp. EXCEPT, however, if there's a fire. then we get to walk.