I don’t know about you, but I hated the fire alarms and fire drills when I was a kid. These days, the alarms are even louder and more grating. We weren’t going to get Sam through elementary school if he didn’t trust the adults to give him some hint of when the next fire drill would be.

Still, we wrote a social story to help him out. Below is another social story that Sam smiled when re-reading and remembering.

When Paige learned the topic, she told Sam that fire alarms in a college dorm in the middle of winter night in Iowa — because there was really a fire — are more hair-raising than the practice ones when we were all little kids. I agree. We got sent out into the snowbanks at 2 a.m. one January night in Rochester when I was in grad school. Not only scary, but widow-maker cold.

When the Fire Alarm Goes Off

Sometimes as I sit in a class I hear a buzzing alarm go off. The alarm means we are having a fire drill. 

A fire drill gives students a chance to practice for a real fire. Usually there is not really a fire. 

My teacher waits for me to line up with my class at the door. I walk quietly down the hall with my class. 

I walk outside and wait until my teacher says that we can go back inside. 

The fire drill is over when my teacher leads us back inside.