I, personally, think fire drills (as opposed to facility testing to make sure the equipment works) for classes or labs has some significant challenges that make them not very practical. Yes, practice makes perfect but the multitude of buildings, class times, locations, etc. just doesn't work very well because each scenario is different. Even in our research building (plus three teaching labs and two large lecture halls) with our Department potentially spread over 6 floors (of a 9 story building), with a dozen exits (two of which dump into adjacent buildings), and faculty, staff and graduate students with flexible schedules, establishing a meeting place and knowing who is, and who isn't, in the building is a huge challenge. And, unfortunately, I find people quit taking a real alarm seriously if they think it "is just a drill."
My preference is to address it the first day of class placing it at the importance level of syllabus, grading scales, how to contact the Dean of Students, etc. At that point you have everyone's attention and can discuss the location of the nearest and alternate exits, where to gather (since I don't take daily attendance and only do a rough count of how many students I have in class, I'm dependent on them remembering their adjacent seat mates), and if there are stairs (many of our teaching labs are on the 11th floor of the tallest building on campus), reminding students who might not be able to traverse them to contact me after class to privately discuss shelter in place options.
At the laboratory level, we've formalized this by including evacuation procedures in our "safety" video (it also addresses wearing PPE, "Stop, Drop and Roll," eye wash and safety shower use and when to call 9-1-1.).
That said, the last two years I have done a roll playing scenario with in one of my lectures:
They are in the current classroom, however it is night time and cloudy. The lights go out, and the backup lights don't come on. Then the fire alarm goes off. The instructor says "Okay everyone lets...." he stops talking and there is a thump. I then tell everyone to close their eyes and ask them "what do you do."
Both years, students began feeling their way out of the room (now they know why backpacks in the walkway can be a problem). This year a few students quickly took out their cell phones and put on their flashlight app (I think they thought about it last year, but thought it would be "cheating" my scenario). In both years nobody bothered to check on the poor unconscious instructor...
Jeff
