fire drill

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An exercise in the use of firefighting equipment or the evacuation of a building in case of a fire.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A primitive instrument used in producing fire by friction, consisting of a pointed stick pressed into a hole in a piece of dry wood and rapidly twirled between the hands: later the twirling was done by means of a thong or bow.
• noun The exercises and training given to a company of firemen, the crew of a ship, etc., to accustom them to the duties proper to each in case of fire, or the disciplinary drill given to school-children in school to insure calmness among them, and prevention of panic, in case of fire occurring in the school-buildiugs.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun An organised practice to prepare occupants of an office, school or other public building for evacuation in the event of a fire.
• noun idiomatic any pointless, unproductive, useless, or chaotic activity (sometimes Chinese fire drill, but this usage is becoming outmoded in an age of political correctness)
• noun idiomatic any chaotic, unexpected activity. (With the dropping of Chinese the phrase has also often lost its pejorative meaning of pointless and unproductive. In this way, fire drill is often used in the same idiomatic way putting out fires or fire fighting is used.)
• noun A rod which is rotated on a flat surface like a drill until it is hot enough to start a fire.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an exercise intended to train people in duties and escape procedures to be followed in case of fire