Israel is not really a good yardstick for anything, though:<p>Fire&#x2F;bomb&#x2F;attack drills are practiced by children starting at first grade, and go all the way through school. Most 18 year olds go into the army, and get (at least) basic training in weapons, hand to hand combat, first aid, &quot;operating and taking orders under stress&quot; -- both boys and girls. The entire country conducts a large scale drill of some sort approximately once a year.<p>It&#x27;s very hard to tell if any of them is useful or useless, if they stand alone or only together, and essentially how effective they are.<p>I don&#x27;t know what you regard as &quot;our societies&quot;, but when I was working in the city of london, there was a fire drill every month (and one month, every wednesday - I don&#x27;t remember why). I couldn&#x27;t find anyone who knew the history, but the prevailing thought among the people I inquired with was that this goes back either to world war 2 or the great fire of london (1666).