fire drill

An organized practice to prepare occupants of an office, school or other public building for evacuation in the event of a fire.

“Our teacher said that will have a fire drill today.”

Any pointless, unproductive, useless, or chaotic activity.

“Since they've changed the standards again, our previous efforts now just amount to a fire drill.”

A fire-starting tool consisting of a wooden rod and some primitive means of rapidly rotating the rod on a flat surface like a drill until tinder can be ignited.