Preparing for fires and emergencies

What can you do to protect yourself from a fire at home, in hotels and rental accommodation and when travelling or holidaying?

At home have documents in a fireproof safe. Place documents in it! If you need documents with you, place copies in the safe so you have vital insurance policy numbers and phone numbers, house deeds showing ownership for making claims from insurance or government or gofundme for rebuilding.

The Japanese have had emergency bags by the door for years. My friend who went to live in Japan was warned to keep one by the front door.

Americans use the term 'bug out bag'. 

Why might you need it?

1 riots 

and 

2 WW3   

prepping with radiation suits and Geiger counters, 

3 Power cuts

keep a spare gas can for the camping stove  (others say keep all flammable items well away from the house, in a shed more than 30 feet away)

major power outages from storm damage can  leave you without power for a week, 

What You Can Do To Pepare

Especially in a vulnerable location every person in the house can have a small rucksack (backpack) with

 a full change of clothes 

Hooded souwester or folding raincoat and/or folding umbrella (for rain, sun, privacy as a toilet)

500ml bottled water, for drinking, another for washing

soap/shower gel/shampoo

pack of oats for breakfast - just add water later

hand towel, 

a large tin mug, 

face cloth, 

packet of pocket tissues, 

a toilet roll, 

MRE style food packs for 48 hours or tinned sardines, beans, 

frozen bread, bagels on strings around your neck, 

chocolate bars in pocket (like hiders in the UK have Kendal mint cake, basically chocolate covered sugar) and 

a small med kit, containing 

sting relief, 

bandage, 

insect repellent, 

plasters

burn relief 

Plastic ice brick

Folding, lightweight insulated food container

water filter

instant coffee sachets

travel toothbrush and paste 

soap/shampoo

wet wipes/kitchen roll

an apple and an orange and a banana or bunch of grapes to share

non flammable clothes

If you are a famula one driver/family/organizer distribute fireproof suits to homes from storage untis

if you are evacuated from your house with a few hundred others, finding shelter could be hard, take a tent. 

Shelter may be provided. However,  mobilising the Emergency Services to bring food and water can take time and you'll be glad to have your own supplies

In a tsunami you run uphill to escape rising seawater.

I was surprised to learn that in a fire you run downhill. Why/ Because heat rises. 

Useful Websites

Check out fireproof suitcases and clothes and equipment, also escape ladders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_7010

Please share links to your favourite posts.

We Coped With Flooding, Now Be Prepared - For Snow - Problems and Solutions from cars to clothes and food

Flooding
Last time when we had flooding, in 1984, in the Harrow area, public-spirited people were in Hatch End main street, called The Broadway, with their 4 by 4s, towing cars which were stuck in the floods. We have lots of cars and trucks and people stuck doing nothing who would be only too glad to help.

Commentators say Torbay and Exeter are fully gritted and lack of snow clearing in London, England, and elsewhere is due to mismanagement.

So, for snow preparedness, we need these actions:
1 Volunteer co-ordination.

2 Sponsored grit.

3 Cheap devices to buy or hire to attach to vehicles which would otherwise be stuck.

4 Not everybody can rush out and buy and fit grips to boots and winter tyres. We need systems on cars which deploy automatically to suit snow or clear snow.

5 We need shoes with two modes, or winter attachments, so you buy the boots or shoes with a removable snow and ice weather undersole.

6 When will somebody invent a cheap device which anybody can fit on cars and vans and trucks so that the big companies like Tesco with large vehicle can do their part in clearing roads in front of them.

7 All car drivers should be able to buy or hire snow clearing shovels which can clear snow off as they drive down their own front drive and the side roads so the first light sprinkling of snow doesn't set to ice. No good clearing the M4 if I can't even walk from my front door to the road and down the road to the shops, nor or drive down the road to Tesco.

What do other countries do/ Canada, for example? What do ski resorts do?

What can you do?

1 Salt / suitable grit on your doorstep and the path and that of elderly neighbours. (Order online.)

2 Check your shoes and boots for waterproof and gripping underneath. (Or Order online.)

3 Get home delivery of food.
In the UK home delivery from:
Amazon (if you already have Amazon Prime.)
Morrisons
Ocado - £20 off first shop (over £80), and free delivery.
Tesco
https://www.ocado.com/content/20-off-your-first-shop-

4 Plan car-pooling.
Put blankets in car. Plus a pillow or neck pillow.
Fully charge phones.
Take phone charger which attaches to car to keep mobile phones fully charged.

Food
Pack thermos of hot drink or soup.
Pack a cheese or vegetarian sandwich.
Wear warm clothes in case you are stuck in car.

Information
Tell family where and when you are going.
Entertainment
Take music, book or entertainment, for sitting in a traffic jam, or waiting for yourself or another in hospital.
Clothes
Wear warm clothes in case you are called outside to help somebody else, or to move a fallen tree or branch in your drive, or across the road in front of your car.

5 Meetings And Events - Plan B
Arrange for somebody nearby to leave notice on door of meeting if it is cancelled.
Move meeting to a pub which has a supply of food and drink in case you get snowed in.
Arrange at which time events will be cancelled so people further away don't set off an hour early to find that the event is cancelled half an hour before it was due to start.
Arrange backup meetings - two people living nearby can meet each other at one person's house, so the one with the big vehicle travels less far and the one with the least equipped vehicle does not have to travel at all.
In case the heating fails, organisers might carry in their cars spare small fan heaters.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.