This is a big reason I got into prepping (is that good PC phrasing for the S word?...) in the first place: society won't just "collapse" because of economic troubles, but it may become extremely vulnerable to disruption. Where as now Chinese paratroopers can be on the scene within six seconds of an earthquake, things may be different if the planes are grounded...

Interestingly, I have never seen fire extinguishers in local malls or hardware stores. Am I just looking in the wrong place?

I have a friend who just got voted out as president of her HOA because of lies spread by the person who wanted the job. I forwarded this rant to her, I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

I forgot to mention that there are serious problems, not just with national fire protection coverage, but with the nation's disaster response system, as well.

Not to be political, but the current administration has done a pretty good job of trashing the nations ability to respond catastrophic emergencies. This started with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the massive bureaucratic reshuffling that entailed. Add funding problems, inexperienced and unqualified political appointees, privatization of key functions to wholly inept contractors, etc, and you end up with an entirely different sort of disaster.

The component I'm most familiar with, the National Disaster Medical System, actually had to be moved back out from under DHS and back to DHHS by Congressional mandate, but now the administration is not releasing Congressionally mandated funds where they are supposed to.

The teams that actually put the medically qualified boots on the ground can't get needed funds and supplies. For example, applications for the teams from critically needed specialists were left to linger for years without action, team administrators had to choose between working without pay or letting critical planning and preparation work go undone, and now, the teams' individual medical and equipment caches, which are essential to their function, are being taken away from the teams, where the teams could train, maintain and immediately deploy with them, and "regionalized" into the hands of remote, clueless regional contractors, with the dubious promise that they will magically re-appear in good order when and where needed in a disaster.

I'm told that the pharmacists who received such a contractor-"maintained" pharmacy cache for the CA wildfires found it completely useless, disorganized, full of outdated drugs, etc.

One Congress-critter was so upset by this that he got the FEDGOV to rescend the regionalization of his local team's cache. My own team is sorta writing off the FEDGOV until such time as they come to their senses, and we are increasingly working with the state, which recognizes the developing gap and in preparedness and is really stepping up to fill it.

Technically, we are under a sort of "gag rule" about any problems, but screw 'em. I work for the taxpayers and citizens, not the politicians and bureaucrats. They can fire me if they want to. They've really hurt what was once a darn good, effective, cost-efficient, volunteer-based system, and the widespread opinions of the experts in the know is that Americans will die as a result.

I'm mad as hell, and I think every American should be, too.

See: http://www.nadmat.org/index.cfm/m/3/dn/Letters%20and%20Presentations/ if you'd like to learn more.


Jeff

I'll just say +10 to what Jeff just posted on this. Unless you're in it, you can't begin to imagine how much the bureaucrats have mucked things up. I have long been aware that if I actually followed all of the regulations that are imposed on us by DHS, NFPA, OSHA, NIOSH and the rest we would not be able to respond to a call, but we'd have a really nice powerpoint slide show and a 25 page report on why we didn't show up for the call.

Yep. Home Depot and Lowes have them, often near the tool crib, sometimes in the paint aisle.

Ace & True Value stores sell them too.

Remember: Never, ever ever put the kitchen extinguisher over/near the stove, that's the last place you'll want to reach if there's a fire there! Don't put it under the sink, you won't be able to get to it.
Mount it to the wall, in plain sight, away from the stove. If you have a spousal approval issue, look at these models that come in white:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=pr...&lpage=none

or this one (you can get at Home Depot)
http://www.homehero.net/fireExtinguisher.html

When I lived in a community with a HOA, I can't count how many times some house frau on the HOA board (or the male equivalent) typed up an "Official Warning" or "Official Citation" to put on a door in the neighborhood for one insane reason or another. I had a big red citation taped to my door because a trash can blew into my yard during a winter storm. The note cited "Improper Storage of Garbage Containers". It had happened that day, it wasn't my garbage can, and I hadn't made it home from work yet to do something about it.

Back to the original topic though...

I don't have more than one job now, but I've had to take on more work and more hours to make ends meet, so it's similar to what many of you are experiencing. I can't imagine trying to juggle this with a voluntary position at a Fire Department. My thanks go out to anyone who can manage it.

I fear that there are a lot of troubles that will sneak up behind us and catch us by surprise because of the current economy. Thanks for highlighting this one. It's information worth thinking about.

I'm from Israel...

And I'd kill for a spousal approval issue.

Consider just a shift in tactics - your local Fire Dept may already collect expiring extinguishers from the public and generally needs to dispose of them, talk to your CERT organizer about asking the local fire station to have an open session and *invite* the HOA members (and other members of the puplic) to participate. That way its not under the auspices of the HOA and you probably get a similar turnout.

Our CERT class had a session on fire suppression where we used ~20 of these extinguishers to put out the gas / grease fire Martin suggests. It was conducted at the station, in a clear area, under FD supervision - very easy and made an impression on everyone. We had some good extinguishers and some bad ones, ones that misfired from age, we had to learn to step back and continue suppression with another extinguisher. I had never handled a fire extinguisher to put out an actual fire, I went home and duplicated the experience for my wife and kids in the backyard. I look forward to rotating out one of my extinguishers so we can practice some more, but I wager your Fire Dept would be pretty eager to give folks some hands on practice.

Sounds like Bucks County PA needs to look at figuring out a way to pay for firefighters and EMS to me. Volunteers are a great idea but all tax payers deserve a professionally trained fire and EMS service that are paid a reasonable wage for risking their lives to save others and their property.

Any county/state that doesn't provide such services should be hounded until they do.
If this country can send tens of thousands of soldiers to foreign lands to provide better living conditions,spending upwards of a trillion dollars, we can certainly afford to provide decent fire protection here at home.

In my humble opinion.

John E

And this story just out from the AP on this very topic.

Wow, I didn't realize that three-quarters of the country's fire fighters and rescue people are volunteers!