As a member of the local fire & rescue company in a rural part of PA, I get the benefit of unlimited free training from the county for fun & knowledge, and just enough real emergency situations to keep it all interesting. We do lots of emergency planning and training, and of course, I respond to as many calls as I can.

Along the way, I've had time to acquire the firehouse nickname "Gadget" because of all the stuff I have in my jeep and on my person- like a GPS, several flashlights, rope and more. You folks here know what I mean.

As much as I take a ribbing about all the gadgets and stuff I have, I've used all of them at one time or another either on the scene or on the go with family and friends.

But on the scene - a fire, a vehicle extrication, whatever - there's some principles that I've applied to my own "preparedness" kits.


1. Carry a few tools that do many jobs well.

In my right pocket of my turnout gear is an ordinary utility knife from Sears and a pair of 8" diagonal cutters. In my hands is either an Ax or a Halligan Tool. That's it. You can't imagine how much you can do with just a Halligan tool, but it's a striking tool, prying tool, forcible entry tool…and more.
This carries over to my personal kits, and I've found that I had too much specialty gear in my emergency kits - stuff like cups, where a zip-lock bag will do the same job and more. In some cases, like with cooking gear - I dispensed with almost half the stuff I had in the kit. Plates? Who need's 'em when you have a cook pot to eat from? A few forks and it's "family style" dinner!

2. Don't get into a situation in the first place.

Yesterday, we had a truck crash that was really bad - a 14' truck slid off the road, struck a rock, spun back onto the road, tipped over, spun some more and then slammed into a utility pole and dumped its load of 160 gallons of liquid oxygen. The driver walked out - he was wearing a seatbelt. An extrication we did earlier this year with a car into a tree injured the driver so badly that I could not find his FACE - just a mass of bloody flesh, hair, teeth and other gore. Yet, his car was less damaged than the truck yesterday - and was going slower for sure.
We also have gone to fires that started out so small - a pan on the stove on fire, a chimney fire - yet they exploded into a huge, destructive fire for want of a $20 fire extinguisher. Each vehicle I own has a fire extinguisher, as does my kitchen, workshop, basement office and shed. I have actually used my extinguisher to douse a fire in my shed caused by a welding spark that "couldn’t" have flown all the way to the shed.
In terms of my personal preparedness, well, that's the whole idea behind this forum. Avoiding being in bad situations by letting people know where you're going, having appropriate equipment for your environment and so on.

3. You'll never make it alone.
While this is not a "survivalist" site in the terms of apocalyptic end of times collapse of society types of folks, admittedly, we're all a little concerned with What To Do When It All Gets Crazy. Indeed, much of our preparedness seems to stem from a desire to protect ourselves and our families from harm - in some cases, even if that means NOT helping someone else.
But I can assure you that in real emergencies, it's no time to be selfish. It would be deeply insane for anyone from my fire company to go into a burning building alone. In the same way it would deeply insane of you to have a "Go Bag" without a plan of where you are going to GO. Who's on the other end of your trip? The Interstate? A hotel?
Coordination, communication, preplans. We have a paper mill that closed down here this year. All of the local fire departments got together and did a "walk through" in case it ever goes up. We're making a plan we might never have to use.
I have a friend with a vacation house 150 miles north of here. I have a key to his house in my emergency kits. He has a key to MY house in his kits. We have plans we might neve have to use.
That's just my 2/100's of a dollar.