A couple more suggestions :

1 - Make friends
You have 2 more people working with you . Make sure you are very good friends, so in a survival situation you all will be caring for each other. A SHTF situation is very bad in itself, and if someone picks that time to vent his/her frustration on something you did 5 years ago ( believe me this can happen) then you are facing a more complicated survival situation.

So, make sure your relation with the other co-workers is polished and sweetend as much as you can.
Even if the problem is between the two of them , try to fix it if possible.

2 - Mentally re-engineer the stuff in the office :

Play a game of (what if), and draw possible scenarios of how to use this or that item in the office for what purpose.

For example, If really SHTF and I really need some fire in our building, I will pull one of the file drawers ( metal ) and use it as a fire pit. Fire is not allowed, but if I wanted to be seen, nothing like black smoke in a tall building to attract attention.

Last few weeks, management decided to retire a few old instruments. They were housed in sturdy weatherproof boxes. I just couldn't resist "re-engineering' some of them. I opened up one of the boxes and removed the guts ( the instrument ) which was attached by 4 screws. The sturdy box is now my (office bug-in tool box).

I have also "re-engineered" a tray-like piece of metal (from another instrument). It is a great base for candles in any blackout.

Pick up any office item and think of whatever it can be used for in a survival situation. That will greatly expand the "kit" you are having for bug-in.

Good luck

Thanks guys! GREAT food for thought - one of the reasons I love this forum!!

Try this instead of Sterno.

Oh, this is so embarrassing! I thought I knew all the homemade stoves, and I found a new one!

I don't know how I missed it. And it's so simple... it makes a soda can stove look like brain surgery. One version is even at Zen Stoves, but this one has a handy screen that keeps the contents from spilling.

Grab the rectangular Altoids tin you aren't using for your EDC anymore.

Get some perlite (expanded white volcanic stone -- from garden centers) and a piece of aluminum window screening (not vinyl).

Set the open Altoids tin upside down on the screen as a template and mark around the edge with a marker. Cut it out, and trim the corners a bit. Form another piece of the aluminum screening into a temporary cone sieve and put a handful of perlite in it, shake a bit and discard all the perlite that falls through the holes (it's too small). Put the larger stuff into the bottom of the tin. Repeat if you need to, to fill the tin. Lay your cut screening over the perlite and tuck the edges under the rolled rim of the tin.

Add denatured alcohol to the perlite and light it.

BE AWARE that burning alcohol is practically impossible to see in daylight. Let it burn out and cool completely before you close the lid. Wave your hand over it to make sure the flame is out.

Be sure to set the stove on something that is heatproof, and you'll need something fireproof to raise your food/drink container above the flame, like some regular bricks or a circle of hardware cloth. And you'll need a windscreen if you're using it outdoors.

You can use any alcohol, but as HikinJim says in his stove blog, if you use Kleen-Strip® Green™ Denatured Alcohol, it will burn hotter than things like Sterno, rubbing alcohol and Heet, so you can actually boil water. Alcohol also produces less carbon monoxide, so it's safer to use indoors (still, use some common sense).

The Kleen-Strip website and MSDS

Sue

Thanks Sue! This sounds like a great project. I'll dedinitely give it a try!

Seems to me there are two primary winter storm stranded-at-work scenarios: 1) power on; 2) power out (any nearby emergency shelters in this scenario?)

Most of what I'd want to have at work, I already have in my car (Honda Element), including:

two closed-cell sleeping pads
fleece sleeping bag liner
Jet Boil + cooking set
Kelly Kettle (yes, I carry a lot - always, I'm a camper)
9-hour candles + collapsible UCO candle lantern
long underwear + fleece hats + fleece neck gaiter + ski gloves + ski socks
chemical hand and foot warmers (I buy by the case from Costco)

Is your vehicle well-stocked?

I'd be more worried about being stranded on the road than at the office. And everything in your car can be used at the office, unless you don't drive to work.

Here's what I'd suggest having in the office 24/7 for winter (to be augmented in a shelter-in situation by the stuff in the car):

electric hot water pot (a microwave works but these pots are cheap and easy)
bowl, plate, spoon, mug
Lipton Cup-o-Noodles and some freeze-dried meals (breakfast and dinner)
Mo-Jo energy bars
Cocoa, tea bags, sugar
a good, big book - or two or three
0-degree sleeping bag + pillow
down booties
chemical hand and foot warmers (buy a case of them - share with colleagues)


Do you have a parking garage at work?

If your vehicle is in a parking garage then if the power goes out, seems to me you may as well sleep in your car - if you can stretch out (I'm spoiled by my Honda Element). A roll of Reflectix insulation can easily be scissored into pieces slightly bigger than your car windows and they'll stay in place with light pressure applied to the edges. This is a popular strategy with people who camp in their Honda Elements. I've done it and the Reflectix in the windows makes a tremendous difference in keeping the inside car temperature comfortable overnight. About $20 a roll that would do two or three cars. This could also have applications in your office - to cut window drafts and to put under your sleeping bag.

http://www.homedepot.com/Reflectix/h_d1/...catalogId=10053

In a power outage scenario, in a parking garage you could at least run your car periodically for heat.

I have used one of those perlite/Altoids stoves and they are easy to make. They are not as hot as many others, like a Super Cat, which is insanely easy to build (punch fifteen holes in a cat food can).

Great suggestions, Dagny. Thanks!

My car is well stocked, and parked about 50 ft or so from the single floor office.

No parking garage and the lot is pretty exposed so better to plan on sheltering in the office unless the front wall of windows is damage and unrepairable. Thanks for the vehicle insulation tip. I think I'll give it a try!

Oh, very true, but if you can use a better grade of alcohol, it should still burn hotter than cheapo fuel -- maybe even hotter than something like rubbing alcohol in a Super Cat.

And if you have to make a stove on the spur of the moment, those holes might be a bit difficult.

I just think of it as another option.

Sue

Eying my son's Sweetarts tin...

A great improv stove is possible, since perlite is freequently used in office pot plants - even in fake ones ! That's what the garden centre sell it for !

Other materials, including coarse sand, glass wool insulation could be used too.

I have used sand with alcohol, as well as kerosene and even diesel once. These are not nice fuels to use inside, but they will work.

I've only used the glass wool insulation with alcohol.

Thanks for the perlite /altoids idea Sue.