#247304 - 06/21/12 04:52 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: KI6IW]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 01/21/03
Posts: 2203
Loc: Bucks County PA
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Knife problem solved: http://www.swisstechtools.com/proddetail.aspx?pid=5Let's just say that I know they aren't great, but mine has a lot of frequent flier miles on it.
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#247352 - 06/22/12 05:47 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: Arney]
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Old Hand
Registered: 06/24/09
Posts: 714
Loc: Kentucky
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Glad you found the info and brought it back to our attention.
Nice exercise, I had everything on my person except the whistle, and had other things on my person that weren't on the list - billfold, cell phone, lighter, keys (office and home/car), and antacids.
I read this exercise a bit differently than others did. I read it as "4 things to ALWAYS have with you ..." NOT "4 things to ONLY have with you ..." . I see no reason why you can't have other stuff on or with you as your work, environment, etc requires, just to make sure you always have access to at least these 4 items. And yes a bandana is a VERY useful item, useful enough to make sure you have one on your person in places other than at work (one of mine was recently donated to an overheated spectator at a civil war reenactment - a dip in a cooler full of ice water and careful application helped cool them down ... we had to leave so I did not ask for the bandana back on that occasion). It can be improvised, but it takes up so little space and adds hardly any weight, why should I put myself in a situation where I have to.
_________________________
Uh ... does anyone have a match?
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#247353 - 06/22/12 06:09 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: Mark_F]
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Geezer
Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
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...I read this exercise a bit differently than others did. I read it as "4 things to ALWAYS have with you ..." NOT "4 things to ONLY have with you ..." ... I should have seen this also which would eliminate the self-imposed limitations argument. This establishes a minimum carry, not an artificial/arbitrary limit.
_________________________
Better is the Enemy of Good Enough. Okay, what’s your point??
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#247458 - 06/25/12 04:57 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: Denis]
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Veteran
Registered: 12/12/04
Posts: 1204
Loc: Nottingham, UK
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While I agree with your sentiment, without reading too much into the original post hopefully, I think the unasked question is really more along the lines of: What items could the average urban office worker carry on their person that would be helpful in the case of a local disaster, but at the same time could be carried inconspicuously and comfortably while wearing typical corporate attire? I'm pretty sure I remember the original article that KI6IW was looking for (but I can't find a link). If I'm right, it was more historical rather than speculative: what items were most useful during 9/11? Except the answer I remember had a dust mask rather than a bandanna. Dust was apparently a big problem. Other items, such as gloves, might be useful in the next building collapse, but just weren't identified as being needed in that one.
_________________________
Quality is addictive.
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#248261 - 07/10/12 04:43 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: KI6IW]
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Journeyman
Registered: 11/26/01
Posts: 81
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Few things. I work as a FF in a city and cover highrises,a bandana could be very usefull imho. dusk mask for sure and hands free as opposed to holding your shirt collar over your nose as you run,crawl,climb etc.
Also a good door stop right? stairway doors lock behind you once you enter, thats it till the ground floor, well what if your not sure of conditons in the stairway and don't want to be locked in just yet ? Well plug the latch hole with the bandana and check things out. Beats using a shoe...I've pulled people out of stairways laying face down sucking air ? dirt off the floor, bet they'd like a bandana.
I use mine a lot for day to day stuff, wiping sweat, drying off chairs,covering my bald head from the sun from time to time, works as gauze in a pinch. keeps my 1 cell light from rolling out of my pocket now as i carry them togather.
The biggest thing is to learn your highrise. Do your doors lock behind you in the stairways? What are the stairways called? A/B North/South 1/2 ? you need to know as the FD will assign one for attack and one for escape, although you may have to use whats close. Do they have smoke towers in them ?
If a firm has many floors do they have private stairways between their own floors ? That could be a lifesaver. Does your build use a vanity address? You can call your building " One Union Square" but if the real address is 666 Skidrow,well it would be nice to tell 911 that one.
Years ago Chicago FD drove around not finding the address given for a highrise fire because of this.
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#249022 - 07/25/12 04:22 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: KI6IW]
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Newbie
Registered: 09/03/10
Posts: 26
Loc: New Jersey
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For the naysayers on the bandana/N95...
I was working in engineering dept for a hospital 7-8 blocks from ground zero. We had close to thousand people come in first day when towers fell for dust/debris inhalation issues. Simple disposable N95, handkerchief or bandana would have alleviated a lot of that. I carry both in my little EDC bag.
As an aside: First day we had a 2" accumulation of dirt and debris over all our rooftop HVAC equipment. Prior to this one of our mechanics had a great idea to put hospital sheets over all the air handling, prevented clogged filters and helped keep equipment running.
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#249030 - 07/25/12 07:32 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: KI6IW]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 04/01/10
Posts: 1629
Loc: Northern California
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I'm not a naysayer on the bandana. I understand its importance. However, I feel like a bandana is not that difficult to replicate by using my knife and the clothing on me. Of the 4 things mentioned here, the bandana is priority #4 for me.
For those who could not replicate a bandana from a knife and their clothing (or somebody's clothing, a drape, or anything similar), then carrying a bandana would be useless for survival anyway. They would forget why their significant other packed it in their bag. A minimal level of creativity and skill is required in an extremely unusual disaster like 911.
I wonder how many people died in 911 because they were stuck below rubble without a whistle while nobody could hear their voice, or without a flashlight to see a passageway out. I guess we'll never know, but the number of people who died this way has got to be more than zero.
_________________________
If you're reading this, it's too late.
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#249032 - 07/25/12 08:43 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: ireckon]
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Veteran
Registered: 12/14/09
Posts: 1418
Loc: Nothern Ontario
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I'm not a naysayer on the bandana. I understand its importance. However, I feel like a bandana is not that difficult to replicate by using my knife and the clothing on me. Of the 4 things mentioned here, the bandana is priority #4 for me.
For those who could not replicate a bandana from a knife and their clothing (or somebody's clothing, a drape, or anything similar), then carrying a bandana would be useless for survival anyway. They would forget why their significant other packed it in their bag. A minimal level of creativity and skill is required in an extremely unusual disaster like 911.
I wonder how many people died in 911 because they were stuck below rubble without a whistle while nobody could hear their voice, or without a flashlight to see a passageway out. I guess we'll never know, but the number of people who died this way has got to be more than zero. I would much rather EDC a bandanna instead of cutting my clothing regardless of the reason and circumstances....
_________________________
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
John Lubbock
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#249033 - 07/25/12 10:05 PM
Re: Four Things to Always Have With You at Work
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 04/01/10
Posts: 1629
Loc: Northern California
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I'm not a naysayer on the bandana. I understand its importance. However, I feel like a bandana is not that difficult to replicate by using my knife and the clothing on me. Of the 4 things mentioned here, the bandana is priority #4 for me.
For those who could not replicate a bandana from a knife and their clothing (or somebody's clothing, a drape, or anything similar), then carrying a bandana would be useless for survival anyway. They would forget why their significant other packed it in their bag. A minimal level of creativity and skill is required in an extremely unusual disaster like 911.
I wonder how many people died in 911 because they were stuck below rubble without a whistle while nobody could hear their voice, or without a flashlight to see a passageway out. I guess we'll never know, but the number of people who died this way has got to be more than zero. I would much rather EDC a bandanna instead of cutting my clothing regardless of the reason and circumstances.... Me too...that's not my point. Let me put this another way. Of the four things mentioned, the bandana is the only thing that can be improvised relatively easily. A knife, a flashlight, and a whistle cannot. No, forming a whistle with your mouth and/or fingers is not a substitute for a plastic/metal whistle. The human whistle uses about 10 times more energy. It's seems to me people are excited about a bandana because it's a non-obvious item on the list, and it does have use. However, it's still not in the same league as the other three.
_________________________
If you're reading this, it's too late.
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