Remember -- basic tools are cheap and plentiful before the disaster event and afterward, nearly impossible to find.

A minimum tool kit with an emphasis on rescue and short-term repair is a good investment. Plus you can use it around the house!

I keep a 30" Halligan bar with the metal ripping end in the trunk of my car. Get a lot of heat for it. A bit extreme, but a heck of a tool.
HEAVY TOO!!!

I've got one too, and when my truck was broken into, it was too heavy for them to take.

If you paid as much for yours as I did for mine, you saved some money by having them leave it behind.

I like these tools. My primary focus is here is making safe after a motor vehicle accident. Spilled fuel, car horn blaring, I want to access the vehicle battery fast to disconnect the terminals. I need to pry the hood as it is jammed, out of shape. Is the titanium claw bar strong enough ? Will the titanium conduct electricity if I accidentally touch both contacts?

I figure with both the Res-Q-Me & the Claw Bar I have a good/very portable kit.

I am a firefighter who owns a Res-Q-Rench. It is a fair tool that is primarily a collapsable spanner wrench,for use with firehose, at which it does an acceptabe job. It does NOT fit all sizes of gas meter shut off valves(personal experience on the fireground). Trama sheers or a good kinfe will cut any webbing. If you use the glass break point, wear leather gloves as the force required to break tempered glass will cause your hand to follow the tool through the opening you just made and be cut by glass particles(personal experience) Do NOT use it on plate glass, as it shatters in spear like shards that can cause severe lacerations. I prefer a spring loaded center punch for tempered glass and a fire ax for plate glass. If you break plate glass use the tool at the top of the glass with the handle above the head, otherwise the glass shards will slide down the handle and give you a nasty laceration(s) on the fingures and hand/arm.

The Biel Tool, aka Pry-Ax, is a good personal tool that some firefighters carry all the time. It is very versitle. I learned to use it in vehicle extrication training in the 80's. It is not a bad tool to have around.

Go for the Biel Tool and leave the Res-Q-Rench, unless you are a firefighter.

If I can only have one tool on the fireground, the Halogan tool is the one I want. It is very versitle and I carry it along with a flat head ax in my vehicle at all time.

In general, titanium is very strong for it's weight. It does conduct electricity.

-john

Thanks for the advice on breaking different kinds of glass windows, trooper366. Good stuff to keep in mind.

Reminds me of an episode of MythBusters on the Discovery Channel where they tested the myth of someone jumping through a plate glass window to make a quick escape unharmed.

They threw their trusty crash test dummy through the thicker plate glass typically used in store fronts (as opposed to the thinner glass found in household windows) and they determined that the dummy suffered life threating lacerations from the glass fragments. The worst one was through the carotid or jugular in the neck, if I remember correctly. Ouch! <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

In the movies, sometimes you see the guy throwing the chair through the window first and then jumping out the window. Seems like a better way to escape. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Now, if I could only make some time in my schedule to practice jumping off an overpass and onto the top of a passing truck... <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Thats a good one