Hotel Fire

I travel for work, and tonight was the fourth hotel fire alarm I've been through. This one appears to be a malfunction of a new alarm system. One other was a guest pulling a fire alarm for no good reason, and the other two were small kitchen fires.

In every hotel I make a conscious effort to know where the two nearest fire exits are to my room. I also leave a flashlight on in ultralow mode on the dresser where I set the contents of my pockets. Tonight, I executed my exit plan with one flaw. I was out of bed, putting on pants, shoes, pistol, magazine carrier, and cover garment immediately. I had my phone, wallet and keys and scooped up my winter coat on the way out the door. The alarm was already turned off by this point.

This hotel has a large central atrium, and I could see dozens of guests standing on their balconies looking around. After a quick look around and not seeing evidence of fire, I marched to the stairs, went to the ground level, out the building and to my car, where I grabbed a bottle of water out of the trunk before heading back inside.

My one significant failure was that my room key was not with my other things and I walked right past it on the way out the door. It was no problem getting a new keycard made; but if I'd been unable to exit the building and needed to retreat to my room that would have been a problem. I also neglected to check the door with the back of my hand before opening it, but with the fire alarm having been turned off this was a procedural fail that I don't feel as badly about.

Now to figure out how to get back to sleep.

Did that so many times... Also always remembered it a second after I closed the door.

Good idea.

My room "key" stays in the wallet.

Most of the time you need to stick the card in to the thing near the door, so you can have light in the room.

I usually get two keycards when I check in, one stays in the wallet, the other is my "user".

I don't "switch" my clothing until the morning when I get dressed. My clothes are beside my bed, with everything in the pockets, on the belt, etc until I've dressed the next morning and transfer everything to the fresh clothes that I just put on.

If an alarm goes off during the night, I get dressed, pick up my pistol, my Iphone, and head out the door.

I am with Wildman, in that I generally leave everything in my pants until the next morning, lay out my fresh underclothes at the ready and casual socks and shoes at the ready. If I am wearing suits, my jeans are the ones prepped for emergency egress. No big deal to dump my suit stuff in the pockets.

I always get 2 key cards. One goes in the wallet, one goes in the pocket. If the hotel is one where the card has to be in the slot for the HVAC, etc. to work, I get a 3rd card and leave it there.

Beyond that, my computer case is ready to go at all times, all I need to do is pull the computer and charger off the desk and slip it in there. That case has most everything I "need" vs. nice to have stuff.

In colder weather, jacket/coat, etc. on a chair or over my case on the way out with gloves and windproof/waterproof knit cap in pockets. Standing outside in the cold is not something this desert rat ever wants to deal with.

I drive my wife nuts, but I pack most everything as I were checking out in the morning, unless I have a suit that needs to be ready, then that stays hanging in the closet. I can't go to sleep until I do it. Not just a suit of clothes, but all of my clothes in the suitcase. I am crazy, I know.

Haven't been to one of those places, yet. Might be fodder for America's Funniest, watching me try to figure it out...

Ditto to leaving the day's clothes loaded, and bags ready.

I keep all my pocket detritus is a clear zipper pouch on the nightstand, and have tomorrows clothes laid out on whatever bag I'm carrying. Grab the pouch, and depending on my level of concern, either get dressed or shove everything into the daybag, and out I go.

I've yet to find a low intensity light I like. Maybe I should look for power failure night lights

. Check out the FourSevens Atom AO. The light is a 1xAAA (AAA eneloop in mine) which has a floody beam with no noticeable artifacts. I like it for close stuff.

I've been wearing one around the house on a neck lanyard in the early AM just to have a light at the ready when I don't want to turn house lights on. I can turn it on hanging from my neck so it points straight down and it puts a nice even light at my feet and in front of me, hands free. Team it with a headlamp that points wear you look and you're covered.

I forgot about the neck lanyards. When I have to travel at night, I have LRI Photon Freedom Covert on a short breakaway neck lanyard. I've tried my Fenix E05, but I've found it a bit clunky.

I'm not sure about the E05, but the Atom AO is significantly smaller than the Fenix E01 which I have. The light is about 1/2" longer than a AAA battery.

I'm running a Nitecore TIP as my preferred hotel flashlight. Small, inexpensive, lightweight, and USB rechargeable, the low mode is one lumen. I put it on charge when I get out of bed and it's full up before I get in the shower.

Another great choice if you want something that runs readily-available batteries is the Thrunite Ti Titanium. It has a half-lumen Firefly mode.

There are other great choices.

Thanks. I've recently switched to 1xAAA lights for pocket carry and the Thrunite Ti5T XP-L NW looked very interesting. The cool white version has a bit more output, but the neutral white (NW) has better color rendition imo.

Thanks Chaos, the Ti5T is a great pocket light. It's about 60% longer than the FourSevens Atom A0. The Firefly mode is dimmer than the Moonlight settings I've used before. It works fine if it is really dark, but the next mode at 10 lumens is usable even in dim ambient light. The next mode at 130 lumens is probably great for short periods, but imo is too bright for continued use considering the mAh capacity of an Eneloop AAA.

Note: For those who have heard that the Ti5T is really stainless steel because it's magnetic, the light is magnetic if a battery is loaded. Take the battery out and the only thing magnetic is the pocket clip. The body appears to be titanium, as stated on the Thrunite Ti5T web page.

Mine is definitely titanium .

As I recall you also mentioned the ThruNite TN12 a while back. I like that light a lot and now I have four lights running 18650's

That said, any light is better than none; a Fenix E01 could provide enough to get you to an escape route.

There are other great choices. Like the Fenix LD02 = 100, 25, and 8 lumens from a AAA battery. The great advantage of this, or any other small light in this category, is that is can be with you constantly. Comes in handy very frequently.....

Responding to alarms for a living has given me a lot of experience on the topic. If there IS a significant fire you'll be outside for a VERY long time, most likely counted in days not hours.

I've been through a few evacuations of my own. I was in a beach bungalow on Christmas Island (south of Hawaii on the equator) when the light switch shorted and ignited the wall. Got that one extinguished by myself. Good thing too as the island doesn't have a fire department. I did move to an un-burnt bungalow!

I had to evacuate my hotel in Whistler for an alarm -- it was about 10 degrees F outside. I was glad to have my heavy boots and parka near the door ready to go. There were some people that went outside without so much as a jacket.

Clothes are kept ready including shoes; passport and other items like wallet are kept in my jacket pocket ready to grab on the way out the door.

On the nightstand I keep an LED flood type flashlight (like this: https://www.amazon.com/Nebo-Larry-Pocket...cket+work+light) and a Streamlight in my pants pocket (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015UC17E/ref...574722&sr=2)

That changes the equation a lot. I always assumed that we would be let back in after a few (2-3) hours to retrieve our belongings. With several days, the requirements change from near EDC to closer to a true bug-out situation. Cash, medications, travel and ID documents, etc.

To find my stuff and to evacuate quickly I put strips or circles of the 24 hr glow in the dark tape:

https://www.findtape.com/JVCC-GLW-24-Ultra-Premium-Glow-in-the-Dark-Tape/p426/?cid=18&idx=26&tid=1&info=Safety%2520%2526%2520Glow%2520Tape

And a microprismatic retroreflective tape:

https://www.findtape.com/shop/results.aspx?keywords=Reflective+

(The microprismatic tapes reflect much brighter than standard reflective tapes. (I've experimented and there is a big difference between the two types.))

On my flashlights/headlights, keys, and anything else I need to find quickly in the dark. (Including the door and light switch)

I cut the circles either with a 3 hole sized punch or with a 1/2" or 1" craft store hole puncher.

The items get placed under the light of my home nightstand or the furniture in the hotel nearest the bed with a light. They will glow all night with a few minutes under the light.

Once I grab the flashlight/headlight I can shine the light around and everything pops out at me. The circles on the door and light switch are removed and reused with double-sided tape.

Standard disclaimer: happy customer only. I bought the glow tape from them. I have lots of different reflective tapes from multiple sources.

In my most recent situation I had car keys, a car with a great heater and a tank of gas, and a credit card. I'd have been in a new hotel room quite quickly .

Great idea, QL! Thanks for sharing it! I've been working on making new reflective lanyards for key items, but a glow in the dark dot will work better for some things, and wouldn't hurt any of them.

It seems that if you have your clothes layed out and prepared (pocket carry in place) and you have a light of any kind to get dressed efficiently, and then just grab your hotel go-bag, a hotel evacuation could be taken in stride. Gone before the firetrucks arrive? Probably not.

Which got me thinking about my choice in luggage. From a hotel stay perspective, what does a go-bag look like? Samsonite with wheels? Backpack? Carry-on or bigger?

In my case, my go bag may be my 135LBS handicapped daughter. It has happened once before.