We had a near fire in our office the other week (while I was on vacation). We lost power for an extended period. After some time, someone thought to check on our marginal server room. As soon as he opened the door, he smelled "smoke", probably from a dead UPS. He made two discoveries pretty quickly: nobody knew where the fire extinguisher was and nobody had a flashlight to see what was happening inside the server room. (No emergency lighting and it's one of only three rooms without windows.)

They did eventually find an old flashlight of mine and one of the dry chemical extinguishers from the building. Good thing they didn't need to use it. We're now ordering flashlights and CO2 extinguishers that we can use without destroying every piece of equipment in the room.

But it has me thinking. It's not enough to just carry your own personal gear. If you're really going to be equipped to survive(TM) you need to help equip those around you. I should have told people that I keep a good flashlight in my desk. I should have noticed our shortage of (appropriate) extinguishers. I should have complained about our incredibly weak safety training and fire drill performance.