I once again find myself treading, lightly, into a borderline area, which is sort of TEOTWAWKI-ish.

I've been working for a while on an article - and it's turning into a book - on the demise of the volunteer fire service in America. I was researching a number of factors, and in the last year, something that I didn't really see coming when I started this was the fact that many responders are unable to respond not because of their JOB taking too much time it's because of their Jobs. Over and over again, I heard of people who were good responders, with years of experience, forced to stop responding because they work two - or three - jobs. This is a growing trend.

To me, as far as LTP goes, this adds a few things into my "shelter in place" strategy. As a firefighter, I'm already prone to be paranoid about fire safety, but in the last few months, I've really gone a little deeper into planning for prevention, because this slow-mo economic collapse is already affecting the place where I live - this morning, on my way to work, we got a "cover" call - that's where we send our engine to another station because they are on a call for along time. Well, I was on my way to work, I didn't make the call. And listening to the radio, I didn't hear anyone sign on to our station. After 15 minutes, two guys managed to show up for the call. As of this AM, we had 2 guys and one fire truck to cover 140 square miles of Bucks County, PA. The other folks are at the barn fire.

The past weekend was the one where the paid EMS company near me is shut down due to budget shortages, leaving the nearest ambulance 20 minutes, one-way, from where I live (that's on dry, daylight roads).

What I'm experiencing is the very real and very now "collapse" of what would be considered "normal emergency services" for folks who live in slightly rural or exurban areas. This is not limited to Bucks County. In my research, this same scenario is common all across America.

It might be a good time to clean your chimney, check your smoke detectors, install a few more fire extinguishers, take a first responder course.

Oh, and to the point of fire extinguishers. If you've never practiced on live fire with one, make a way to do it. Ideally you can do it in your yard, but if not, try to find a place to learn with LIVE FIRE not some dumb simulation. You can buy small extinguishers for $12 - it's well worth it. Make a fire with something oily and stubborn - soak some rags in used motor oil and hang some old curtains over it to simulate a kitchen grease fire. You want to experience the heat and noise and feel and smell of the process before you have to do it for real.