What is your post SHTF Fire Contingency Plan?
 

Been thinking lately while prepping, what if there was a fire. I know I would absolutely watch my house (and all my preps) burn to the ground if no plan is in place (because no Fire Dept. will be in place).
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Was interested in any of your contingency plans if your house catches fire post SHTF.
Fire Extinguishers?
Garden Hose?
Complete setup with FD rated hose & nozzles?
Coat hanger and a pack of marshmallows?
<o:p></o:p>
Right now all I�m coming up with is Extinguishers placed all over the house. Any Firefighters out there with some advice?
<o:p></o:p>
Thanks,
SilverJeep

Re: What is your post SHTF Fire Contingency Plan?
 

I am a former firefighter. They key of course is time. Obviously, the sooner you respond to the incident, the smaller the fire, the easier it is to put out, the less the damage.

Thus the first thing you should be concerned with is being alerted that a fire has broken out. This means at least one smoke detector on each floor or more depending on how large of an area your house, what types of fires to expect, etc... In a PSHTF scenario with power being intermittent if at all available you will need to rely on batteries and make sure you change them frequently, we usually recommend twice a year at the same time you set your clocks back or forward.

Then you want to have at least one extinguisher on each floor, plus always at least one in the Kitchen. Be aware of the extinguisher type you have for each location for example you dont want to have a Type A extinguisher in the Kitchen since fires there usually involve grease or flammable liquid. All purpose chemical extinguishers are the most versatile.

The problem is what happens when you dispense your extinguishers? Chances are in a PSHTF scenario you wont be able to recharge them. We for example had a big bucket of foam mixture we would pour a little bit into an empty extinguisher, then fill the rest with water and pressurize the can with compressed air. Chances are you wont have these resources available. Especially if you use a chemical extinguisher. We didnt have the resources to refill those, we took them to a local fire dept supplier.

So without extinguishers garden hose is OK but its not very effective. First you are limited on what you can use it on, you cant use it on electrical fires nor fires in the Kitchen involving grease or flammable liquids. Then its pressure is so low the stream is not capable of starving the fire of oxygen instead you need to rely on it cooling and wetting the fuel source enough to extinguish the fire which could mean alot of water.

I cant imagine getting some home pump strong enough to generate the kind of water pressure we can from a fire truck. Maybe you could just buy an old fire truck a local town is getting rid of, they put those up for auction many times. But then you gotta learn how to use it.

Without extinguishers I'd keep a bucket of sand in the Kitchen to douse grease fires with and some heavy damp wool blanket kept in a plastic bag to preserve moisture. It would be great to blanket over some fires to starve it of oxygen

Re: What is your post SHTF Fire Contingency Plan?
 

Fire Extinguishers are nice.

My detached garage has a wood stove, and concrete floors. In a pinch I could remodel it.

OTOH I also have two "separate" 3 bedroom houses on my property with 100' of separation.

Its nice to have a bit of redundancy. :s9:

Re: What is your post SHTF Fire Contingency Plan?
 

Steel shipping containers...for your ammo and food preps.

Re: What is your post SHTF Fire Contingency Plan?
 

great feedback...I never thought about having to fight a fire pshtf but that is a VERY likely scernario because lots of people are uneducated about fire use.


excellent head's up

T

Re: What is your post SHTF Fire Contingency Plan?
 

yup, i'm just cutting to the chase and building my entire retreat from these things.

i would hate to use water as i would think in most PSHTF scenarios it will be as valuable as gold (or more so!). i do like the idea of keeping sand handy for grease fires though.