Category: Fire Prevention/Fighting

Two Letters Re: Blending In–Unremarkable and Invisible Architecture

Sir, Happy Independence Day to you and your family. Concerning underground tanks for fuel storage, most states require both lining systems and cathodic protection to prevent leakage into the ground and or ground water. I fully agree with the defensive sense, being a veteran of the US Army and most of my time serving in the Infantry, having prepared many a defensive position.   As such for OPSEC, finding a discreet contractor may present a challenge, and of course the local county may get interested, Hopefully not too much. – Grog   JWR Replies: Cathodic zinc anodes (commonly called “sacrificial …


Preventive Maintenance, Medicine, and Measures, by Jason A.

As the saying goes “preventive medicine is the best medicine”, this can be said for many aspects in life. Why wait until something happens to fix it? Why not perform proper maintenance procedures so you don’t have to fix it? Frankly, before I became a prepper, I’ve always found this approach to be best. It can save you time, money, frustration. Even if something is going to break no matter what, with preventive procedures, you can sometimes see it coming, therefore fixing or changing a part. From a prepper’s perspective, preventive measures are a necessity. The U.S. military puts an …


Letter Re: Joining Your Local Volunteer Fire Department

Mr. Rawles, Thank you for all you do. I cherish my daily visits to SurvivalBlog. The recent letter titled “Living in a Small Town – An Australian Perspective” by Margaret G. inspired me to write you. We moved from a large city to place just outside a small town a year ago. We are just now being accepted as part of the community. I agree very much with Margaret G.! Another thing I can add is joining the local Volunteer Fire Department. Through the dept and a lot of hard work we find ourselves a part of the community. Because …


Build Your Own Wood Gas Generating Stove

What will you do when your fuel runs out, or your energy system fails? How about burning wood? I used to dismiss burning things for energy off-hand as a dirty and wasteful heating tool, nothing more – not a source of actual power or energy.  However, learning what I have in the past few months has given me a new appreciation for this readily-available resource.  My perspective was changed somewhat, and it was kind of a shock to me, because i’m pretty open-minded to alternative solutions.  My mindset is this: until I have a wealth of  food and supplies in …


Some Woodstove Experience, by C.V.Z.

Being without electricity in the middle winter is cold. We didn’t have any heat during an ice storm. With that winter in mind, we finally purchased a wood stove for heat and cooking opportunities. As the wife and mother, I had this horrible image of an old black pot bellied stove belching smoke and catching the roof on fire. I could hear the neighbors complaining about the smell and my kids going to school smelling like they had just burned down the house. Images of black walls and ceilings and truck loads of firewood haunted me with every winter wind. …


Letter Re: Forever Preps – Preparations You Can Buy Once, and Have Forever

JWR, Thanks and God Bless for your wonderful blog. You do mankind a great good every day your site is up and passing information to the masses. Please keep it coming. I find it a rare and surprising occurrence when my real world work experience and professional knowledge actually prove some use to the on-going threads found at SurvivalBlog. Since I’m a career Maitre’ de in fine dining restaurants, it really isn’t surprising; I seriously doubt anyone will be worried about wine vintages or the proper service of escargot after TSHTF. However I was pleasantly surprised after I read Andrew …


Three Letter Re: Using Tea Candles for Urban Low Light

Dear Sir,   I’ve been making “permanent” candles for years, using empty cat food cans, pipe cleaners, and store-bought paraffin wax. The cans are quite stable and, because of their volume, the wicks don’t “float” until they’ve been burning a long time. Rotating candles solves that problem. The wicks don’t burn up – they wick – unless you touch them and knock the built-up carbon off them. If that happens, you can easily repair them using lint from a clothes dryer – a good thing to have anyway. The candles must be fed to keep ‘em burning and to adjust …


Letter Re: Using Tea Candles for Urban Low Light

I have learned WSHTF, that after dark, subdued lighting is mandatory. A complete conversion of a home into a cave is not my idea of living so my thought is to choose one often used room and black out the windows with black plastic, duct tape and heavy curtains. Hang a thick blanket in front of the room’s door and specify bright lights out before any one enters or leaves that room. The rest of the home would be dimly lit. With preferably one, no more then two at a time candle-like devices behind heavy lined curtains. The thinking behind …


Firewood on the Homestead, by Grouse Mountain

As energy prices soar and the dollar loses value, people are purchasing firewood for the future. Heating oil is a grade of diesel, propane is an oil by- product and with the rise of over twenty cents a gallon in just a few weeks, people are planning ahead where there may not be any fuel to warm their homes. Those with electricity are starting to look at any solar power possibilities, meanwhile, the big oil corporations have bought up many of the solar-panel producing companies! Firewood providers in our area are getting orders to bring customers as much firewood as …


Letter Re: Apartment Fire Lessons Learned

JWR: I am sleeping soundly when I hear a car horn then another long horn for a full minute which seems like an eternity at 4 A.M. the apartment behind mine are 70 yards from my back porch. Then I hear a slamming of metal sound and then another like a bat hitting a car. Then I kind of fall back to sleep only to hear police knocking on doors yelling police and it sounds like they are down stairs and then all this knocking. I open my eyes and there is a fireball outside my window and my dog …


Letter Re: Our Experience with a Chimney Fire

Mr. Rawles, Recent posts about chimney fires mention the value of having ones chimney cleaned at least once per year. Most volunteer fire companies do chimney cleaning for a nominal donation. It gives the homeowners a chance to get their chimney cleaned and make a donation towards their community’s fire service, it helps the fire company by making one more house less likely to have a chimney fire, and it benefits both parties by getting folks to interact with and perhaps join their local volunteer fire department. Best, – RMV


Letter Re: Our Experience with a Chimney Fire

I also had a chimney fire many years ago. This was long before I had ever thought about TEOTWAWKI and I knew absolutely nothing. I did end up with firemen and “lookie-loos” roaming my house and yard and included much embarrassment. The reason I am writing this is that one of the firefighters advised me that I can use a long length of heavy chain and lower it down the stack and do a lot of rattling around. This will not replace regular cleaning, but will knock down the larger pieces of build up. If you have wood that leaves …


Are You Prepared for Firefighting?, by J.T.F.

Situation – You’ve either bugged out to your bug out location (BOL) or – You’ve bugged in or – You’ve bugged out to wilderness. or – You’re living at your retreat because “sumpthin bad dun happened sumwhere”. After a couple of days, you’ve settled in, you’ve set whatever level of security you can establish, you’ve started adjusting to living the primitive life. Suddenly you smell smoke. If you’ve bugged in – the house/apartment next door is on fire. Or the vegetation up wind from you is on fire – grass, brush, woods, whatever. If you’ve bugged out or living at …


Guest Article: 12 Steps to Fire Proof Your Family, by The Survival Mama

Disasters can show up anytime, and leave little time in the moment of crisis to prepare with any sense of organization. The worst time to prepare is when you receive a reverse 911 call, or a knock at the door from a police officer ordering an evacuation of your home. This list is meant for residents of a suburban area located near an undeveloped forested area. This list was put to the test during a wildfire that consumed over 4,600 acres within a five-hour period, fed by winds sustained at 55 m.p.h. and gusting to 70 m.p.h. No matter where …


Two Letters Re: Our Experience with a Chimney Fire

Mr. Rawles: Regarding the reader who had the chimney fire and put it out with a 10 pound bag of baking soda: We were told by our fire chief that some insurance companies will refuse to pay for damage done in an “undocumented” chimney fire. How do you “document” a chimney fire? You have to call the fire department, and then it becomes a matter of record. In addition, putting the fire out in the firebox does not guarantee that a smaller fire isn’t burning somewhere up in the attic or the eaves. So you might be embarrassed, but even …