*Don't Lose Everything*
Every day somebody loses their house including everything in it. We see it in the news and then forget about it 30 minutes later. Just recently this happened to a Rubicon member. A faulty power strip was cited as the cause. He lost everything, but at least between local people he knows and the Rubicon he is being taken care of.
We fortuneately don't have many structure fires here, but a few days ago we were toned to a fully involved one. There was no saving it. When we got there the roof had already collapsed, the building was fully involved and interior attack wasn't an option because the fire had burned up through it from the basement. We were also fighting it on a hot muggy day and it didn't take long to wear down. My first air pack was empty in 15 minutes and I was tired and soaked with sweat. Command let us go through one bottle and then sit out for a while. Basically all we were doing was trying to save as much as possible for the fire marshal.
Let these pictures sink in and think "What if this was my house?". That is what goes through my mind on a fire scene.
This is about what it looked like when we got there, of course there were flames and smoke pouring out of it.
These were taken from the basement.
Yes, they lost everything but the clothes on their backs and whatever was in their vehicles.
So, what can YOU do to prepare for your house to burn? Just because it hasn't happened in 30 years doesn't mean it can't in 10 minutes from now. Look at what you have and look at what you can lose if you can't get anything out.
Even if you don't have the money to afford another piece of property for a retreat you can still help yourself. Build a shed on your property that's well away from your house or get one of those sheet metal ones from Home Depot or somewhere. A 10x10 would surfice. Make sure there's no fuel between it and your house. No dry grass, no trees etc. Use that shed soley for preps storage. You can store food, clothes, copies of photos, backed up computer data, a spare computer, copies of important documents, spare vehicle keys etc. Think of what you don't want to lose if your house burns. Barring arson, the likely hood of both buildings burning at the same time are nill.
Then if your house does burn you have something to fall back on.
Jaden
www.alpharubicon.com
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