By "preparedness", Im not talking about food and ammo forts.

This weekend, I found out that despite a volunteer FD thats 5 minutes from me, if there needs to be an ambulance roll, the best case scenario is probably 15 minutes if the stars were to align. 15 minutes, for something serious, is an eternity to wait. I knew the local Sheriff response time was in the 15-20 minute realm on a good day, but this was surprising.


That got me thinking, how many folks who live on the rural side have any kind of medical or specialty training? With a VFD that close, and the fact that Ive previously considered joining, Im finding myself reweighing that opportunity since most VFDs now require an EMT cert within the first 2 years of being active. That seems like a good idea to me, thoughts?

Well,

I know the FD is about 20 minutes out AT BEST. That said, I could use a new house, and I am fully insured. Get the family out and get the smores ready.


Make sure you have proper insurance and backups to irreplaceable items. Think data, computer (the info on them), pictures (digital and printed/film. Scan and make digital copies of your important photos), family heirlooms, etc. A good fire safe is a good investment for those items that insurance can't make whole again.


I know that unless the Sheriff happens to have a deputy around, I am about 15 minutes (assuming there is SOMEONE available to race over here) AT BEST.


I have cameras, self defense weapons, and a plan.


For medical: This is training. Most injury that needs help NOW is a bleeding event. Most medical emergencies, you are SOL. Keeping a vile of 90k hu cayenne pepper ready (chug it, preferably with a little bit of warm water) can stop some heart attacks. Most strokes, heart attacks, etc., will kill you without prompt modern medical attention.

1.5 hours response time if the weathers good.
But it's OK as I keep duct tape and aspirin on hand.

Those are pretty much my thoughts.

House on fire? Im insured, valuables are protected with the safe and copies where applicable.


Someone wants to break in? Im on my own, and well prepared.


But anything medical? Thats one area Im weak in and could be better. What originally prompted the question was someones 12-15ft fall off a ladder and the subsequent wait for an ambulance. For bleeding events, youre right, its a get it stopped right now. Ive long carried a first aid kit in each vehicle that has stuff like quick clot, gauze, tape, tourniquet etc, but this weekend has prompted me to consider putting together a household kit that stays in one spot, and everyone knows where its at.

We have two med bags in the house. We have a large (as in the wife/kids can barely move it around, certainly not put it up on a tall shelf) loaded with all sorts of stuff, and more of the same in deeper storage. This is the boo-boo bag. Has everything from Disney bandaids to neosporin and colloidal silver.

 

We also have a smaller duffel that is easy for all in the house to grab. It has ONLY life-saving/major injury stuff in it. We call it the "Oh SHIT" bag. It is kept handy, out in the open. Everything from quickclot to gauze to airways. No bandaids or anything that is meant for stuff that can wait. Just what it takes to get the big jobs done to the best of our training.


As far as falling off the 15ft ladder, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Do your due diligence to do thing SAFELY, which is usually SLOWLY and with great care and thought. I go over-kill on safety (getting rather OCD about it actually), and even despite your best efforts, accidents will STILL happen. There are certain things I just won't even attempt until I get the boom lift out, or whatever proper equipment and/or precautions are needed.

Id get a little giant ladder if I were you. They are super stable. Climbing harness would be even more betterer.

Having lived through a fire that destroyed our family business I disagree with your thought process.  Yeah we had insurance but that is only money and in our case the time lost in rebuilding ultimately crushed the business. YMMV.

I agree 100% with the business aspect, and if/when we built (or every room that is stripped and remodeled) I am installing fire sprinklers. Money aside, I would rather NOT risk not getting out of the house.

 

Each situation is unique, and should be handled as such. But, despite our collective best efforts, a house/business fire is the #1 SHTF outside of medical emergency we will statistically face. That is all I meant to say. I am in no way advocating encouraging a fire or letting it burn w/o calling 911 immediately.

To the OP, if you join the VFD and get your EMT training, you'll more than likely be on a call or be on "the" call if shit goes down. Or be on call and away from home when there is an emergency at home. I am a volunteer with my county, but understand the risk.

OP, I realized what you did about 12-15 years ago. I got the medical training and have been a FD/EMS Lieutenant for years. Our ISO score was a 9. After the last 6-8 years of higher standard recruits, better training, we are a all volunteer department with ISO score of 3. I am involved with our disaster response/ FEMA coordinator, CERT Instructor, FEMA shelter coordinator,etc. If you want better odds if SHTF, help plan response/ SOP/SOG, get involved. I work 18-20 miles from home, but if a house fire happens I leave work. We have good mutual aid agreements, have mutual aid from full time departments 8-12 miles away.

Good to go with food. Goats, chickens, big garden, and stuff to get by on in the short term. 9-10 cases of MREs for taking on short trips away from home if needed.

Water could be better. We have a 3,000 gallon cistern, which we use mostly for irrigation and animals, and back up drinking water. I do have a pump and enough 1" forestry hose to get from the cistern to the barn and trailer, but if the trailer lights up I'll probably just let it go. Water probably isn't the best thing to fight a trailer fire with anyway. Once the family is safe there really is nothing of value in there plus it is insured. Honestly if it burned down it would just accelerate home building. Planning to add about 7,000 gallons of water storage within the next year. Fire fighting in general for us is pretty much good to go. Mostly via preventative steps.

Electricity is lacking. If the power goes out we have generators with probably a few weeks of fuel, longer in the winter than now. Most of the shop power is generated with solar, however we increase solar about every 6 months, so it is getting better.

Medical isn't bad. Between me and my wife we can handle trauma pretty well, but where we are really lacking is with the animals. We learn a lot whenever there is an issue, but still rely on a vet to come around if there are real issues.

Our little lake community of 50 homes (10% full timers) is 2.5mi down a dead end limerock forest road in a Natl Forest. There is a big Sheriff sub station and big Fire station 1.5 mi down the paved road our road accesses to. My Brother had a low sugar diabetic episode this spring and the FD was there in less than 15 minutes. Fire? We have zero hydrants. There are plenty of good hard surfaces right off the water a pumper could get within 10' of to draft out of the 2,900 acre lake.

I'd say were covered.

Fire is about 10 minutes away.  Found that out a few years ago when my neighbor's combine caught fire.

Hospital is about the same.  My wife has a master's in nursing and has worked surgery, ICU, and cath.  We have a good sized backpack full of med gear and a couple of smaller first aid kits around.  

When I added onto the house I built a room in the basement with a concrete cap.  The safes and valuables go in there.  Also don't keep all of my eggs in one basket(house).

Having lost our house to a fire, I will guess the people saying "i'm insured let it burn" probably haven't been through a house fire.  We're going on 2 years since the fire and still recovering

If you feel like answering, how so?

 

Must have Business interruption insurance coverage

Insurance helps to an extent.  They pay for the structure, but even then they try to depreciate everything down to the lowest level before they pay anything.  The personal property is where it get's messy.  Imagine your place burns down.  Now make a list of everything you had inside.  And have the list done in 2 weeks.  Impossible. I'm still remembering things that got burnt up.  And even when you do remember the items, again they will try to depreciate it down to the lowest level.  You had a Stihl chainsaw?  We will replace it with this Poulon, it's just as good.  You have to list every last little thing or you won't see a dime for it.  

Like the other poster pointed out, think of all the $$ you have in incidentals around your house like toiletries, cleaning supplies, rags, all kids of stuff like that.  



I lost alot of sleep and gained a ton of stress through the process.  Hell I'm still waiiting to see if my marriage is going to recover from the stress it caused.


Aside from that, the sentimental items hurt.  Handmade toolbox from your grandfather that contained his woodworking hand tools?  Gone.
You know all those little crafts and things your kids bring home from elementary school and give to you?  Gone
Kids stuff from the hospital and first shoes and all those little things you keep?  Gone
Pictures, videos all kinds of things that do not have a value. gone

And after the fire we got shuffled around to several different hotels while they found us a rental house.  Ours happened right before Thanksgiving too.  

At the end of the day, we are all safe and alive, and that's what matters most.  But the stress and process of going through all of it is something I wish no one else would have to experience.

All of this.

And so much the bolded part.  Our fire was right before Thanksgiving.  We literally lost a ton of brand new still in box toys for the kids that were for Christmas.  Had receipts showing their recent purchase.  And the insurance assholes still tried to depreciate them down.

Do it.

An EMT certification is about as simple as it gets. If you have half of a brain you can be at the top of your EMT class. Unfortunately, EMT class isn't going to give you much speciality medical training, but its a good way to get the basics.

I miss being a "jolly volly" (Volunteer Firefighter). If nothing else it gets you connected with other like minded people in your area.

I carried an EMT cert in college and got my WEMT later on as a mountaineering guide. Nothing beats the real thing so after you get your cert see about shadowing on a meat wagon in a suburban area that sees a fair amount of action. I leaned a metric crap load riding along with those guys and "saw" things you can't un-see, I knew after that I could handle the situations that are likely to come up and what to expect on scene. I recommend the WEMT cert you can always let it expire but the remote/3 hours from definitive care training is good stuff.