During a survival situation knowing how to start a fire can be the key difference in staying alive.
Fire is not just good for staying warm, boiling water and cooking food, but provides a great psychological boost.
If you have studied survival techniques and situations like I have you know that much of your survival also relies on your state of mind (I'll get more into this in an up coming post), and anything that can give you that edge including having a fire can improve your odds.
The method you use to start a fire, doesn't really matter as much s the success of actually starting one and there are many methods for doing so.
The one main point to take away from this post is to learn multiple methods, if you can practice them and stick to the ones that seem to work best for you.
The most obvious choice would be to have a reliable lighter or water proof matches but it is important to know what to do when these fail or if you are stuck without them.
Another interesting method is creating fire from forming clear ice into a lens, the best resource for this method the site Wilderness Survival Fire from Ice.
A Propane tank on the rear of a forklift ruptured and caught fire at a beverage distribution plant in San Diego the other day shutting down traffic on I-5 and causing the evacuation of people within a mile radius of the plant.
No one appears to have been injured during the incident including the forklift drivers.
On Wednesday afternoon, July 8, 2009 a fire in the hills of Santa Monica forced the evacuation of approximately 800 employees and 1,600 visitors of the Getty Museum.
The fire also prompted fire officials to evacuate nearby Saint Mary's College even though the fire was about a mile away at the time.The school at the time was not holding regular sessions but was hosting a conference with about 100 staff and 200 visitors.
Though no one appears to have been injured and everyone appears to have been evacuated safely, it is events like this which highlight the need for contingency planning.
The staff did everything right, including taking steps to protect the art work inside, providing a way to evacuate visitors quickly, and utilized an alternate route off the mountain and away from the museum.
With a situation like this, so much could have gone wrong very quickly, but with proper planning and training they were able to successfully get everyone out alive and well.
If there was a fire in your work place, or a wildfire threatening your business would you be able to do the same?
Today's manhole fire in San Francisco caused a loss of power to approximately 8,600 PG&E customers and a shelter in place was ordered for people in the area as well.
The explosion and fire according to news reports were due to a PG&E equipment problem further impacted by about 75 gallons of oil in an oil switch.
No injuries were reported but emergency crews were kept busy by responding to people trapped in elevators caused by the loss of power.
Video from KRON4 of todays Manhole Fire:
Manhole fires are not as common here in the Bay Area as they are where I am originally from in NYC, since they usually occur during the winter and are most often caused by water and salt seeping into the manholes and corroding wires.
However there are many hidden dangers of manhole fires which are increased since the fire is happening underground and your not able to view the source of the fire directly.
First the biggest danger is the gases that these fires give off which include Carbon Monoxide (CO), Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and many others can actually travel through the underground systems and into the surrounding buildings.
It is often best to evacuate the surrounding buildings in large fires and or monitor the air quality in parts per million, especially since these gases are often orderless, colorless, and tasteless and by the time you realize you are exposed it may already be too late. I once had a police officer as a patient with CO poisoning that was left to watch on open manhole after a fire.
Once the fire is out, the danger of the gas still often remains and must be addressed.
The other danger is that manhole covers can range in weight from 150 pounds up to 300 pounds and the fires tend to burn unnoticed underground until significant pressure builds up causing the an explosion that often shoots the manhole cover sometimes as high as six stories into the air.
These manhole covers can sometimes be found several blocks away, on rooftops and sometimes land on top of passing cars.
One winter I was inside my EMS station in Brooklyn, NY restocking after a call, trying to relax on a busy winter day. I was in a room getting supplies when a huge explosion took place, rocking the building and caused me to literally jump.
My partner and I went outside and a car parked next to our station was on fire. The car was parked on top of a manhole that exploded and hit the gas tank. The car by the way was also parked next to the wall I was standing near. I was lucky it didn't damage the building but it was the loudest explosion I've heard, and the closest I ever was to an explosion.
So, try not to park on top of a manhole cover if you can avoid it.
The other danger is in the thick black smoke coming out of the manhole which is also highly combustible. The smoke is also not always black either depending on what is burning, I have seen bright red, dark red, yellow, and purple, each of which presents its own dangers since they add other toxic gases to the area.
For more on manhole fires please view the following links:
My name is Keith Erwood, and disasters are my life. Well, not just disasters really, but to help people like you, owners, executives and managers of businesses prepare for disasters and emergencies.
Austin, 
