Posted: 4/14/2011 9:14:27 AM EDT
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The thread about 550 cord, belt & biner thread got me wondering...How many of y'all prepare for a building or hotel fire?
My first time after preparing a GHB for my work van I had a chance to use it. I was working a convention out of town. My hotel was a five floor Inn & Suites type place. At 2:30am the fire alarm went off...fire doors to the elevator area close & through a lot of us off of which way was which-it just didn't look the same as we were used too   . I grabbed my GHB & business shoulder bag...w/o this bag we would have been dead in the water at the convention-the convention was worth about $80k. So there I am in the next door hotel's parking lot in my boxer briefs pulling jeans & a work shirt out of the GHB while calling my business partner. He walks over wearing a bedsheet like a toga After a few minutes I pull a couple bottles of water out & some snacks. After sitting outside for close to an hour w/ no visible signs of fire or smoke I went to the Fire Chief . He was easy to pick out-he had two radios & everyone either ran to him or away from him  . He said it looked like someone was smoking in a non-smoking room & set the alarm off in his room and on his floor. Then a helpful neighbor down the hall discharged a fire extinguisher and created a hell of a mess.
Lessons learned; *Know exactly where the exit is w/ your own eyes-not the map on the back of the door. If I was on a taller hotel I might have made a dry run to the exit. I would also check where the exit dumped me at outside. *Bug out hell quick or your gonna be hind everyone. After I checked my door for heat & opened slowly, I moved VERY quickly toward the stairs. Everyone else just opened the door looked lazily around & asked what was going on . Duh the fire alarm is going off!!!
*Move away from the building & give the emergency guys room to work. These guys where carrying big ass saws, pikes & other instruments of destruction  . After my buddy & me sat on the grass for a 1/2 hour we went over to the pool & commandeered a couple of lounge chairs while we ate cookies, chips, drank my water & poached WiFi from the hotel next door . Got to be comfy for a local SHTF.
*Keep shoes, pants, flash light, GHB\BOB handy. My bags where but that was about it. 
*Keep a good attitude. Makes it easier when asking the hotel to comp your room.
*I have no repelling skills, so no busting out a window & repelling down.
7mm |