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Fire Detection and Contingency Bugout

A battery-powered smoke detector is an absolute must. Even if you are careful with candles, lanterns, and cookstoves, your neighbors may not be. There is a considerable risk that your apartment building will catch fire, whether by accident or by others’ intentions. Therefore, you need to have a “Bugout” backpack (BOB) ready to grab at a moment’s notice.

Although they are no proper substitutes for a fireman’s compressed-air breathing rig, a commercially made egress smoke hood or a military-surplus gas mask might allow you to escape your building in time.

Fuel Storage

Bulk fuel storage has three problematic issues: 1) safety (fire hazard); 2) security (odors that could attract robbers); and 3) legality. Most urban fire codes would not allow you to have more than a week’s worth of propane on hand, and they completely prohibit keeping more than just one small container of kerosene or Coleman fuel. From the standpoint of both safety and minimizing detectable odors, propane is probably the best option. But of course consult both your local fire code and your apartment lease agreement to determine the maximum allowable quantity to keep on hand.

Odds are that there will be no limit on the number of candles that you can store. If that is the case, then lay in a large supply of unscented jar candles designed for long burning (formulated high in stearic acid). I suggest the tall, clear-glass-jar-enclosed devotional candles manufactured in large numbers for the Catholic market. You can even heat individual servings of food over these if you construct a stand with a wide base out of stout wire. Watch for these candles at discount and closeout stores.

Cooking Odors

In addition to the smell of fuel, cooking food will produce odors. I recommend that you store only foods with minimal spices. In a situation in which you are surrounded by starving people, just frying foods with grease or heating up a can of spicy chili con carne could be a death warrant.

Fireflghting

Buy at least two large multipurpose (ABC) chemical fire extinguishers.

Noise and Light Discipline

If you make noise or if you have any source of light in your apartment, it could make your presence known. In an extended power blackout, it will become obvious to looters within a couple of weeks who has lanterns or large supplies of candles and/or flashlight batteries, and I predict that it will be the apartments that are still lit up that will be deemed the ones worth robbing. So if you are going to have a light source, you must systematically black out all of your windows. But sadly these efforts will be in direct conflict with your need for ventilation for your heating and/or cooking.

Heat

With the aforementioned restrictions on fuel storage, heating your apartment for more than just a few days will probably be impossible. Buy an expedition-quality sleeping bag—preferably a two-bag system such as a Wiggy’s brand Flexible Temperature Range Sleep Syatem (FTRSS). To maximize your chances for survival, construct a small room-within-a-room—perhaps under a large dining-room table, or by setting up a camping tent inside your home—to hoard heat. Even if the rest of your home drops to twenty-five or thirty degrees Fahrenheit, your body heat alone will keep your demi-room in the forties. Burning just one candle will raise the temperature another five or ten degrees. For the greatest efficiency retaining heat, your demi-room should be draped with two layers of Mylar space blankets.

Exercise

While you are hunkered down, you will need to maintain muscle tone. Get some quiet exercise equipment, such as a pull-up bar and some large elastic straps. Perhaps, if your budget allows in the future, also purchase or construct your own quiet, stationary-bicycle-powered generator (snipurl.com/hotd5). This would provide both exercise and battery charging.

Sanity

Hunkering down solo in silence for an extended period would be a supreme challenge, both physically and mentally. Assuming that you can somehow