- Joined
- Nov 29, 2005
- Messages
- 887
I'm moving to a new job--which will entail moving from my current office (with a ground-level emergency door six feet from my nose) into a 12th-floor office downtown. That will put me close to the top floor of that building (though, among the downtown skyscraper cluster, my building is pretty insignificant.)
It occurs to me that it'd be a good idea to include in my in-office survival gear something--if readily, feasibly workable--that'd let me get out of the building if bad things happened and, a la September 11th--the stairwells were jammed or otherwise unusuable. I remember working in a maybe-10-story building shortly after September 11th, and we had a fire drill, and it was very eye-opening to me how jammed the hallways and stairways were during the drill. Basically, if there'd been a serious fire, an awful lot of us would have been dead. Not good.
It occurs to me that maybe it would not be all that wildly-bad an idea to invest in whatever it'd take to get out of the building in event of a fire (or riot, or terrorist event), without recourse to the elevators and stairs. One of the first thoughts I've thought to think when weighing emergency-prep issues is this: is the situation I'm entering (or in) one in which the status quo is going to be fatal (or otherwise a problem)? So, for example, since I live in a desert, and depend on functioning electricity to have an ambient temperature below 115 degrees F and water, I keep water in my office, just against the possibility that something will go wrong and I'll only have what I've stored away.
So, guys, what do I do?
The most practical option appears to me to be a rockclimbing-like rope descent. Yeah, I know--before trying to resurrect my (decades-rusty) rappelling skills during a fire, I ought to check to make sure I'm not going to abseil right into a fire and melt my rope, etc. Is the idea an absolute waste of time? If not, what do I need to know about this idea? What's the minimum I can get away with in terms of the rope I get? (Thin would be good, as the wider it is, not only the more expensive it is, but the bulkier it is. A 3/4-inch cord that I have to leave at home in the suburbs because there's no room isn't going to be as useful as a thinner one I can actually keep unobtrusively in my office.) I don't anticipate using the cord much. Like, single-use might be fine; I don't anticipate monthly ascents of Yosemite's Half Dome. A harness would likely be a good thing, as would a figure-eight--or are there "descender" gadgets that will basically let one make the contemplated one-way escape trip in one piece?
Any ideas you have about where to get such equipment as inexpensively as possible are welcome, as well.
Also, what do you emergency-responder/law-enforcer folks know about breaking windows in a tall building: anything special needed for this? Might be nice to avoid showering the streets with 3-foot sections of sharp glass--though, depending on the situation, this might already have happened.
I already keep multiple flashlights (or little LEDs, etc.) around wherever I go, and where I can find them by feel without light; and on many occasions, I've been the one guy in my company who had a light when the electricity went out and the building I was in suddenly became tomb-dark in the middle of the day. Any other useful things to keep nearby for if the downtown building suddenly becomes a low-tech survival venue? At this writing, I'm not clear whether anything more weapon-like than a multi-tool or Swiss Army pocketknife is going to be permitted, as the government entity for which I'll be working is somewhat sensitive about these things, and has controlled access and metal detectors at the doors, with some people being exempt from the "no weapons" rules, but most not.
Thanks, in advance, for your thoughts.
It occurs to me that it'd be a good idea to include in my in-office survival gear something--if readily, feasibly workable--that'd let me get out of the building if bad things happened and, a la September 11th--the stairwells were jammed or otherwise unusuable. I remember working in a maybe-10-story building shortly after September 11th, and we had a fire drill, and it was very eye-opening to me how jammed the hallways and stairways were during the drill. Basically, if there'd been a serious fire, an awful lot of us would have been dead. Not good.
It occurs to me that maybe it would not be all that wildly-bad an idea to invest in whatever it'd take to get out of the building in event of a fire (or riot, or terrorist event), without recourse to the elevators and stairs. One of the first thoughts I've thought to think when weighing emergency-prep issues is this: is the situation I'm entering (or in) one in which the status quo is going to be fatal (or otherwise a problem)? So, for example, since I live in a desert, and depend on functioning electricity to have an ambient temperature below 115 degrees F and water, I keep water in my office, just against the possibility that something will go wrong and I'll only have what I've stored away.
So, guys, what do I do?
The most practical option appears to me to be a rockclimbing-like rope descent. Yeah, I know--before trying to resurrect my (decades-rusty) rappelling skills during a fire, I ought to check to make sure I'm not going to abseil right into a fire and melt my rope, etc. Is the idea an absolute waste of time? If not, what do I need to know about this idea? What's the minimum I can get away with in terms of the rope I get? (Thin would be good, as the wider it is, not only the more expensive it is, but the bulkier it is. A 3/4-inch cord that I have to leave at home in the suburbs because there's no room isn't going to be as useful as a thinner one I can actually keep unobtrusively in my office.) I don't anticipate using the cord much. Like, single-use might be fine; I don't anticipate monthly ascents of Yosemite's Half Dome. A harness would likely be a good thing, as would a figure-eight--or are there "descender" gadgets that will basically let one make the contemplated one-way escape trip in one piece?
Any ideas you have about where to get such equipment as inexpensively as possible are welcome, as well.
Also, what do you emergency-responder/law-enforcer folks know about breaking windows in a tall building: anything special needed for this? Might be nice to avoid showering the streets with 3-foot sections of sharp glass--though, depending on the situation, this might already have happened.
I already keep multiple flashlights (or little LEDs, etc.) around wherever I go, and where I can find them by feel without light; and on many occasions, I've been the one guy in my company who had a light when the electricity went out and the building I was in suddenly became tomb-dark in the middle of the day. Any other useful things to keep nearby for if the downtown building suddenly becomes a low-tech survival venue? At this writing, I'm not clear whether anything more weapon-like than a multi-tool or Swiss Army pocketknife is going to be permitted, as the government entity for which I'll be working is somewhat sensitive about these things, and has controlled access and metal detectors at the doors, with some people being exempt from the "no weapons" rules, but most not.
Thanks, in advance, for your thoughts.
Last edited:
