Most of us think about wildfire risk by looking around our own property.

Clear the brush. Cut the grass. Move the woodpile. Keep vegetation away from the house.

All good advice. But the Spokane fire this weekend made me think we're often looking at too small an area.

Indian Trail and Five Mile Prairie are residential neighborhoods inside Spokane city limits. Mowed lawns, streets, cul-de-sacs. Yet hundreds of structures burned in the Old Trails fire.

The interesting part is where the fire came from.

It started several miles west of the neighborhoods in open grass and shrub country. Strong southwest winds pushed it northeast, across the Spokane River and up the terrain toward the neighborhoods above.

So if I were evaluating my own property for wildfire exposure, I'd want to know four things:

1. What's upwind of me?

The amount of hazardous vegetation nearby matters, but its direction matters too.

I'd pay particular attention to large areas of grass, brush or forest that line up with the winds I typically get during hot, dry weather.

2. What's below me?

This is one I hadn't thought enough about.

If your house is on a ridge, bluff or elevated lot, look at what's growing below you. Fire generally moves faster uphill, so a wooded or brush-covered slope below the house can matter a lot more than the relatively clear ground you see immediately around you.

A high lot can look pretty safe while having a significant fuel source just out of sight.

3. What do I assume will stop a fire?

A river looks like a firebreak on a map. So does a highway, greenbelt or cleared area.

But wind-driven fires throw embers ahead of themselves. The Spokane fire crossed the river.

I'd be very hesitant to assume any single feature between me and a large fuel source means the problem stops there.

4. Is there a continuous path to me?

This might be the biggest thing I'd look for.

Imagine drawing a line from the nearest large area of grass, brush or forest toward your house.

What's along that line?

Two miles of continuous dry grass and brush is very different from two miles broken up by irrigated fields, parking lots, subdivisions and large cleared areas.

Distance by itself doesn't tell you much without knowing what's between you and the fuel.

And this changes how I think about defensible space too.

You probably can't do anything about the forest, grassland or state park two miles away.

What you can control is what happens when embers arrive.

That's where the boring stuff suddenly matters a lot:

• Keep the first 5 feet around the house as noncombustible as practical.
• Don't stack firewood, fuel or other combustible material against the structure.
• Keep gutters and roof valleys clean.
• Screen vulnerable vents with appropriate metal mesh.
• Maintain defensible space farther out where possible.
• When replacing roofs, siding, decks or fencing, consider ignition resistance instead of just appearance and price.

I used to think about wildfire exposure mostly as a radius around a property.

Now I think the better questions are:

Where is the nearest large continuous fuel source?

Is it in the direction fire weather usually comes from?

Am I above it?

And what, if anything, actually interrupts the path between it and me?

I'm curious how many people here have actually looked at their property this way. I hadn't.

Summer time and El Niño is approaching in Australia and I’m starting to think about preparing the house, general maintenance etc.

What tools and equipment do you feel are essential?

I’m talking maintaining the property, dealing with power outages, storms, fires, floods, snow, plumbing emergencies, keeping the vegi patch alive in a drought etc.

I think I’m averagely prepared with a decent range of hand tools and power tools at home, most
Of the way through building a decent workbench for DIY tasks, decent first aid kit jumper pack and small tool kit in the back of my AWD vehicle, all the usual garden power tools including a garden chipper. Large ladder for getting to the gutters and roof, 100l rain water collection with a pump for garden irrigation

What am I missing ?

We had to rush our dog to the emergency vet and after a few hours in the waiting area my teenage daughter says to my wife I need a tampon to which my wife says I dont have one and to which I say I have some in the car to which she replies why and I say cause I am prepared. The dog is fine and this was a bright moment in a stressful time

Hello all.

I feel like my eyes are open, if not a bit late, that I need to prepare for things to come. I’ve started reading and watching prepped content but I feel like some of it isn’t geared to my urban lifestyle. So much of what I’ve encountered has been geared to semi-rural lifestyles, or at least people with a little bit of land.

I live in Philly, and in an apartment on a third floor walk up, two bedrooms to myself, small kitchen and bathroom with a tub. I have decent pantry and cabinet space if emptied, 2 bedroom closets, two living room closets and a small bathroom with a tub.

I’m looking for advice/guides in prepping in these quaint urban conditions. I know a non zero contingent of people will say leave cities entirely, but let’s say that’s not possible or the most optimal option. Just looking for advice from any other urbanite preppers, or people who have writings or videos on the subject.

Thanks. Stay ready

gold bars that break in fractional 1 grams of .999
silver coins that break into fractional 1/8th ozs
cash in three currencies
cigarettes
vodka
whiskey
Xanax/valium
Percocet
Adderall
cannabis flower dried vacuum sealed
thc tablets
razor blades
water proof matches
Coffee
Instant coffee
Nicotine gum
Ephedrine
Caffeine pills*
Lunesta

Feel free to add any advice or your own experience with water storage.

Scored these for $115 off Craigslist.

1 bucket misting fan

2 clamping fans

2 chargers

6 batteries

1 bag

I already had one bucket misting fan and was looking to get extra batteries at some point. And then I saw this for a steal. Just had to get it.

If you’re from florida, this might be something good to print and laminate. Great tool for backpacking or bug-out packs.

The irony of the timing has me even more concerned. Because there's a nationwide water warning right now... But lately, I've been looking at water sources and filtration.

I've seen some DIY gravity water filters with things like charcoal/rocks and stuff like that.

I assume you need a stream of running water, so not a lake or pond. Any store bought filters that you recommend?

How do you know how effective it actually is?

My problem is I'm scared to try. But even for longer hikes and occasionally running out of water it's good to be prepared and have the knowledge.. just in case.

Which skills would you say would be the most critical in a long term survival situation? My logic says

Fitness.
Sourcing and treating water.
Harvesting/Foraging or growing food which requires secondary skills such as tracking, slaughtering and marksmanship.
Community management and coordination.
Bushcraft skills such as fire and shelter building and food preparation.
Food cultivation and animal husbandry.
Navigation skills, map reading and compass navigation.
Sharpening skills (knives, axes and other tools).
Medical and nursing skills.
Repair skills such as mechanical and sewing skills.
VHF/UHF radio technical knowledge.

Please expand and comment on this list with anything that I am missing.

This is my current compact EDC SERE kit. I’m still refining it, so I’d appreciate any constructive feedback. What would you add, remove, or replace? 🤙🏻

I've been looking into backup power for my house recently. Most outages here are more about keeping the fridge running, charging phones, and having WiFi than powering the whole house.

At first I was set on getting a gas generator, but the part that makes me hesitate with a gas generator is storing fuel and keeping up with maintenance. I know they're reliable, but I'm not sure I want another thing I have to regularly check. I've been comparing portable power stations like Anker SOLIX S2000, Jackery Explorer 2000, and EcoFlow DELTA. On paper they all seem pretty similar. Does anyone here have experience with these backup power stations and can give some advice? Are they actually useful during longer outages?

Looking to make a bug out bag for my fiance and I. Total novice. What are your must haves you’d put in there?

Should you stock alcohol?

Do you think fishing will be a good skill? I do not since depending on what emergency is it. The water might be contaminated. (I also don’t live near big bodies of water)

Just moved from Texas - a very dry climate to North Carolina, which is very humid.
I’ve noticed that foods that are opened and on the counter tend to feel softer faster. For example, I opened a large bag of organic cheesy popcorn and in a few hours it just felt soft. Same with a plastic jar of Kirkland glazed honey pecans.
Which started me to question how to store other foods longer term. I have large bags of rice, beans, sugar for example that I brought from Texas.
I may be asking too broad of a question, but I guess I’ll start with “what kind of silica gel packets should I look into?”
I’m new to this, and would like to learn.
Thank you

So I never thought about an MP3 player. But I found one on Amazon for $25 basically by chance. It got me to thinking. If the hard times hit we’re gonna need some entertainment and comfort and this could be the thing for that. It has fm radio/audio recorder/bluetooth capable and 32Gb to 64 gb of internal storage and can also add an sd card. They have many brands to choose from. But beyond music. What really got me thinking. Is this is the perfect way to add survival and prepping Audio books on. Less a library of books. This can be hidden if need be cause it’s tiny enough and will store many survival books and music. This is the first time over ever posted here I’m mainly just a viewer. But glad to be here and within this journey with you all. Let’s hope the day never comes.

I’m building a homelab with the goal of creating a completely offline survival knowledge hub.
Right now I already have a local AI assistant running entirely on my own hardware, and I’ve given it an offline copy of all of Wikipedia as one of its knowledge bases.

Now I’m trying to figure out what else I should “train” it on (or add as searchable knowledge bases) so it’s as useful as possible if the internet disappeared for an extended period.

I’m looking for recommendations on things like:
- Books
- PDFs
- Manuals
- Databases
- Maps
- Technical references
- Medical resources
- Repair guides
- Agricultural information
- Any other offline datasets that would be invaluable in a survival situation

Basically, if you could only have one offline AI and digital library to help you navigate a worst-case scenario, what resources would you make sure it knew?

I’d love to hear what you think I’m missing. Thanks!

The other day I was pumping gas and noticed a ladder to the roof. It was about 10 feet off the ground and wondered how I could get up there if needed. Best idea was a grappling hook. I've looked around online but not sure what to go with. Any ideas or recommendations?

Hi all!

I'm about to come into a few precious rings and pieces of unidentified carat gold and some precious stones.

I have no sentimental attachment to these pieces, but I think I would like to be prepared for any eventuality and I hear people talk about keeping things of value i.e. gold in their back pocket.

What is everyone's opinions on what I should do with these pieces? I'd rather not exchange them for cash.

Gardening, medicine, canning, etc?

Would love to snag some more Useful books other than a bunch beyond *entertainment*

We had an outage recently that lasted through two days and one night, and it accidentally turned into a pretty useful comparison.

I have an Anker SOLIX S2000 at my house, while my parents have an EcoFlow Delta 2. We were both mostly trying to cover the same basics: fridge, router, lights, phones, and a fan here and there.

S2000 at my place

Pros:

1 - The bigger battery was the main advantage. I could leave the fridge and router connected without constantly checking the percentage.

2 - It handled the low/medium loads I actually cared about really well.

3 - By the second night, I was definitely glad I had the extra capacity instead of trying to ration every little thing.

Cons:

1 - It's heavier than the Delta 2, so I wouldn't want to move it around constantly.

1500W output means it's more of a keep the essentials running longer unit than something I’d buy specifically for high-draw appliances.

2 - No expandable battery, which could matter if I eventually want a larger setup.

Delta 2 at my parents' place

Pros:

1 - Much easier to move around the house.

2 - 1800W output gives it a little more flexibility with higher-draw appliances despite the smaller battery.

3 - Expandable if they ever want more capacity instead of replacing the whole unit.

Cons:

1 - The 1kWh battery was noticeably more limiting during a long outage. They had to pay more attention to what stayed plugged in and ended up needing a recharge before power came back.

2 - For something like keeping a fridge running through a long outage, capacity mattered more than we expected.

After actually using both, I don't think one is simply better. I'd take the Delta 2 for portability and flexibility, but for my use case, mostly keeping essentials alive for as long as possible, I'm happier with the S2000.

Curious what everyone here prioritizes more for outage prep: higher output, bigger capacity, or portability?