As in, "I failed my EDC." Not the gear, Me. I'm on vacation in at a Wyndham in TN with my wife, daughter, and mother--in--law. This morning at about 12:30, the fire alarms go off. I wake to the blaring noise, disoriented for a few seconds, and then realize what is happening. I grab my wallet and my phone, got the family together, made sure there was no smoke in the hallway, and got us evacuated to the parking lot. No real issue apparently, and we were back in the room 30 minutes later. My Vanquest Trident 20, loaded with all the useful bits that we keep for life's emergencies, was sitting by the bed, right where *I had left it*. As were the keys for the rental car. It was ready, and I hadn't grabbed it in the process of evacuating. I was lucky. It was in the high 50s, dry, and there wasn't an actual fire, so I ended up not needing anything from it. This was a cheap life lesson: I get to learn from this, and the only thing that got bruised a bit is my ego. ;-) Joe
Hey, if you were helping take care of the family, then so be it. If you got them out safely, no falls, no broken bones, then you kept your true treasure close at hand. On the other hand, I know how it goes. Last summer, the water coming from the kitchen faucet seemed slow to a trickle then stop for a moment. I thought the grid went down. The water blurped on and off again. So I grabbed all the pots in the kitchen, and filled them with water. I never thought to fill the bath tubs. So the pots had water, the bathtubs were empty and dry. Oh well. Certainly not as scary as your situation, but a good example of how we can lose our perspective in an emergency. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Shame on you ! You are correct about the cheap lesson ,learn from it ! There not always that Cheap ! 2 Panther
Stuff is just stuff. I don't believe any of the trinkets I have are make or break in any situation. They may make things easier but most of it could be left behind. Family is safe. Well done!
Can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in that situation. Family is safe and that is the main thing.
I did a similar thing. I live in uni halls and the fire alarm goes off every month or so. The first time I rolled out of bed, shoved my feet in my shoes, grabbed my phone and ran. It was November. I had no keys, no jacket, no wallet, nothing but my phone. I learned my lesson. Now I stick my head out of my bedroom door to make sure it's not my flat on fire before putting on my trousers, which have everything in except my phone, my boots and a coat and grab my phone before leaving. Since the alarm invariably goes off at night, it means I'm warm enough and can go get a coffee or something if it's going to be a while. It's almost always a false alarm caused by some dumbass smoking inside but it still pays to be prepared.
So I guess the point being made here is along the lines of going to the effort of creating a "bug out bag" and then when you actually have to bug out, you forget to grab the bag. There is probably a reason why military units go through drills and training over and over so that how they react in an emergency becomes instinctive. You should probably set up a random-timed alarm at home and time your family on their evacuation protocols, until you get it down to a fine tuned response.
Yes, yes you did FAIL...miserably! You need to majorly re-think your EDC approach and possibly even entire life philosophy! Go back to post #0001 and start over!
In an emergency we don't always think clearly that is why habits fill in. Put the stuff where it will be more difficult to forget. You remembered the wallet and phone so next time put the edc with the wallet and phone. Sometimes I would put my edc items on my shoes or pants, because I knew I wasn't leaving the room without putting them on.
When I lived in the dorms, there were so many alarms at night that I slept with my jeans near the bed. It only took a moment to get those, a shirt, coat and overshoes. Just as well - someone set his room on fire at 2AM in midwinter. Fortunately we all evacuated, and only one corridor ended up smelling of smoke for the rest of the term. No one injured, but a thousand undergrads lost several hours of sleep. I still sleep with pants nearby.
I guess it just comes down to training and practise - your standard response when getting up to go do something like go for breakfast in a hotel is probably 'grab the basics and go' so that is exactly what you did - when you are slightly disorientated you will do whatever is instinctive, which for many 'grab the emergency bag' probably isn't as it is not something you have to do regularly. It is for the same reason we do things like fire drills to spot problems like this, and guys like the military constantly train and drill different situations to ensure they are always ready.
