Business Emergency Kits

You may not be home during an emergency/event, so having emergency items at your place of business would be helpful and possibly life saving. Helpful ideas or items to secure your office:

  • A drawing or plan of your building/office–highlight with “red” all EXITS
  • Employer/Employee/Patient list with names and family contacts/numbers
  • Local emergency numbers available at each desk/cubicle
  • Secure pictures, furniture, water heaters, computers etc. to be earthquake ready by using fastening straps, adhesive fasteners, or other securing devices
  • Remember cell phone texts might go through when phone lines aren’t working
  • Have an emergency power source-generator available like Goal Zero Extreme 350
  • Power-failure lights that will turn on and help during an evacuation of your building
  • Walkie Talkies such as Motorola Talkabout located in various places. Some professional walkie talkies
    require licenses. Check your local area.
  • Find out who has a HAM radio license, or at least a scanner. You can hear what’s going on in the world even if there is no power, radio, or television.
  • Do training for evacuation plans, etc. Practice different scenarios for disasters and emergencies. Be ready for any unexpected situation.
  • Know where to turn off gas (only turn off if you smell gas.) Make sure you have the right tool handy to turn it off.
  • Find where to turn off electric power. Flipping the switches at the circuit breaker panel DOES NOT turn off the power. Find where the MAIN switch is to turn it off.
  • Know where to turn off the main water line. You might need a water key.
  • BEFORE an emergency, find out where all the emergency shut-off switches are located. Post a cheat sheet with this information in several locations throughout your building or office.

Emergency List of items to have on hand:

  • Water containers, water purification drops (I prefer Water Preserver.) Rotate water every 5 years. One gallon of water is needed per person per day. Heat/high temperatures would warrant more water per day per person. Have a plan with additional water that can be carried quickly should you need to leave your building.
  • For large water containers, make sure you have the necessary item(s) to open the containers (like a Water Bung) and have spigots available for ease of use.
  • Food: Decide how many people are typically in each building and how many calories per day per person.
    Plan on MRE’s and cold instant food types (a combination is best.)
  • Cooking: Two separate sources are best, such as propane, coal or wood. I prefer Camp Chef (uses only propane). For large groups I would recommend MRE’s/or similar that only require heated water. It would be hard to “cook” every meal. A Volcano II stove with extra propane hoses would be a great addition. Depending on the model, Volcano II uses, wood, coal & propane. This way you could have some way to boil water for large groups.
  • Adequate paper products, plates, cups, silverware/serving
  • Fuel: I like Ozark Oak Lump charcoal. It lasts indefinitely if kept in airtight containers; use Gamma lids on 6-gallon buckets to make them easier to open. The Ozark Oak Lump charcoal has no chemicals like regular charcoal. You can store and forget until needed and it is safer to store than propane.
  • Fire starter/matches/emergency candles
  • Personal Hygiene, package toilet chemicals, snap on toilet seat, toilet paper, women hygiene products, hand sanitizer, gloves latex/non-latex
  • Portable toilet with bags
  • First Aid Kits for each building/office. Osha recommended kit-25 person Emergency Ready First aid Kit
  • 3M/N-95 masks for everyone
  • Plastic sheeting & duct tape/body bags
  • Aspirin, Aleve, Ibuprofen, etc., Imodium (anti-Diarrhea), Vitamin C.
  • Bio-hazard Bags
  • Emergency Blankets
  • Safety Whistles
  • Shake Lights
  • Flashlights/solar/crank and battery ones. (Batteries stored separately)
  • Keep lots of batteries (all sizes-rotate)
  • Radios/Weather Radios with Hand Crank
  • Phone Chargers (multi use/size) you might not be able to leave your building. You can buy multi-charge units
  • Crowbar, 2 by 4’s for cribbing
  • 4-in-1 survival tool
  • Fire escape ladder if you have more than a single level building
  • Rope
  • 12 function knives
  • Insect Repellant
  • Shampoo, shaving cream, shavers, toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels, wash rags, dish towels, kitchen soap
  • Work gloves
  • Printable: FSM Business Emergency Items