Within the first week, if it is safe to do so, secure three groups of strategic reserves: fuel and energy sources, communications equipment, and goods that will serve as barter. They come last because none of them keeps you alive on the first day, but each extends what you can do afterwards, through mobility and power, through information about other survivors, and through trade.
Part of Priority Salvage List
Fuel, radios and trade goods extend mobility, information and exchange once the essentials are secured, but they are heavy, specialised or dependent on conditions.
Reserves Are For The Second Stage
The first three tiers solve survival problems that are immediate. This tier prepares for the period afterwards, when mobility, information and trade start to matter. Several of these items are heavy, volatile or perishable, so they are taken when you have capacity, a safe place to keep them and a clear head about the risks.
The Three Groups
- Fuel and energy. Gasoline, diesel, propane, batteries, solar panels and solid fuel. Fuel provides mobility, power and heat that nothing else matches in the short term, but it is heavy and volatile and it degrades. See Fuel & Energy Sources and Fuel Siphoning & Storage.
- Communications. Radios, walkie-talkies, batteries, antennas and signalling devices. You are not the only survivor, and finding or avoiding others needs information. See Communications Equipment.
- Barter goods. Consumable, widely wanted and hard to make. See Barter Goods.
Deciding Whether It Is Time
Step 1: Check the earlier tiers first. If water, shelter, fire, medical and basic tools are not secured, a fuel run is premature.
Step 2: Check that you have somewhere safe to store it. Fuel, batteries and spirits should be stored away from living space.
Step 3: Check capacity. Fuel is heavy; use the weight test in Carry Capacity vs. Value.
Common Mistakes
- Taking fuel before you can store it. Spilled or stored badly, it is a fire hazard and loses value.
- Taking a generator but no fuel. It is dead weight without it.
- Taking trade goods before essentials.
Safety
Stored fuel, batteries and spirits are fire hazards
Gasoline vapour ignites at a distance from the container and is heavier than air, so it collects low. Keep fuel outdoors or in a ventilated shed, away from sparks and pilot flames, and never use a flame to check a container. Damaged batteries can leak or overheat.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Fuel & Energy Sources — the heaviest of the three
- Combine with: Fuel Siphoning & Storage — getting and keeping fuel safely