Home Emergency Supplies Checklist: What to Buy, Where to Put It, and How Often to Check

Unofficial English translation of docs/家庭应急装备清单.md. In case of discrepancies the Chinese original takes precedence.

This corresponds to item 26 of Section 1 of the README. This checklist answers only the question of what a household should keep on hand; it does not repeat how to use any of it. The actions for escaping a fire, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, major bleeding, burns, and carbon monoxide poisoning are all in Section 13; smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms are in Section 1, item 3; gas hoses and stoves are in Section 1, item 4.

The yardstick throughout is mortality and external-cause injury. The evidence that the equipment itself pays off is not strong; the reasoning is in the final section, and you should read that one before this list.

1. The official list, as written

The Ministry of Emergency Management's National Basic Recommended List of Household Emergency Supplies for Reserve has 11 items; the original descriptions are reproduced below.

Source: Ministry of Emergency Management (2020). National Basic Recommended List of Household Emergency Supplies for Reserve. https://www.mem.gov.cn/kp/shaq/202011/t20201129_372149.shtml

Local versions are more detailed. The Beijing Municipal Emergency Management Bureau's list for resident households comes in a basic version and an expanded version. The basic version covers "3 categories — emergency items, emergency tools, and emergency medicines"; its specific items are a hand-crank rechargeable flashlight with radio function, a life-saving whistle, towels/tissues or wet wipes, a respirator, multi-function combination scissors, an emergency escape rope, a fire extinguisher or fire blanket, plus anti-infective and anti-cold medicines, medical materials such as medical surgical masks and gauze bandages, and iodophor cotton swabs. The expanded version covers "5 categories of emergency supplies — food, personal items, escape and self-rescue tools, medical first-aid supplies, and important documents." The Bureau also advises "buying emergency supplies from producers and sellers with lawful qualifications and a good reputation," "stockpiling the basic-version emergency supply items first," and "mastering the correct use of emergency supplies, checking their condition regularly, and promptly replacing any supplies that are past their shelf life."

Source: Beijing Municipal Emergency Management Bureau (2020). Beijing revises and issues the recommended list of emergency supplies for resident households. https://yjglj.beijing.gov.cn/art/2020/12/23/art_6058_664632.html; item-by-item detail as republished by the People's Government of Xicheng District, Beijing. https://www.bjxch.gov.cn/zt/kpzc/xxxq/pnidpv858729.html

There was a 2024 update at the national level: Annex 2 of the Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening the Emergency Rescue and Disaster Relief Supplies Support System and Capacity Building, issued by the Office of the National Committee for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Relief (Guofangjianjiubanfa [2024] No. 13, September 23, 2024), is the Guiding Catalog of Household Emergency Supplies for Reserve, divided into 5 categories — emergency food, daily-living items, emergency tools, emergency medicines and medical supplies, and important documents — with 16 items in the basic version and 31 in the expanded version. TODO (to verify: the item-by-item names of the 16 and 31 items in that annex; the official annex is a WPS file and an image-only PDF, and no text that could be checked verbatim was obtained this time).

2. The three fire-safety essentials

Fire extinguisher. Portable fire extinguishers are a product under mandatory certification and should carry the CCC mark (China Compulsory Certification, China's mandatory product-certification scheme); the applicable standard is GB 4351—2023, Portable Fire Extinguishers. Stored-pressure extinguishers carry a pressure gauge (except carbon dioxide extinguishers); the needle should sit inside the green zone, and if it points into the red or yellow zone the extinguisher is out of service. The disposal ages follow XF 95: 6 years for water-based types, 10 years for dry powder, 12 years for carbon dioxide, counted from the date of manufacture, which can be found in the steel stamp on the cylinder. For home use, ABC dry powder is the usual choice. Keep one at the kitchen door and one at the entryway; do not put it in the cabinet directly above the stove — an extinguisher you cannot reach when something is burning is the same as not having one.

Fire blanket. It appears in the official list alongside the fire extinguisher, with two uses: covering a burning oil pan, and wrapping around yourself to escape. Keep one in a kitchen drawer; it takes up no space and does not expire. When a pot catches fire, turn off the heat first, then cover it, and do not lift the blanket off again right away.

Escape respirator. The official name is the 消防过滤式自救呼吸器 (fire-service filter-type self-rescue respirator), covered by GB 21976.7—2012, Building fire escape and refuge equipment — Part 7: Filter-type fire self-rescue respirator, a mandatory national standard currently in force, implemented on June 1, 2013, whose 2023 review concluded it remains valid. When buying, look for this standard number and the CCC mark; keep one per person according to the size of the household, placed within reach at the bedside in the bedrooms, not locked away in a storage room. It works by adsorbing toxic substances from the smoke in a filter canister; it is single-use, has a rated protection time, and has exactly one purpose: put it on and walk out. TODO (to verify: the standard's exact wording on the lower limit of applicable oxygen content and the rated protection time; this pass obtained only the standard title, status, and implementation date, not the clause text).

What actually kills in a fire is the smoke. The escape actions are in Section 13, item 25, and the alarms in Section 1, item 3; both sit ahead of these three in priority.

3. What goes in the first-aid kit

The official list says only: "external-use medicines: styptic powder, adhesive bandages, gauze bandages, and so on, for treating wounds." Based on the first-aid actions already verified in Section 13, a reasonable home first-aid kit contains:

• Bleeding control: one windlass tourniquet, sterile gauze and bandages, a triangular bandage, medical tape. The tourniquet's use, its contraindications, and the rule "do not loosen it to let blood flow" are in Section 13, item 11
• Wound cleaning: iodophor cotton swabs, saline solution, adhesive bandages, sterile dressings, disposable gloves, scissors and tweezers
• Burns and scalds: no ointment of any kind is needed; 20 minutes of cool running water is the entire treatment, see Section 13, item 13
• Records: a card listing each family member's allergies, chronic conditions, and regular medications, to hand directly to the emergency personnel when they arrive

Someone with a known severe allergy should also keep an epinephrine auto-injector. That is a prescription drug; have a doctor prescribe it, see Section 13, item 14.

The contents list in this section is grade C: the official document gives only the phrase "external-use medicines," and the specific items are back-derived from the first-aid actions verified in this book, with no direct source behind them.

4. Lighting, communication, and signaling for help

For the flashlight, follow the official description: waterproof and explosion-proof, with batteries recharged or replaced regularly. The life-saving whistle is for signaling continuously while trapped; it takes less effort than shouting and carries through noise. The radio is for receiving emergency broadcasts. The Beijing version also lists an emergency escape rope and multi-function combination scissors. The phone power bank is the best value-for-money item in this category, and most households already have one.

5. A once-a-year check, ten minutes

• Fire extinguisher: whether the pressure gauge needle is in the green zone, and whether the manufacture date on the cylinder has reached the disposal age
• Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms: press the test button, change the batteries once a year, see Section 1, item 3
• Escape respirator: whether the packaging is damaged and whether it is past its stated shelf life
• First-aid kit: whether medicines and dressings have expired, and whether the tourniquet's lock still locks
• Flashlight and power bank: whether they still have charge

The Beijing bureau's exact words are: "check the condition of emergency supplies regularly, and promptly replace any supplies that are past their shelf life." Pin the check to the same day as the yearly alarm-battery change and do it all in one pass.

6. What not to buy

• A home AED. Costs over 10,000 yuan per unit, and for the household setting there is no evidence supporting buying one yourself. The correct action in cardiac arrest is to start compressions immediately and have someone call 120 (China's medical emergency number) and fetch an AED from the nearest public place, see Section 13, item 1
• "Fire masks" and "gas masks" without the CCC mark. Article 24 of the Fire Protection Law provides that fire products subject to mandatory product certification under the law "may be produced, sold, and used only after being certified as compliant with the mandatory requirements of national and industry standards by a certification body with statutory qualifications." The toxic gases industrial filter canisters protect against are not the same thing as the smoke in a building fire
• Packaged "emergency gift kits." These kits are usually filled out with cheap flashlights and masks making up the numbers; buying the fire extinguisher, fire blanket, respirator, and first-aid kit separately costs less and makes certification easier to check
• Stockpiling more than 3 days of food and water. The official list's yardstick is 3 days per person; anything beyond that is expiry waste, see Section 5, item 24

Source: Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (2021). Fire Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (2021 amendment, Article 24). https://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengcefagui/qtwj/202307/t20230726_3207767.html

7. How much good does this equipment actually do

The honest answer: the evidence is weaker than for the other entries in Section 1 of this book.

A Cochrane systematic review of 98 studies covering 2,605,044 people evaluated home safety education and the provision of safety equipment. It found that home safety interventions may reduce injury rates: IRR 0.89 (95% CI 0.78 to 1.01), a confidence interval that crosses 1; interventions delivered in the home had IRR 0.75 (95% CI 0.62 to 0.91); and interventions that did not provide safety equipment had IRR 0.78 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.92). In other words, the effect looks like it comes from the in-home education and modifications, not from handing out equipment. The review also concluded that there is no evidence that home safety interventions reduce the incidence of thermal burns or poisoning.

In the same review, the interventions did raise the share of safe behaviors: having a working smoke alarm installed OR 1.81 (95% CI 1.30 to 2.52); having an escape plan OR 2.01 (1.45 to 2.77); medicines stored safely OR 1.53 (1.27 to 1.84); stair gates fitted OR 1.61 (1.19 to 2.17).

Source: Kendrick D, et al. (2012). Home safety education and provision of safety equipment for injury prevention. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD005014.pub3

So the placement of this section is: buying everything on the official list in one pass is a reasonable, low-cost preparation, but do not treat it as safe because you bought it. What research has repeatedly shown to work is smoke alarms, an escape plan, and moving the sources of injury out of the way; none of these three is on the shopping list, or they make up only a small part of it.