Keep a fire extinguisher, fire blanket, escape smoke hood and first-aid kit at home, and check them once a year

Cost

An extinguisher, a fire blanket, one smoke hood per person and a first-aid kit come to a few hundred CNY a set. Buy once, then spend ten minutes a year checking.

What you get

The Ministry of Emergency Management's National Basic Edition Recommended List of Household Emergency Supplies (《全国基础版家庭应急物资储备建议清单》) has 11 items in all. Of these, the “fire extinguisher and fire blanket” are for “putting out a fire at its start,” and the list also says that “a fire blanket can be draped over the body to escape.” The “breathing mask” means a “filter-type fire self-rescue respirator, used for escaping a fire.” The “topical medicines” are “hemostatic powder, hemostatic patches, gauze bandages and the like, used to treat wounds.” Cochrane pooled 98 studies and 2,605,044 people. Home safety interventions brought the injury rate down to IRR 0.89 (95% CI 0.78 to 1.01, the plausible range). Among them, interventions delivered in the home lowered the injury rate by about 25% (IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.91).

Notes

Disputed. In the same Cochrane pooled analysis, interventions that did not hand out equipment lowered the injury rate by about 20% (IRR 0.78, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.92). The groups that were given equipment did no better. What lowered injuries was mainly education and modification at the home, so the benefit of the equipment is rated “medium,” not “large.” When buying an extinguisher, look for the CCC mark, and for the stored-pressure type make sure the gauge needle sits in the green zone. Fire blankets are mostly fiberglass; grab only the two pull tabs and don't touch the blanket surface with bare hands. Using one to cover a pan of burning oil is also disputed: in 2014 a Dutch regulator tested 22 brands, and none put out the fire reliably when used the way ordinary people use them. For a grease fire, turn off the heat first and put a lid on the pan. For smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, see §1.3. For how to use a tourniquet, see §13.12. For how to choose each item, where to keep it and how many years before replacing it, see the home emergency equipment list.

Evidence grade

B : Supported by research but without a precise number, or based on small or single studies.

Sources

1. Ministry of Emergency Management (2020). Recommended List of Basic Household Emergency Supplies Reserves for the Nation [in Chinese]. https://www.mem.gov.cn/kp/shaq/202011/t20201129_372149.shtml
2. 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
3. Wusheng County Administration for Market Regulation (2025). Consumer Tips on Portable Fire Extinguishers, Fire Doors (Windows), and Spot-Type Heat (Smoke) Fire Detectors [in Chinese]. https://www.wusheng.gov.cn/gasylbzj/c109568/zzzq/content/content_1988424970198126592.html
4. Guizhou Provincial Fire and Rescue Corps (2025). A Complete Guide to the Functions and Use of the Fire Blanket Every Home Needs [in Chinese] (republished from Beijing Fire Rescue). https://gz.119.gov.cn/xfkp/xfcs/202503/t20250313_87157898.html
5. NVWA (2014). Blusdekens oktober 2014 (inspection report of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority; the original page has been taken down, and the link is a web archive copy of October 20, 2021). https://web.archive.org/web/20211020154732/https://www.nvwa.nl/binaries/nvwa/documenten/consument/consumentenartikelen/non-food/overige-non-food/blusdekens-oktober-2014/Factsheet+Blusdekens+Oktober+2014.pdf

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 1, tip 26. This section is about health and medicines. It is general information, not a substitute for a doctor’s diagnosis or prescription. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer