Home emergency supplies: what to buy, where to keep it, how often to check

This corresponds to the README entry §1.26 (keep a fire extinguisher, fire blanket, escape smoke hood and first-aid kit). This checklist lists what to keep at home and, apart from the fire blanket, does not explain how to use any of it. What to do on the spot in a fire escape, CPR, severe bleeding, burns and carbon monoxide poisoning is covered in §13. For choosing and installing smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, see §1.3. For gas hoses and stoves, see §1.4.

This section does the accounting for fewer deaths and fewer injuries. It covers only injuries from accidents, not illness. The evidence that buying the equipment itself helps much is not strong; the reasons are in the last section, so read that part before going further.

1. The official list as written

China's Ministry of Emergency Management (应急管理部) issued a Recommended List of Household Emergency Supplies, Basic National Edition (《全国基础版家庭应急物资储备建议清单》) with 11 items in all. The table below gives the original descriptions.

Source: Ministry of Emergency Management (2020). Recommended List of Household Emergency Supplies, Basic National Edition [in Chinese]. 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 two tiers: a basic edition and an expanded edition. The basic edition is divided into "3 categories: emergency items, emergency tools and emergency medicines." The specific things are these: a hand-crank flashlight that can also receive radio broadcasts, a rescue whistle, towels, tissues or wet wipes, a respirator mask, multi-function combination scissors, an emergency escape rope, and a fire extinguisher or fire blanket. Medicines and medical materials are counted separately: anti-infection and cold medicines, medical surgical masks, medical materials such as gauze and bandages, and iodophor swabs. The expanded edition is divided into "5 categories of emergency supplies: food, personal items, escape and self-rescue tools, medical first-aid supplies, and important documents." The bureau also made three suggestions. First, "buy emergency supplies from legally qualified, reputable producers and sellers." Second, "give priority to stocking the basic edition's items." Third, "learn how to use emergency supplies correctly, check their condition regularly, and promptly replace any that have passed their shelf life."

Sources: Beijing Municipal Emergency Management Bureau (2020). Beijing Revises and Issues the Recommended List of Household Emergency Supplies for Residents [in Chinese]. https://yjglj.beijing.gov.cn/art/2020/12/23/art_6058_664632.html ; item details as reprinted by the People's Government of Xicheng District, Beijing [in Chinese]. https://www.bjxch.gov.cn/zt/kpzc/xxxq/pnidpv858729.html

The national level was updated again in 2024. The document is the Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening the Emergency Rescue and Relief Supply System and Capacity Building (《关于进一步加强应急抢险救灾物资保障体系和能力建设的指导意见》), issued by the Office of the National Commission for Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief (Guo Fang Jian Jiu Ban Fa [2024] No. 13, September 23, 2024). Its Annex 2 is called the Guiding Catalog of Household Emergency Supplies (《家庭应急物资储备指导目录》). The catalog is divided into 5 categories: emergency food, daily necessities, emergency tools, emergency medicines and medical supplies, and important documents. The basic edition has 16 items and the expanded edition has 31 items.

The basic edition's 16 items fall into the 5 categories. Emergency food is drinking water and ready-to-eat food, both stocked for 3 days per person, with at least 3 liters of water per person. Daily necessities are personal hygiene and cleaning supplies, clothing, a small family tent and a moisture-proof pad. Emergency tools number 8: a multi-function flashlight, a rescue whistle, rain gear, a life jacket and a life ring. Also a fire extinguisher and fire blanket, a respirator mask, a multi-function combination knife, and an emergency escape rope. Emergency medicines and medical supplies are commonly used medicines and medical materials. Important documents are a household emergency card and an emergency contact sheet.

The expanded edition's 31 items add 15 to the basic edition. Food and daily-use items: vitamin supplements, food for special groups, shoes, hats and gloves, a multi-function waterproof backpack, supplies for special groups, and disinfectant, bleach and mosquito repellent. Tools and protective gear: a car window breaker and a demolition axe, reflective clothing, portable lighting, a portable water bottle and cup, and a safety helmet, insulated gloves and insulated boots. Medicines and documents: optional medicines, household member information, important financial documents, and other important personal items. In addition, the tent item adds a sleeping bag and a thermal blanket, and the escape rope item adds a rope ladder and a descent controller.

Source: Office of the National Commission for Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief (2024). Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening the Emergency Rescue and Relief Supply System and Capacity Building (Guo Fang Jian Jiu Ban Fa [2024] No. 13), Annex 2, Guiding Catalog of Household Emergency Supplies: "ensure basic drinking water needs for 3 days per person, at least 3 liters per person" and "ensure basic food needs for 3 days per person" [in Chinese]. https://www.mem.gov.cn/gk/zfxxgkpt/fdzdgknr/202410/W020241023541981997653.wps

2. The three fire-safety items

Fire extinguisher. Portable fire extinguishers are products under mandatory national certification. A qualifying one has the CCC mark printed on the cylinder. It follows the standard GB 4351-2023, Portable Fire Extinguishers (《手提式灭火器》). The pre-pressurized kind (except carbon dioxide extinguishers) has a pressure gauge on the cylinder. The needle must stay in the green zone. If the needle points to the red or yellow zone, the extinguisher can no longer be used. How many years until scrapping follows the standard XF 95: 6 years for water-based, 10 years for dry powder, 12 years for carbon dioxide. The years count from the manufacture date, which you can find stamped into the cylinder. For home use, buy an ABC dry-powder one. Put one by the kitchen door and one in the entry hall. Don't tuck it into a cabinet right above the stove, where you can't reach it in a real fire.

Fire blanket. In the official list it is written in the same item as the fire extinguisher. It has two uses: smothering a small fire that has just started, or draping over yourself as you run out. One in a kitchen drawer is enough. It takes no space and does not expire.

To use it, grab the two black pull tapes on the blanket with both hands and pull down to draw it out, shake it open, and hold it in front of you like a shield. Then lay it onto the fire starting from the side nearest you and moving outward. Don't pull it toward you from the fire's side, because as the blanket presses down, the flames will rush toward you. Once it is fully covering the fire, don't lift it right away. When draped over yourself to escape, also put on an escape respirator, because the blanket blocks fire but not smoke.

Most fire blankets are woven from fiberglass. The fibers are very fine and break when folded or rubbed; broken fibers stick into the skin, itchy and painful. So hold only the pull tapes, don't touch the blanket surface with bare hands, and don't let children play with it. In 2026, the media reported a boy in Guangdong who played with a fire blanket at home and got fiberglass stuck all over his face, neck and legs.

For a grease fire in a pan, turn off the heat first, then cover it with a lid of the right size. Don't pour water on it and don't throw flour on it. Using a fire blanket on a grease fire is disputed. Fire departments in China treat grease fires as the main use for the blanket. But the Dutch product safety regulator tested 22 brands on the market in 2014. Used the way ordinary people would use them, no brand reliably put out a grease fire. Some blankets caught fire themselves, and in one case, after being left on for 17 minutes, the oil reignited when the blanket was lifted. Those were blankets made to European standards. For blankets made in China to XF 1205, no comparable test was found. The pan lid is already at the stove, so use it first when oil catches fire.

Escape respirator. Its official name is a filter-type fire self-rescue respirator (消防过滤式自救呼吸器). It follows the standard GB 21976.7-2012, Building Fire Escape and Refuge Equipment, Part 7: Filter-type Fire Self-rescue Respirators (《建筑火灾逃生避难器材 第 7 部分：过滤式消防自救呼吸器》). This is a mandatory national standard currently in force. It took effect on June 1, 2013, and the 2023 review concluded that it remains valid. When buying, look for this standard number and for the CCC mark. Buy one for each person in the household. Keep it within arm's reach of the bedside, not locked in a storeroom. It uses the filter canister inside to trap the toxic gases in smoke; it is single-use and lasts only the rated time, so once you put it on, head out. The standard covers only places where the oxygen concentration in the air during a fire is not below 17%; where there is less oxygen than that, it can't help you. The rated protection time comes in four grades: 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes, and the number in the model name is the minutes, so TZL15 means 15 minutes. The packaging must be printed with "This product is for one-time escape use only and cannot be used for work protection." The product's shelf life is generally 3 years; replace it when it expires.

In a fire, the most deadly thing is smoke. How to get out (crawl low, feel the door before opening it, take the stairs rather than the elevator) is in §13.24. For smoke alarms, see §1.3. These two things deserve to be done before the three items above.

Sources: Guizhou Provincial Fire and Rescue Corps (2025). A Complete Guide to the Functions and Use of the Fire Blanket Every Home Needs (reprinted from Beijing Fire Service) [in Chinese]. https://gz.119.gov.cn/xfkp/xfcs/202503/t20250313_87157898.html ; Daxing'anling Prefecture Market Supervision Administration (2024). Consumer Tips on Fire Blankets [in Chinese]. https://dxal.gov.cn/dxal/c100095/202404/c13_280495.shtml ; Mentougou District People's Government Q&A knowledge base, Beijing (2022). Never Use Water to Put Out a Grease Fire [in Chinese]. https://www.bjmtg.gov.cn/bjmtg/c102899/202211/1a0b00ff4b3b47b0b5400a5e3883dd51.shtml ; NVWA (2014). Blusdekens oktober 2014 (inspection report of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority; the original page is offline, 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 ; NVWA. Jaarverslag 2014: Vlam in de pan – blusdeken niet veilig (the original page is offline, and the link is a web archive copy of July 16, 2019). https://web.archive.org/web/20190716185137/https://www.nvwa.nl/over-de-nvwa/organisatie/jaarverslagen-en-jaarplannen-nvwa/jaarverslag-2014/vlam-in-de-pan-blusdeken-niet-veilig ; Ma Tao (2026). Covered in prickles at a touch: are fire blankets really that bad? A firefighter says you've got it wrong! Ningbo Evening News, cnnb.com.cn [in Chinese]. http://news.cnnb.com.cn/system/2026/04/04/030760706.shtml (archive https://web.archive.org/web/20261007024155/http://news.cnnb.com.cn/system/2026/04/04/030760706.shtml ; this incident has only a media report, with no original official notice) ; State General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and Standardization Administration of China (2012). GB 21976.7-2012 Building Fire Escape and Refuge Equipment, Part 7: Filter-type Fire Self-rescue Respirators [in Chinese], Chapter 1: "This part applies to disposable filter-type fire self-rescue respirators worn by people escaping in places where the oxygen concentration in the air during a fire is not below 17%"; 4.1: "By the rated protection time of the respirator, they are divided into: 15 min, 20 min, 25 min and 30 min"; 4.2: "Example: TZL15 denotes a storage-type filter-type fire self-rescue respirator with a rated protection time of 15 min"; 8.1.1: "This product is for one-time escape use only and cannot be used for work protection"; 8.5: "The product's shelf life is generally 3 years". https://openstd.samr.gov.cn/bzgk/gb/newGbInfo?hcno=965321827BB11757B7B5E63EA91E47E7 (National Standards Full-text Disclosure System)

3. What goes in a first-aid kit

On this item the official list says only one line: "Topical medical supplies: hemostatic powder, hemostatic patches, gauze and bandages, for treating wounds." §13 has already verified which actions to take on the spot. Following those actions, it is reasonable for a home first-aid kit to hold the following.

• Stopping bleeding: one windlass tourniquet, meaning the kind with a rod you can twist tight. Add sterile gauze and bandages, a triangular bandage and medical tape. For how to use a tourniquet, when not to use one, and why you should "not loosen it to let the blood out," see §13.12
• Cleaning a wound (debridement): iodophor swabs, saline, adhesive bandages, sterile dressings, disposable gloves, scissors and tweezers
• Burns and scalds: no ointment of any kind; do just one thing on the spot, which is to run cool tap water over it for 20 minutes; see §13.14 (after a scald, rinse with cool running water for 20 minutes)
• Records: prepare a card. Write on it the family's allergy history, chronic conditions and regular medicines. When emergency responders arrive, hand them the card

If someone at home already knows they are at risk of severe allergic reactions, also keep an epinephrine auto-injector pen. It is a prescription drug, so get it from a doctor; see §13.15 (how to recognize and treat anaphylactic shock).

This first-aid kit list is grade C evidence. Grade C means it was written from experience and consensus, with no direct literature behind it. That is because on this item the official documents give only the four words "topical medical supplies." What exactly to buy is worked backward from the first-aid actions this book has already verified.

4. Lighting, communication and calling for help

For the flashlight, buy the waterproof, explosion-proof kind as the official description says. Recharge it or replace the batteries every so often. The rescue whistle is for sending a signal continuously when you are trapped. Blowing a whistle takes less effort than shouting, and the sound carries better through a noisy environment. The radio is for receiving emergency broadcasts. Beijing's version of the list also includes an emergency escape rope and multi-function combination scissors. The best value in this group is a phone power bank, which most households already have.

5. Check once a year, ten minutes

• Fire extinguisher: check that the pressure gauge needle is still in the green zone. Then look at the manufacture date on the cylinder and work out whether it has reached the scrapping age
• Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms: press the test button. Replace the batteries once a year; see §1.3 (install smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms)
• Respirator mask: check whether the packaging is torn and whether it has passed the rated shelf life
• First-aid kit: check whether medicines and dressings have expired and whether the tourniquet's buckle still locks
• Flashlight and power bank: check that they still have charge

The Beijing Municipal Emergency Management Bureau's own words are "check the condition of emergency supplies regularly and promptly replace any that have passed their shelf life." You can set this for the day you change the alarm batteries each year and check everything at once.

6. What you don't need to buy

• A home AED (automated external defibrillator). One costs over 10,000 yuan (1万元). And there is no evidence supporting households buying one. In cardiac arrest, what to do is start chest compressions immediately, have someone call 120, and at the same time fetch the AED from the nearest public place; see §13.1
• "Fire masks" or "gas masks" without the CCC mark. Article 24 of the Fire Protection Law (消防法) provides that fire products within the scope of mandatory product certification may be "produced, sold and used only after a legally qualified certification body has certified them as meeting the mandatory requirements of national and industry standards." That is, products that haven't passed certification can be neither sold nor used. Also, industrial filter canisters protect against the toxic substances found in workshops, which is not the same as the smoke in a fire
• Ready-made "emergency gift kits." These bags are mostly padded out with cheap flashlights and masks. Buying the fire extinguisher, fire blanket, respirator and first-aid kit separately is cheaper, and it is easier to check the certification of each item
• Stocking food and water for more than three days. The official list counts 3 days per person. The extra you stock mostly ends up thrown out after it expires; see §5.24 (don't stockpile for big sales)

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

7. How much this equipment really helps

The evidence in this section is weaker than for the other entries in §1 of this book.

A Cochrane systematic review pooled data from 98 studies and 2,605,044 people. It evaluated whether giving households safety education and handing out safety equipment actually works. The result: such measures may lower the rate of injuries, with an IRR of 0.89 (95% CI 0.78 to 1.01), about 10% lower. But the upper end of that plausible range crosses 1 (1 means no difference), so there may be no difference at all. The ones delivered through home visits did somewhat better, with an IRR of 0.75 (95% CI 0.62 to 0.91), about 25% lower. The ones that only taught without handing out anything had an IRR of 0.78 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.92), about 20% lower. What seems to work is home-visit teaching and home modification more than the act of handing out things. The review also concluded that there was no evidence that such measures reduce burns, scalds and poisoning.

In the same review, such measures did make people's safety habits better. More households had a working smoke alarm, OR 1.81 (95% CI 1.30 to 2.52), a share about 80% higher. More had worked out an escape plan in advance, OR 2.01 (1.45 to 2.77), about double. More stored medicines safely, OR 1.53 (1.27 to 1.84), about 50% higher. More had fitted safety gates at the stairs, OR 1.61 (1.19 to 2.17), about 60% higher.

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 buying everything on the official list in one go costs little and is a reasonable preparation. But don't assume that once you have bought it all you are safe. What research has repeatedly shown to work is three things: installing smoke alarms, working out in advance how to get out, and moving things in the home that can hurt people out of the way. These three are either not on the shopping list at all, or make up only a small part of it.