First Responders Reveal Terrifying Situations That They Wish More People Knew How to Handle

It’s not something most of us think about, but imagine that you’re at home alone, eating a snack, when suddenly it gets lodged in your throat. There’s no one around to help you or call emergency services.

The good news is that you can help yourself in that situation. All it takes is a hard surface to throw yourself into, similar to how someone doing the Heimlich maneuver would use their fists. Don’t let being alone stop you from snacking.

Certain parts of the world are more prone to tornadoes than others. Sure, they can happen anywhere, but they require very specific conditions that are more likely in certain places — like in “Tornado Alley” in the United States.

If you live in one of those states, or any other part of the world that sees frequent tornadoes, a whistle could be the difference between a rescue crew finding you sooner rather than later. It’s helpful in areas that see other rubble-causing events, too.

Wolves are generally very shy animals. They’re more likely to run away from a human than try to attack. But should you ever, for some strange reason, find yourself in a wolf-human standoff, here’s what you can do.

This sounds like pretty standard advice when dealing with any top predator, like bears or mountain lions. Make yourself big and hope they get scared. They’re more likely to run than to want to get into a fight with you, but better safe than sorry.

The woods can be beautiful, but they can also be dangerous. If you accidentally stray from a path, you can very quickly become lost, and it’s hard for a rescue helicopter to find you if you’re in thick foliage.

Staring at trunk after trunk is daunting, but if you look up, it may be easier to notice an open patch of sky, which may lead to a clearing. It’s something many probably don’t think of, but this tip could help you be rescued.

Emergency situations in public places can become scary very quickly. When people are scared, they tend to form a big crush, unintentionally crushing people in front of them in the process. But, there’s a way you can avoid this.

Always look for other exits. Most movie theater rooms, for example, will have a fire exit — which of course isn’t the door that you come in through at the beginning of the movie. Should something happen, most people wouldn’t go for that door, but you can and should.

A lot of time is spent in cars. Morning and evening commutes, trips to the grocery store, visiting family… All of these things involve long stints spent inside a vehicle. So, it only makes sense that this tip is about keeping a car emergency kit with you.

Should something happen to you where your car isn’t driveable anymore, long-life foods will help you keep fed until someone finds you. A battery bank can do the same thing by helping you keep your phone charged to call for help.

This particular tip is something that most women are all too aware of. Something as simple as going out dancing for the evening or for a few drinks can turn dangerous quickly if one doesn’t keep an eye on their drink.

In addition to this, don’t let people buy you a drink unless you can see the whole process of the drink being made and know that it’s safe. People shouldn’t have to worry about this, but it’s a huge problem.

Something that’s more dangerous than people think is thunderstorms. Lightning in particular can seriously harm or even kill people, which is why this tip is extremely important if you’re ever out and about during a storm.

In this position, very little of your body is in contact with the ground, so the lightning strike won’t harm you as badly. The reason you don’t want to be tall is because lightning is usually attracted to something tall, so it will go for something else instead.

Some things seem like common sense, but they’re things that people may have never had to think about before. For example, those who live in an area with lots of hiking trails know the importance of telling someone where you’re going, especially when alone.

However, those visiting hiking areas who don’t go hiking often may not have reason to know just how important it is. That’s why this tip is so essential. It could help those hiking alone avoid a huge disaster should they get lost.

Speaking of going hiking, if it’s something that you do often, you should carry certain things with you. In addition to the obvious food and water, there are a few other things that will come in handy if you get lost.

A poncho will keep your body healthy should it rain. A lighter can help you start a fire. A foil blanket will not only keep you warm, but flashlights and helicopter spotlights will reflect off of it, making it easier to find you.

It’s perfectly normal for your children to know you by mom or dad, but if anything were to cause them to get separated from you, knowing you by only these names could be really detrimental.

In addition, help them find a way to memorize your phone number. One thing you can try is making it into a little song, as music often helps people learn things. This, combined with knowing your real name, will make it easier for rescuers to get in touch with you!

Another safety tip for those with children is having a safe word. There have been some horrible instances of strange adults showing up at a place, trying to pick up a child and claiming that they’re mom, dad, or a parent’s friend.

With a safe word, a parent can tell anyone who’s getting their kid from school the word. That way the children know whether this is someone they can trust or a devious stranger up to no good.

It would be nice to live in a world where those who cause accidents always stop, but that’s not reality. Take a hit-and-run, for instance. It leaves the car that was hit to pick up the pieces, literally or figuratively.

This is a tip that was probably a bit more useful before smartphones existed, but it’s still useful should you see an accident or something else and your phone is dead or inaccessible.

Certain situations are going to cause panic. It’s just a fact. One of those is getting lost when out in the wilderness. The panic can make us do rash things, like start running in a random direction.

According to this tip, this is one of the worst things a person can do. Rather, it’s best to just stop and try to collect ourselves and think things through before doing anything. It will help us see more clearly.

Water is absolutely vital to survival. Around 60% of the human body is made of water, so without it, we can’t think straight and can rapidly become dehydrated — which may have fatal consequences.

However, this doesn’t mean to just go and drink any old water. This tip about boiling is life-changing, because contaminated water can make you sick, ultimately dehydrating you even more. And being super sick in the wild doesn’t help anyone.

When it comes to tornadoes, everyone needs to have a safe place where they can go. Whether it’s a basement, a storm shelter, or simply a sturdy closet, it can save your life.

According to this tip, wearing sturdy shoes can also help you out. If your home was destroyed, your shoes will protect you while you pick your way through the rubble as you start to clean up. Otherwise, all your shoes could have been thrown anywhere by the tornado.

When someone has been sitting at a traffic light for a while, all they want to do is go. This usually means that the second the light turns green, they take off. This may not be such a good idea.

Lots of people try to beat yellow lights or even sneak through lights that have just turned red, which means putting you in danger in the process. So wait a few seconds before you go, no matter how annoyed the person behind you gets.

If you’re ever in a situation where you get trapped under snow, there’s probably a lot of things running through your head. Which way is up? How did this happen? And what am I supposed to do if I need to use the bathroom?

In any other circumstance, peeing yourself would be horrifying. But if you ever find yourself buried under snow, it could be the perfect indicator for a search dog to save you from a life-or-death situation.

As much as we like to think of phones as super reliable, the fact is that service dropping out while making an important phone call is fairly common. So if you’re calling 911 or another emergency number, say your address first.

That way if you lose service, or the phone call gets cut off for any other more sinister reasons, emergency services still know where to come and find you. If you don’t get cut off, you can tell them details afterwards.

We’ve all seen those scenes in sci-fi or horror movies where there’s a room full of scientists all passed out, or worse, and no one knows why. If you ever see that in real life, be extremely careful.

As much as you probably like to think you’re immune to harmful things, you aren’t, and going into a potentially hazardous zone could mean dire consequences. Instead, contact emergency services and let the professionals handle the situation.

Cars have changed a lot since they were first invented, and one of the most essential changes was the addition of seatbelts. Yet for some reason, some people still refuse to wear theirs.

Don’t be one of those people. There’s more than enough scientific evidence demonstrating how your seatbelt can be the line between surviving a car crash and ending up in a body bag. It’s worth the minor discomfort the seatbelt may cause you.

Imagine being at Disney World with your family, only to turn around and realize that one of your kids has gotten lost in a crowd of hundreds of children with their families. This is way more common than you may think.

This tip is awesome, because shouting out what your kid is wearing gives strangers specific things about their appearance in order to help you look for your child. Names don’t help much unless your kid is close enough to hear you.

Oceans are beautiful, but they’re extremely unpredictable. You can be treading water in a nice, calm area when suddenly you’re pulled under and have no idea why. If that happens to you, here’s a good tip.

It’s easy to get turned around, but the bubbles will always go up, and you should always follow the bubbles to get to the surface. Once on the surface, it will be much easier to make your way to safer waters.

Fire safety is something we all hope is contained to fire drills at school and not something any of us will ever actually have to face. But the reality is that fires happen all the time, and it’s so important for us to know what to do should we find ourselves in one. Now we do, thanks to this tip.

Flames are deadly, of course, but the smoke is the secret ender of lives. This is due to many things, like toxic gasses and particles in the smoke that can block your airways and reduce oxygen levels.

There’s a really interesting, yet dangerous psychological phenomenon called diffusion of responsibility. It’s the idea that when in a large group of people, individuals are less likely to take action when something bad happens.

That means that if someone needs help, everyone will just watch, thinking, “Oh, someone else must have helped already.” But with this tip, you can be the one to override this phenomenon and make sure that person gets the help that they need!

Emergency responders may seem like superheroes, but they don’t have X-ray vision or the ability to magically locate a house. There’s one very easy, very small change you can make to your home to help them locate you should they ever need to.

Make sure your house number is obvious and visible. If that means adding a light, even better. Minutes mean a lot when it comes to helping someone going through something serious enough to require an ambulance.

Something that’s always been popular amongst the youth is train tracks. Older generations would play on them. Younger generations like to use them to do moody photoshoots. But if anything is for sure, it’s that no one should go anywhere near them.

Trains are dangerous for obvious reasons, and thanks to physics, they can’t just slam the brakes if they come across someone on the train tracks. Don’t even take the risk; those cheesy photos just aren’t worth it.

You may try really hard to help your child memorize your phone number, but for some reason, they just can’t remember. Or maybe they’re too young. Thankfully, you can try this tip out when visiting a busy place.

Sharpie is hard to rub off, and an adult will know what to do once they see the phone number. It’s such an easy way to be sure your child will be reconnected with you swiftly and painlessly.

Dangerous situations aren’t exactly a time for thinking rationally. We’re much more likely to panic and potentially do something very stupid. That’s why it’s important to try and learn not to do that very thing.

If you can actually manage to look at things objectively like this tip advises, it will prevent you from making a decision that could cost you your life. So practice waiting to make decisions in small, everyday moments so it’s easier to do so in a crisis.

Life jackets are vital because they keep people afloat in water, reduce the risk of drowning, conserve energy, and are often required by law for various water activities. They are crucial for water safety.

Sure, they may not look super cool, but they protect you if you ever end up having to be in the water for longer than you can keep yourself afloat. So wear it anyway, because nothing is less cool than drowning.

Speaking of drowning, if you’re ever in a situation where you’re the one to help someone who’s drowning, remember the state of mind that person is in. They’re scared and panicking, and their animal instincts take over.

Don’t let yourself be the object they try to use to stay afloat. Rather bring something with you that they can float on, so that they can rest and you can help them out of the water.

After as little as three minutes in freezing cold water, your muscle strength decreases as well as your fine motor skills, which can make it next to impossible to swim well enough to find your way out.

Should you ever fall in, try to get out as fast as you possibly can, and make sure you take this tip to heart. The ice around where you fell in is probably weak, and trying to immediately stand up could just make it break again.

Something you constantly see in movies is someone getting into a car accident or some other horrible accident where their spine and neck are potentially injured, and those helping them leave them where they are.

That’s for a reason. If you move them, you could cause serious, permanent damage to their neck or spine — which could partially or completely paralyze them. So as much as you may want to help, leave moving them to the emergency professionals.

When you fall into moving water, your first instinct might be to try and swim to safety. That isn’t necessarily the best idea, though, especially if you’re fighting against a really strong current.

Instead, float on your back. That way, you can keep your nose and mouth above water, and can use your limbs to navigate a bit, like this tip advises. It’s much safer than immediately exhausting yourself fighting against a river that’s stronger than you are.

Breaking down on the side of a busy road is not only irritating, it’s dangerous. Cars passing by at high speeds could not only hit you, but could also throw up rocks or other items on the road at high speeds — which may then hit and injure you.

Instead, stay inside your car where you’re protected from the elements until help arrives, and if you do need to get out, get well away from the road.

No one wants to think about the possibility of having an emergency when in a foreign country, but anything can happen, which is why it’s best to be prepared. But, what happens if you don’t know the local emergency number?

Thanks to this tip, we know that you can try calling the one from your own country. There are a few emergency numbers that are common, and if not, they may have foreign emergency numbers rerouted to a local one.

Some people are unlucky enough to have allergies that are so severe, they can kill them. Those people are likely to always carry an EpiPen with them, and you knowing how to use it may be the help they need to calm their bodies down.

Remove the blue safety cap, place the orange tip on the thigh, and make sure to hold the pen down for around 10 seconds. Once this is over, call emergency services to get that person to the hospital!

Fire drills cause mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s super important to know the ways to escape a building in the event of a fire. But on the other hand, they may desensitize people to the dangers when the fire alarm is real.

It’s like the boy who cried wolf — eventually, people stop listening. But unlike that story, you should leave the building every single time you hear a fire alarm. Your safety is worth the inconvenience.

We’ve already seen that you can save yourself from choking by throwing yourself against a hard wall or other vertical surface. But another way to expel whatever you’re choking on is to basically do the Heimlich maneuver on yourself.

Form one hand into a fist and place it just above your belly button, and use the other hand to thrust your fist upwards to put pressure on your diaphragm. It’s another way to protect yourself against choking.

Many of us have heard never to add water to a grease fire, but many of us don’t know why. It’s because oil and water don’t mix, and the water could evaporate so quickly that it causes a steam/grease/fire explosion.

But the most important part of this tip is that if you can’t put it out quickly, get the heck out of there! The risk of inhaling smoke or getting trapped is too great to make sticking around worth it.

Diabetes is a tough disease to manage. The swings between low and high blood sugar are not only exhausting but dangerous. But, you can look out for your diabetic friends by keeping this tip in mind.

When assuming it’s low blood sugar, react by giving them sugar. A sugary juice is great, but even just a cube of sugar works in a pinch. Then, make sure that they get the help they need to regulate their levels.

We can survive a while without food, but only a few days without water, so one should be careful with both if lost in the wild. Another important thing is building a shelter to protect you from the elements.

The tip about part of your shelter being a help signal is really useful, because it’s something people may not think about if they’re panicked about being lost. People also don’t think about needing water to digest food.

We all like to think that we’re good at multitasking, but the reality is that no one is really good at multitasking. And if there’s anywhere that this is true, it’s when we’re trying to use a phone while driving.

Whatever is on your phone can’t be urgent enough that it can’t wait until you get to your destination. If it’s that urgent, follow this tip and just pull over. You put yourself and others in danger by using your phone while driving.

Icicles may be pretty, but large ones are very sharp and can be deadly when they fall off of roofs and impale people. If you see this happen to someone, make sure you listen to this tip.

There are a lot of reasons that you should leave the object where it is. One is that it may be acting like a plug to stop excess bleeding. Another is that it can cause damage to internal organs when not removed properly. Leave it be and call for help!

There’s a really silly myth around those who have seizures, and it’s that you must put something in their mouth to prevent them from swallowing their tongue or biting it off. The tongue is attached — how on earth would one swallow it?

A tip that’s genuinely useful instead is to protect the person’s head and to turn them onto their side after their body stops seizing. Head injuries are way more likely than their tongue magically disconnecting and going down their throat.