Internet Users Are Sharing Facts That Can Save Your Life, And Here Are 40 Of The Most Useful Ones

Bored Panda wanted to know what someone should do if they wake up to find that their home is filled with smoke or they see fire. Veteran firefighter Bruce, a member of the Australian Firefighters Calendar team with decades of experience in the fire service, told Bored Panda that, first of all, it's vital to hit the floor.

"If you stand up in the smoke, you can be unconscious very quickly. Make sure everyone is safe in the house depending on the severity of the fire. Make sure you stay low and make your way outside the house. The priority is to have working fire alarms in your house, have them checked regularly," he explained what you should do in this type of emergency.

Meanwhile, Bruce also shared what someone should do if they see someone fall unconscious.

"The first thing to do is to make sure you and the person are in a safe environment. They may have lost consciousness for a number of reasons that might not be due to poor health, for example, a gas leak or a shock from an electrical current," he pointed out to Bored Panda.

"After you ensure the area is safe, call emergency services immediately. Then check for responses from the patient, see if they can communicate. If they are unresponsive and not breathing, start CPR."

Here at Bored Panda, we genuinely think that the people working in the emergency services are heroes. We wanted to know about what it takes to be a great firefighter, and whether it's more important to be mentally or physically tough.

"Mental resilience and physical toughness are equally important," the veteran firefighter stressed.

"A major contributing factor to being a successful firefighter is the ability to assess the situation quickly. Things can happen extremely fast at a fire or an accident, you must be able to act and think at the same pace," Bruce said. "It is also important to possess problem-solving abilities in high-pressure situations."

The veteran, who's involved with the Australian Firefighters Calendar project, added that it really helps if you come from a well-rounded background before joining the fire service. "Farmers, builders, and construction workers, people that have worked with their hands make fantastic firefighters. Physical strength and endurance are also a vital component in a rescue situation."

The essentials in any emergency are very simple. Don’t panic. Call for help. Trust your gut. If you start panicking, you’re far more likely to make decisions that can end up hurting you in the end.

Of course, it’s easy to tell someone not to panic—staying calm when there’s a lion heading towards you or when you wake up to the house on fire is incredibly difficult to do in practice. Your fight or flight instinct is kicking in. Try to control your breathing to calm yourself. It also pays off to live a healthy lifestyle and be physically fit so you're more likely to survive accidents and help others in need.

Depending on where you live, the emergency services number will be different. You should definitely know it by heart. Those of you Pandas living in the United States, Mexico, and Canada should call 911. If you live in the UK, dial 999; if you happen to be based in Australia, dial 000 (aka ‘triple zero’) and the operator will ask, ‘Police, Fire, Ambulance?’

Those of you Pandas living in the European Union will most likely call 112. The number also works in India. In short, if you see someone in danger or you need assistance, call for help ASAP. Do it yourself, don’t expect others to call in your place.

When you see an accident and there’s a crowd of onlookers, odds are that you’re likely to think that someone already phoned the emergency services. However, that’s where the bystander effect comes into play.

When there are other people around, you might feel discouraged from intervening in an emergency situation. In other words, you’re less likely to help someone in distress because you assume someone else will (or already has).

“People are more likely to take action in a crisis when there are few or no other witnesses present,” Psychology Today notes.

The bystander effect isn’t related just to passiveness. It’s completely natural to freeze up when there’s an emergency. “This is usually a response to fear—the fear that you are too weak to help, that you might be misunderstanding the context and seeing a threat where there is none, or even that intervening will put your own life in danger,” Psychology Today explains.

One way to ‘break the ice’ in these sorts of situations is to say something aloud. Asking someone what’s going on or even stating that you’re calling the police or the medics can get the ball rolling. Others might feel emboldened and start doing something to help, too. In these situations, taking action (even if it’s minuscule) is essential.

Be a leader. Speak, even if your voice shakes. Being an everyday superhero doesn’t mean fighting off evil robot invaders from outer space; it usually means finding the courage to help someone in need, even if you think your help barely amounts to anything. And if you know what to do in situations where someone’s drowning, unconscious, or has hurt themselves, then you’ve got an advantage compared to all the other bystanders. What you do, how you react, matters.