LIGHT, SMOKE, AND FIRE

There are few situations as despair-inducing as those that leave you removed from other people and unable to help yourself. Bad weather or a blown tire sends you careening off the road, your boat motor craps out and you’re adrift without power, or you’re lost or injured in the wilderness and in need of help — these are all very realistic scenarios that occur every day. The easy, go-to-method of signaling for help is your cell phone, and that works great right up until the moment that it doesn’t. Assuming your phone isn’t broken and the battery has some life, signal strength can be sketchy, particularly in the wilderness or offshore. If you subscribe to movie clichés, don’t forget that technology always fails at the most critical moment. It can be an incredible tool, but over-reliance on technology can be fatal.

Whether you’re preparing for an excursion in the great outdoors or conducting your due diligence by stocking your boat or automobile with a small cache of safety equipment, having the ability to signal when you’re in a predicament shouldn’t be considered optional. Packing a small first-aid kit is more than most accomplish, but even that’s often the extent of an average person’s contingency planning. Somewhere between doing nothing and investing in a personal locator beacon (PLB), lie some small and light-weight options that are universally recognized for locating someone in distress. The term “flare” often conjures an image of what looks like a stick of dynamite with a bright-red flaming end that resembles a firework. While classic flares are still widely used and generally