Action Guides: What to Do Before, During and After Everyday Risks

Practical steps for preventing harm, responding when something goes wrong, and recovering afterwards.

Each guide is short, ordered, and printable. Every step carries a label saying how strong the evidence behind it is.

If something is happening now, stop reading and call your emergency number: US 911 · UK 999 · Australia 000 · elsewhere, your local number.

Start with the situation you are facing

A pointillist illustration: a frying pan with its lid on, sitting on a hob against a pale tiled wall.At homeHome fire: what to do before, during and afterWorking alarms, two ways out, the first minute and the first week.A pointillist illustration: a chimney stack with a flue cowl on a dark roof against a pale sky.At homeCarbon monoxide: warning signs and what to doWhere alarms go, the generator mistake, and what to do when it sounds.A pointillist illustration: a lit counter window divided by bars in a dark wall.Online and scamsSent money to a scammer? What to do, in orderWho to call first for each way you paid, where to report, and the second scam.A pointillist illustration: a weather vane on a rooftop against a pale sky.With moneyAfter a big investment loss: what to check before you actMargin, cash needs and the arithmetic of recovery. Checks, not trades.

How each guide is organised

Act nowThree lines at the top for when it is happening.
BeforeWhat to set up while nothing is wrong.
If it happensThe order that matters in the first minutes or hours.
AfterwardsRecords, reports, insurance and the mistakes people make next.

How we choose the steps

Each step is labelled. Measured means there is outcome data on that step, cited in the guide. Official advice means a public body recommends it, but its effect is rarely measured directly. Untested means it is sensible but we found no study of it, and we say so.

We leave out steps that the research says do not work, even popular ones, and we say where the evidence has limits. The guides are general information, not medical, legal or financial advice, and they do not replace instructions from your local emergency services.

Each guide links to the longer analysis behind it and to one of our risk tools. More guides will follow, one subject at a time.