What do you think would happen if one of your farm buildings caught  fire
and no one was there to tell firefighters what the building contained? Since the fire fighters wouldn't know if pesticides or other chemicals were in the building, they might treat it as a hazardous materials fire and let it burn until the hazmat team arrived.
For everyone's protection and to prevent this situation, you should have a well-hidden permanently installed mailbox or lock box that serves as an emergency information box. It should contain:
- a detailed map of the farm
- a list of emergency contact persons and their phone numbers, including cell numbers
- locations and amounts of hazardous chemicals stored on the farm, and material safety data sheets (available from your dealer or on the Internet) for each chemical
- a list of the major contents of each building
Your emergency information box will be very important to first responders if an emergency situation occurs on your farm. Only you and the local authorities should know its location (and/or the location of its key). Have the location entered into the computer database at your local 911 dispatch center, and personally inform your local fire and police chiefs. Keep copies of all materials stored in the information box at a second site on the premises, such as the farmhouse, a farm office, or an outbuilding.
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