Poland's 2025 safety guide is one of the most thorough in Europe. It asks for two things: home supplies for at least three days, and an evacuation backpack, the plecak ewakuacyjny, for every person in the household, children included. Here is what each contains.
The official guide
- Title: Poradnik bezpieczeństwa ("Safety guide")
- Publisher: the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA), on gov.pl
- Year: 2025 (publication no. 1/2025, Warsaw)
- Horizon: at least 3 days
- Link: gov.pl/web/poradnikbezpieczenstwa (Polish)
Home supplies for at least 3 days
The guide suggests a mix of long-life stock and things you use and replace as you go, checked every few months for use-by dates.
- Food and drink: at least 3 litres of water per person per day, and ready-to-eat food.
- First-aid kit: your regular medicines; painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and remedies for nausea and diarrhoea; gauze, bandages, burn dressings, disposable gloves, antiseptic; a tourniquet; a thermometer and scissors; FFP3 masks; a foil thermal blanket.
- Cleaning and hygiene: toilet paper, wet wipes, sanitary pads, nappies, disinfectant, bin bags, and a bucket with a lid.
- Light and communication: a battery or crank torch and radio, a charged phone, a charger, a charged power bank, matching cables and batteries, candles for indoor use, a lighter.
- Blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothes.
- Cash in different denominations.
- Tools: tape, plastic sheeting and sealing kits.
- An alternative source of heating that doesn't run on electricity.
For a household of four, 3 litres a day over three days is 36 litres.
The evacuation backpack
The guide says every member of the household should have one, even children:
- Bottled water, and filters or water purification tablets.
- Documents, copies on a USB stick, and cash in different denominations.
- A first-aid kit and personal medicines, hygiene and disinfection products.
- A battery or crank torch and radio, a charged phone and power bank, a charger, matching cables and spare batteries.
- A pocket knife or multi-tool, a lighter, bin bags, printed maps.
- High-energy ready-to-eat food: energy bars, dried fruit, nuts.
- An important personal item, such as a photo or family keepsake.
- Clothes for the season, rain gear, a sleeping bag, a sleeping mat, a foil thermal blanket.
- An alternative means of communication, such as a walkie-talkie.
Preparing the home
Beyond supplies, the guide asks you to mark where to turn off gas, electricity and water, and practise doing it; to fit smoke, carbon monoxide and gas detectors and check them regularly; and to equip the home with a fire extinguisher and fire blanket. It also tells you to download the free RSO (Regional Warning System) app, and explains that warnings also arrive as RCB alerts on mobile phones. If the toilet can't be flushed, it suggests lining a bucket with a plastic bag.
How Poland compares
Our data counts 36 of our 51 items in Poland's guide, the second-highest of the 24, after Czechia. Five of them appear in four guides or fewer:
- A warning app. Only Poland and Germany.
- A carbon monoxide alarm. Only Poland and Germany.
- A bucket toilet. Only Poland, Germany and Sweden.
- A smoke alarm. Poland, Germany, Finland and the UK.
- A sleeping mat. Poland, Latvia, Czechia and Slovakia.
Some details go further than any item on our list: a tourniquet, FFP3 rather than FFP2 masks, a walkie-talkie, and gas detectors. There is no item listed by 18 or more guides that Poland leaves out.
A note on heating: if your alternative heat source burns gas or fuel indoors, make sure it is rated for indoor use, keep some fresh air coming in, and fit a carbon monoxide alarm, as the guide itself recommends.
Build yours
Our checklist covers Poland's home supplies and works out the quantities for your household. For the backpack, see our grab bag checklist; for a long outage, the power cut checklist.