If you were on a sinking ship or in a burning building, to what extent would you help others survive?

I’ve no idea.

I’ll tell you if I ever survive a sinking ship or burning building.

I’d more than likely go into Operation Savebottom Mode
Tossing babies, elderly folks & any other “obstacle” that blocked my & my family’s path to safety…YOLO :D

I don’t care what the announcement says: if there is a boom or a shudder I’m putting on the life vest and heading for the outside. A dead man helps no one.

Hey @ucme You take the front while l take the back. Let’s get this raft into the water!

This is the kind of question that I always have to answer the same way: With all my heart I want to believe I would help as many others as possible in an emergency, but how can I really know until, god forbid, I’m faced with it.

Hey @LuckyGuy Get the hell off of my raft, you’re nothing more than ballast!

I have extensive training in life saving, first aid, CPR, and an excellent swimmer/scuba diver and trained first responder and know I would be last man out but am also trained what not to do in order to not put my own life in harms way. I would most likely give my life to save a family member or child.

@ucme Then you’ll just have to haul the lifeboat off the deck by yourself pal. Mine is already loaded with flares, EPIRG, water and a nosh.

@LuckyGuy By myself? I have the wife & kids in tow, sorted!

I haven’t been in any comparable situation yet. I hope I’d save others, pretty sure I would try to help any children around. It depends on the scenario, too. Fire is very scary to me, so I think my instinct to get out of a burning building would be extremely strong.

@Pachy is correct. No matter what you think you might do in a crisis, what you will do cannot be known until the event occurs. In one situation you might behave altruistically and in another one’s survival instinct may take precedence.

@Bill1939 But people train for emergencies. I think it is possible to know which type of instinct you have. I know that, for me personally, I become more calm and focused when my surroundings become chaotic, except when it comes to fire. I can force my brain to focus through certain techniques, so I believe if I faced that fear in a fire academy then I would also be able to give you a high confidence that I would work to save others even in fire.
That being said, you can’t help anybody if you become a victim, so there are limits as to what I would do. If it would be a foolish attempt I would look for other methods than to kill myself helping others.
On a sinking ship, for example, I would find and hand out life vests, find exits, find ways of breaking windows. I would shout orders, I would scan crowds for the appearances of other calmer assertive types to work with. I would not back myself into a room of panicked people and work to get them out. That’s useless and a suicide mission.

Honestly? I believe I’m doomed to perish trying to save others, but, like many here, who knows until the moment arrives? Obviously, no one that gave up their life is here to report the fact.

@GloPro while you may be trained to deal with traumatic situations, few people are. I presumed that your question referred to the majority of people confronted by extreme events. Even training may not guarantee how one will act. Though the number of soldiers who have been unable to perform their duties during battles is small, they do exist and have in all the wars that mankind has engaged in.