How we choose, check, label and correct what we publish
HowToSurvive.in turns real incidents into safety lessons. That only works if readers can trust the facts. This page explains what we cover, how we check it, how we treat the people involved and what we do when we get something wrong.
Last updated: 4 November 2026
1. What we cover and why
We start with India: fires, road crashes, building collapses, industrial accidents, floods, crowd incidents and similar events that can happen to any family. We also cover major incidents from other countries when they teach something readers here can use. Crowd crushes, festival accidents and large protests count too, because the safety questions are the same. We do not chase every news item. We pick incidents that show what went wrong, what could have helped and what a reader can do differently.
2. How a case study is researched
Facts come only from pages we have opened and read ourselves. We do not copy a figure from a headline or from another website’s summary. Before a case study goes up we cross-check the important claims against independent, reliable reports or an official record. Official records come first where they exist, such as police, fire service, district administration, court and ministry statements. If only one outlet carries an important figure, we say so in the text. We keep our checking record internally.
3. When reports disagree
Early reports are often wrong about tolls, times and places. When outlets differ, we show the different figures and say who reported what, instead of quietly choosing one. We write “reportedly” or “police said” for anything not yet confirmed. We do not state a cause until an official body has reported it, and a suspected cause is labelled as suspected. We never invent quotes, and we do not turn an allegation into a finding.
4. Victims, minors and suspects
In new posts we do not name victims. We never name children, victims’ families or suspects. We do not publish photographs of victims or graphic images. A few older posts carry names that were already widely published in news reports, and those have been left as they were. When an arrest is reported, we say it was reported, and we do not treat it as proof of guilt.
5. How we label images
Many of our cover images are AI-generated editorial illustrations. They show the type of incident, not the actual scene. Each one is described as an illustration in its caption and its alt text, and none of them is a photograph of the incident. A photograph supplied by the HowToSurvive.in team, such as our Life Safety Blanket product photo, is described as exactly that. Other photographs are described according to what we have been able to verify about them.
6. How we choose videos
The video section lists public videos that we have opened and checked. The title, the publisher and the date should match the incident, and the thumbnail should not show victims. Most are on YouTube. Where a news publisher’s own post is the best record and cannot play on our page, we link to it and it opens on the publisher’s website. We check the picture and the publisher’s description. We have not reviewed everything that is said in each video, and many are in Hindi, Gujarati or other languages. A video listed here is not an endorsement of every statement in it.
7. How we update posts
Case studies are revisited when an inquiry report, arrest, court order or revised toll is published. New facts go into a dated follow-up on the same page, and the last checked date is changed. If a figure or a statement changes because we got it wrong, we fix it and record it on our Corrections page.
8. Who runs the site
HowToSurvive.in is a public-awareness initiative of VFF India Foundation, connected with the life-safety mission of Shivay Fire & Life Safety. Our guides are written and checked by people who work in fire and life safety. Our About page tells you more about the people involved.
9. Our independence
We do not accept payment to publish or change safety advice. Where a post mentions a product connected with our organisation, such as the Life Safety Blanket, we say so openly.
General guidance, not a replacement for emergency services
Medical, emergency and survival information on this website is general education. It does not replace emergency services or qualified professional advice, and every building, vehicle and person is different. In an emergency, call 112 first. For fire call 101 and for an ambulance call 108.
Tell us, and we will check it
Please use our Contact Us page. Send the link of the page, tell us what is wrong and, if you can, where we can verify the correct fact. We read every report. You can see what we have already fixed on the Corrections page. How we handle personal information is explained in our privacy policy.