What to Take in a Fire

Whether you have 10 minutes to get out, or an hour to plan an evacuation, these are some things to think about taking with you

We’ve just spent the last two days watching the disaster every Californian fears so much more than the inevitable earthquakes that are our trade-off for living in such a gorgeous State. Fire is the enemy of the wild beauty that remains part of our State identity, and in draught-prone, Santa-Ana-Windy Los Angeles, it attacks with a vengeance that does not see race, ethnicity, gender, or income. No one and nothing is safe from ravages of fire, and when that perfect storm of wind, dry season, and fuel is struck, no amount of privilege will be enough to save a house, or a business, or indeed, a life.

Thankfully, we live miles away from the fires that still burn in Los Angeles, but it was windy here on Tuesday night, and before we went to bed, we had a conversation about what to take if the worst happened and fire struck our part of town.

“My bagpipes,” was the first thing our 17-year-old said, “and my uniform.” He has a major competition coming up in Kansas City, MO, which is currently experiencing one of the worst ice storms in its history, so we’re literally jumping from the fire to the ice.

We showed him where all the passports, birth certificates, and house documents are kept, then discussed things like wallets, cash, computers, phones, chargers, clothes for a few days, bedding, toiletries, eyeglasses/contacts, and medications. Dog food was on the list, and a bowl with water, and we figured that we could probably get out of the house in about 10 minutes with everything we discussed.

The “you have an hour to pack up and leave” conversation was actually harder. When survival is on the line, it’s pretty easy to figure out what you need immediately, but mementos and personal possessions are harder to prioritize. We have an old fire-proof safety deposit box that friends gave us for our wedding, and the negatives from those photos are inside. Our wedding pictures and early vacation photos together haven’t been digitized, and while we rarely look at them anymore, it would be devastating to lose them altogether. Ed asked if I’d take my wedding dress (no), or the pottery we both love (probably at least some of it). He would take his favorite mug and hand-blown wine glass, and I might grab my favorite boots. The baby things I couldn’t give away (too many memories, like the ridiculously cute/expensive onesie we had to buy in New York when our baby blew out his diaper) would probably stay because they’re buried in a closet, and while I might bring a couple of first editions, I’d leave the books behind for lack of space.

Reading all the “What to pack to evacuate” lists have been eye-opening, and they made us think about the things we should do to actually be prepared for an emergency. Ed is out in the garage right now pulling all our camping gear toward the front so it’s easy to access sleeping bags, pads, and tents, and I’m actively planning to digitize the photos and negatives I’d be heartbroken to lose. We had the earthquake evacuation and home fire conversations with our kids when they were little (get out of the house and meet at the mailbox), but we’d never really had the detailed discussion of how to evacuate our house to save our lives, and what to do if our kids were the only ones home when the call to evacuate came (equally important to our grad school kid in their apartment).

So, in the interest of maybe facilitating those conversations with your own kids, I’ve made a list of the ways we’d evacuate for a fire:

The 10 minute grab-and-go

• People and pets

• Papers (passports, birth/marriage certificates, homeowner documents, insurance cards – basically anything that proves identity, ownership, and insurance)

• Prescriptions (medications, eyeglasses, contacts – anything that you can’t just pick up at a drugstore somewhere) and toiletries

• Food, water, and pet food

• Wallets/purses/credit cards/cash

• Personal electronics (phones, computers, chargers, hard drives)

• Clothes/shoes/bedding/towels/camping equipment

• If you have time, that priceless instrument/art/jewelry/photo/thing that your life wouldn’t be the same without.

*A trick to make packing up faster - toss the clothes and shoes you need (enough for about 3 days) into the middle of your bed, then wrap them up into a bundle using your blankets/bedding to carry out to the car.

**If you have small children, consider picking them up with a blanket and their favorite toy/stuffed animal and putting them in the car. Buckle them into their car seat and then go back into the house for your stuff.

To prepare for a 10-minute grab and go, consider prepping a bag or container of camping equipment and keeping it near the door of your garage. Know how to open the garage door without power so you can access it. Keep the camping gear near the extra containers of water you might already store there if you live in California and have created your earthquake plan.

Keep a “go-bag” hung on a hook in a coat closet by the door (if you need it during an earthquake, you don’t want to have to go digging when everything falls on the floor). Fill the go-bag with a first aid kit, a flashlight, face masks (for smoke), batteries/chargers, wipes, toilet paper, garbage bags, a bottle opener and a can opener. Then, when you go for the bag, you can grab coats for everyone too.

Mentally map out the plan for grabbing papers/clothes/essentials, and maybe even practice it with your kids. Show them what you’d take and tell them why – it’s a life lesson everyone should know and hopefully never need.

If you have an hour to plan your escape

• Pack your cars for the 10-minute evacuation

• Evaluate the space you have left, and prioritize what you take according to things like:

Sentimentality

Value

Replace-ability

Comfort

Space available

• Walk through every room of your house with your phone, filming the contents and narrating as you go. Do that now just in case – things will obviously change, but at least you’ll have a baseline record of the contents of your home for insurance purposes.

• Hose down the roof of your house and as much of the outside as you can.

• Shut off the gas valve to the house. Help elderly neighbors and the ones on either side of you to do the same as needed.

• Look at traffic patterns and plan your route accordingly.

Now, consider taking a look at the list of things you’d take if you had an hour to plan. Can any of it be digitized? Maybe do that now so you don’t have to use precious vehicle space for those things. You could also photograph the things that can’t be digitized, or film them and narrate what makes those things so special, so if the unthinkable happens and those things are lost, your kids will have a record of what they were and what those things meant to you. Honestly, that’s something to consider doing with all their special baby relics and the things you’ve kept, which somehow ended up deep in a closet. Make a digital record of them, tell their story and why they mattered to you. The items may be irreplaceable, but the memory of them will be something tangible that exists outside of yourself.

I sincerely hope that none of us ever experiences the unimaginable losses that fire brings, which thousands of people, including friends of ours now face in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires that are still burning as I write this. But if disasters teach us nothing else, they do teach us that nothing counts as much as a life. Things are just things – collect their stories for yourself and your kids because it’s the stories that gives those things meaning – but prioritize your lives, because above all, your life, and the lives of your family and friends are the most important things to keep safe in a fire.