First thing we have to do, buy insurance!!! Home owner’s and renter’s policies can be bought to cover your house if the fire decides your house needs to burn. This helps with after the fire for the most part yet can also give you comfort during the fire. Having insurance lets you think “Well at least we got insurance!” Being able to say this pushes the grief and worry back a bit and allows you to function better.
Having to evacuate from a fire or finding you cannot return home from a fire is not the time to think about the prior planning you “should” have done. Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance! We all need to take a few minutes and check over or begin planning for having to evacuating from a fire. Of course leaving the house for any reason is hard to do and in this case can be one of the shortest warnings you might receive. Following some of the plans we have covered in other post let’s check and see what we can have Pre-Planned to help us if we suddenly need to evacuate.
No matter if the fire is minutes or hours away one of the first things we check is our Every Day Carry. If we have our wallet, phone and other items on us or positioned for easy pick up in the middle of the night we are even with the game so far. We can run, literally run from the house in our pajamas if we had to! With our EDC we should be able to buy some clothes, food and shelter. Of course some of us might want to rethink what we wear to bed in case we suddenly end up in the street for all to see!!!!!
If you keep your Bail Out Bag in the car or by the door having one means you have more with you when the time to run comes. Hopefully the bag includes a jacket, more money, phone charger and other items which can help you in the immediate aftermath of the running!! Once in the car or on the way out the house hopefully you picked up or have your get home bag! This will also give you additional items, food, clothes and other items to help you. All of these items and the prior planning which goes with them could be a God send if you have to run. Especially if you have little ones you have to care for. Having already planned to evacuate if you need to will also help with our furry friends. Having carriers on hand to pack them into or plans for moving larger animals already worked out will make ensuring they are safe much easier.
When to go? As soon as someone tells you it is time to go! If the police come through your neighborhood or the reverse 911 systems tells you to go! GO! DO NOT WAIT, GO! At the end of the day whatever it is you could jam into the car or put in to a bag is not worth your life!!!! Fire does not care who you are, it will burn you and move on, never thinking of the hurt your death will bring to others. You must remember this; you dying will affect others for the rest of their lives!!! The loss of photos, toys or electronics can be dealt with mush easier…………… If the fire is getting close, leave. Just leave! You do not get extra “tough guy/girl” points awarded for staying until you can feel the fire on your face. What you do get is to use up some of your luck and some of us are not lucky to begin with!!!
Do not be the idiot on the news trying to hold back a wild fire with a garden hose! Your dumbass just becomes something the fire fighters have to deal with when they could be focusing on the firefighting!! Because when the fire gets close enough your little hose can reach the fire your little hose is no match for the fire!!
Being able to secure your home, because you have taken steps to increase the security of your home, should give you more piece of mind knowing no one can just break in if you leave. Having cleared away brush to give the fire fighters room to work should give you another piece of mind to add in. Not having to plan while in the middle of something should also help.
Now if we have the time we need to prioritize what we take. Start with paperwork, insurance paperwork, mortgage or rental agreements, passports, shot records and all the other paperwork which will help you after the fire. All of these things need to be in one spot, preferable in one container. Cheap, locking, fire resistant boxes can be picked up at Target or hardware stores for cheap. These boxes easily give you somewhere to keep all this stuff and allow you to just throw the box in the car and go.
Medications or other special need items should be the next priority. Making your way to safe area is good, getting there and needing the heart medicine you left in the house is bad. Clothes for at least three days might be next. This way you can have a set on, one in the wash and one set for the next day. Fill a cooler with food for a picnic, the kid’s favorite food or other items you do not need to cook. Maybe you just need to pull back to a nearby park for a few hours? Having something to eat could make watching the fire go by your house make easier to deal with! After all these things, then think about heirlooms or the big TV. Just remember you can live without the PlayStation or the picture Grandma painted in 1918!!!
From experience I can attest having to pack to run from a fire is not fun! Having plans in place really does help. The last fire we had to pack up for was chaos for a few minutes followed by hanging out watching to see if the fire was going to come close enough to run. Personally seeing, implementing and having the little piece of mind from prior planning were great not just for me but also the wife and kids. Which is the point of taking the time to plan ahead……………..
As Always,
Stay Safe!!!
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