Oct. 30, 2007 - What would you take?

Suriviving the threat of fire

While not exactly local news, Christopher Lee, a co-worker from my "other life" as a safety professional and a pretty darned good writer and webmaster, wrote of his experience surviving the California wild fires, near Los Angeles. Thankfully, he, his family and home are all safe and sound. But, he raises a provocative question - if your house were on fire and you had only minutes to grab a few things and evacuate, what would YOU take? Read Christopher's full narative below:

"This is the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office. This is your final notification. You are under mandatory evacuation and must leave your home immediately. It is not safe for you to remain... ---- Third and final automated phone message received at 0720 PST, Oct 22.

Have you ever thought, "If my house were on fire, I wonder what I would take with me?"

The fire was not torching my home, but I had to get out right away. Only an idiot would have remained up there on the mountain. The increasing smoke was drifting up our street and beginning to sting our eyes. We definitely had to evacuate. But, for exactly how long we would be gone, or if we would even have a place to return to, was completely unknown.

In that tiny reality millisecond, my mind suddenly went into 'emergency mode'. I'm sure it's similar to what would happen should you ever be faced with, say, a real-life cabin prep. Those R.E.T. action items and the five or so questions that you're supposed to remember to ask the cockpit will all abruptly but very nicely kick in. You shift your thought process very, very quickly from "Dammit! I can't believe that this crap is happening to me!" to "Ok, the clock is ticking---what do I need to do first?" Item #1, Item #2, Item #3, etc... Disbelief becomes acceptance. Shock becomes action. Stubbornness becomes accepting reality.

Before that early morning greeting from our friendly police department, I would have probably considered a very different evacuation item list. It would have been a list mostly based on what I thought I might need to take with me. But that was then. And back to that morning, I had about fifteen minutes to run through the house and grab whatever would quickly fit in the car. That is, I had:

• Five minutes to decide what would be the most important items of my life to take.
• Ten minutes to actually carry out said items to my car for the hasty exodus down the mountain.

Looking back at this list, I find it extremely telling and interesting. Remember that it was compiled in five minutes, while running though the house. It was limited by what I could carry and actually fit into the car, as well as sort through in my rushed haziness at the time.

Evacuation List

Compiled between 7:20 - 7:25 am, Oct 22, 2007

Quantity	Item
1	Wife, seven months pregnant
2	Pets (1) Shetland Sheepdog (1) African Grey Parrot
1	Wedding Album
3	Photo/Memory boxes. These contain travel photos, souvenirs, memories, etc. One of them has a bit of sand I scooped up from the Sahara Desert, a colorful dagger I was given in Nepal, a train ticket stub to Leningrad in 1988...you know, an odd assortment of travel items that carry interesting memories.
1	Electric razor. I forgot to bring the darn cord to plug it in. Thus, a few good shaves, and then its Grizzly Adams time.
1	Toothbrush. This one was really dumb, because you can always buy another toothbrush anywhere. But, that's what I grabbed-go figure.
1	Jacket.
1	Laptop computer
2	IBM web server computers (contains all my graphic source files, software, and everything I've ever done with JSN). Yeah, like I'd leave that behind.
1	Roll of paper towels. Also dumb. Why the hell would I bring that? See toothbrush above.
1	Digital camera
1	Pack of prescription contact lenses for wife.
1	Baby heart monitor (so we can still hear Keira's heartbeat while stranded at hotel/motel). This was already in the car, so I guess it doesn't count.
1	Dog carrier (not necessary but taken nevertheless)
3	Removable hard drives (all our financial info, email, etc)
2	Cell phones
2	Undeposited checks. Total $40.00. Gee wiz.
1	Wallet (credit cards, ATM cards, and that sort of thing)
1	Insurance policy and paperwork (may be kind of important if house reduced to embers)
10	Cords and annoying tangled power adapters to plug in computers, hard drives, web servers, etc.
1	Phone book yellow pages.
1	Cash. Total $11.00. Change was left on dresser.
5	Small bottles of water. Yeah, well, I might get thirsty!
2	Towels. They were used to prop up the bird carrier in the car---and cover it so Simon would not have to breathe as much smoke.
4	Breakfast bars. Hey, have you ever experienced a pregnant wife? No? Than, trust me, this was an important item.

Nothing else was taken. No crew ID, no passport, no birth certificate, no other paperwork of any kind. I really didn't care about that stuff and didn't want to spend the few minutes I had trying to find those items. I know you are supposed to bring that paperwork, but "supposed to" and "actually having to make that decision" are two different things.

What I wished I'd remembered to bring:

• Clothes! Target has been our good friend this past week. Every clothing item we're now wearing is 100% Target rack on-sale certified. But there's something nice about being able to wear your regular old clothes that can help during a time of crisis. That is my EAP advice---take it for what it's worth. And they also sold maternity clothes there---always handy for stranded evacuees that are 7 months pregnant.
• Some of my recent "So, You're Going to Be a Father" books (this waiting around can be stressful, and I miss reading though some of them)
• More of Simon's toys (Parrot toys can be very expensive---a little fact I forgot while loading the last of the items into the car that morning)
• Bailey's regular food diet mix. This necessitated a trip 60 miles away to a place that had it in stock.
• More family photos. A lot of them were on the wall, and I just blew past them in all the rush---completely forgetting to pull them down and carry to the car.

And so, that's about it. This is the list of what I brought and remains an interesting window into the balance of what is important vs. what is practical vs. what was actually taken and carried out.

That's enough for now. Back to the waiting..."

Christopher, I'm happy that you and yor family are, safely, back in your home. I know it still will be be a while before things settle down and that "normal" will never be the same. Thanks for another incredible article.

For everyone else - what are you waiting for? Take time now to make an emergency plan for you and your loved ones. Need help getting started? Click here

Source: jumpseatnews.com