You Have 15 Minutes to Evacuate!
I recently completed a poll that stated If you only had 15 minutes to evacuate your home due to a wild fire, what would you grab first?
We have had a very dry year in our state so far. We have had over 1,400 wildfires year to date in our state. As in other states, fireworks, gun and fire restrictions have increased. I watched a fire from my backyard as the entire side of a mountain was engulfed in flames. There was an incident, close to our home, where the neighborhoods had to be evacuated.
There are two instances that occurred that I wanted to share. One resident knew the fire was close and went about her normal errands. When she came back she was unable to return to her home due to the police blockading the streets. She was eventually allowed in to grab a minimal amount of items. The second was a resident heard a knock at the door and was surprised to see a police officer. She was told she had 15 minutes to evacuate her house. The officer waited the 15 minutes to escort her out.
I am lucky that I was fairly separated from these fires, but as I saw this happen to friends in other states, I thought about having to evacuate the home in 15 minutes. I have thought about how to get my family out of the house in case of a fire, but not this situation. I began to think about what I would grab if I had 15 minutes. I also wanted to know what others would grab so I created a survey and I received some good results that needed to be shared.
I also wanted to share some of the comments made by the participants;
- “Family first, photos and items that can’t be replaced. When your house is burning down important documents become very unimportant rather quickly. Stuff is just stuff, family is forever.”
- “Important Documents and if possible then the electronics.”
- “My flute, piccolo, coin collection and my daughter’s artwork. Not necessarily in that order.”
- “With the exception of clothes/toys etc, all of the above really, but the only thing that I really could not leave is photographs of my daughter.”
I had never really thought of what I would do if I had a chance to leave and take minimal amount of items. I have all my important documents in a safe place off site. I have my pictures backed up in the cloud. I have all the things I thought I would need to protect. By taking care of the important documents, pictures, etc., I can focus on those items that can’t be stored; an original painting from my dad, items from living abroad, pictures my kids have drawn for me.
The challenge is to figure out what is most important to you. As you can see from the quotes and data above, each person sees different items as most important. The trick is to figure out what items are most important to you. Preserve those memories or those items. I would love to hear what you would grab and why. Please share so we can all learn from each other.
