Wednesday, November 19, 2008

In the Event of a Fire

In the past couple of years, we've seen some pretty devastating fires here in Southern California. The fires always happen in October or November, in what has now been deemed "Fire Season". The time of year where we are plagued with the Santa Ana winds, where everything is extremely dry, with very low humidity.

When our state is in the midst of a 'fire storm', the news generally runs continuous coverage of the fight against the fires. Showing the destruction the flames have left behind. Interviews with people who've been evacuated. Interviews with people who've watched their homes, their belongings go up in flames. Some people are given enough warning to grab things before being evacuated, others, aren't so lucky.

We live in an area where our neighborhood isn't up against the dry hills, so the threat of an out of control wildfire is minimal. However, with all these fires, we have seen how quickly fires can move from one house to another and as a result of seeing such devastation, I've complied a list of things to grab in the event we had enough time:

* the computers (mine has over 30,000 pictures on it)
* external hard drive
* the safe with all our important papers, marriage and birth certificates
* Bibles (mine has a lot of notes in it from over the years)
* box of pictures, photo albums (these are pre-digital camera days)
* family pictures off the walls
* home video tapes
* prescription medications
* clothes for every one
* address book
* cell phones and cell phone chargers
* jewelry

Obviously there's a lot of stuff on that list. But if you have a list and you know ahead of time what it is you would grab, you can just grab one thing after another.

Anyone else ever thought about the things you would want to grab in the event of needing to be evacuated for a fire??

3 comments:

Kim said...

Call me morbid, but I actually think about it quite a bit. I even burned extra copies of our digital pictures to disc and Ed took them to work...just in case!

Our computers, box of pictures, Bibles and scrapbooks are the must-haves here too.

Darcy said...

My mom and I have talked about burned extra CDs of our digital pictures and storing them at each others house. We just haven't done it yet.

Joy Howse said...

Well, of course the kids and the dogs!! :) I have been wanting to burn my pictures onto CD and store them with my mom as well but that never happened. He did back them up to an external hard drive in June so that was a start just in case my computer crashes. I am also trying to get him to take all my old home videos and put them on DVD so they are easier to store and grab. I have all my important papers in red hanging file folders, that way in an emergency Dale or myself know to grab the red ones only. The bills can go up in flames but I want my insurance info. :) I would love to get a safe to keep all these things but haven't gotten around to it. Dang I am lazy. This time of year really gets us CA people thinking doesn't it. We also have emergency backpacks in my car and in the house here with medical supplies, batteries, flashlights and such. Can't think of much more though I know there is plenty more I should have ready.

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