What would you take with you in a fire?
 

I am watching the devastation in Los Angeles and reading that people had only minutes to evacuate their homes.

What are the 5 items that you would take with you if you only had 15 minutes to evacuate your house? I am talking about physical items - not family and pets.

Easy, Top 5 items:

1. The Sentry file safe and little personal safe that is inside my gun safe. They contain emergency cash, passports, SSN cards, and a myriad of other important documents;
2. Go-Bag that contains toiletries, medications, wallet, keys, cellphone, firearm, and several pre-loaded ammo mags;
3. Tote (yellow/black storage tote) already filled with my most important file folders;
4. Tote already filled with photo albums / sentimental mementoes;
5. Flat of water / food / dogfood;

I learned a lot talking to a lady that owns a safe store in an area that had been devastated by fires a few years ago. She told me a few very important things.

Firstly, DO NOT put anything in the safe that is in plastic protective covers or ziplock type bags. Coins, baseball cards, photos in albums, etc. They will melt and completely and totally ruin their contents. Digital media like thumb drives, diskettes, hard drives, etc. are plastic - they will melt.

Secondly, if you're going to store cash you have to do it right. Loose is not correct. Get a few of those little metal airtight cans like PVC glue comes in (links below). They're about $30 for a dozen. The inner seals for them are about $3/dozen. Next, get some silicone (not rubber or elastic) hair ties. Then, go to Home Depot and a get a foot of copper wire that is fairly stiff and about the diameter of a penny nail. It will run you about $3. It's located in the electrical section where they have reels of different size wiring. Go to the bank and get $480 in twenty dollar bills and $20 in singles.

Take a 3-inch section of that copper wire (cut with pliers into 3-inch sections). Then start VERY TIGHTLY wrapping twenty dollar bills around it. Wrap all the twenties around it. Then wrap the 20 singles around it. The tighter the better. You are trying to eliminate air gaps to prevent your money from going aflame. You will end up with a roll about 1.5 inches across. The outside singles are sacrificial in the very rare case the heat gets crazy and starts singeing the money. The singles are protecting your twenties, essentially. The copper nail-like section acts as a heat sink. Wrap the silicone hair tie around the roll and seal up the whole thing in one of the little cans. Silicone has a very high melt rate of approximately 500F. There you go, the best way to store emergency cash.

Having lived through the Northridge Quake, I learned Cash Is King. No electricity means no ATMs and no store's Point of Service works. That means no debit card or credit card transactions. A $5 flat of water will be priced at $20. There will be extensive price gouging and you WILL pay it because very shortly afterward all supplies will be sold out to those that will pay it. The money will go fast. If an item is priced at $13, you are going to pay $20 for it. Why? Because NO ONE will make change. That is why you do not store one-hundred dollar bills as emergency cash. You will want/need twenties, and LOTS of them. The singles from your bundle of emergency cash are also very useful. Hundreds are not useful. If you have something that others want, they will take it from you - by brute force if need be. Hence the firearm and the ammo.

You just need enough to survive for a few days or, at worst, a few weeks until order and some semblance of normalcy and utilities are restored.

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1. Sentry safe with important docs (passport, birth certificate, marriage license, etc)
2. laptop, phone, tablet
3. box of older sentimental photos
4. suitcase of clothes, toiletries, and medications
5. christmas ornaments (lifetime of collecting - many memories)

Golf carts
Golf clubs
Swim bag
Bicycles
Wallet/Iphone/Ipad

My phone, and two photographs.

Some of the fires here in the Villages leave you very little time to get out.

Wallet.
Cell phone.
Important documents.
Two photos.

My wife.

Edited; actually I have fire proof safe with all important documents and passwords. I would grab that also.

My family. Screw the rest!

My insurance paperwork
My computers
My personal docs SS, passport, etc
My dog with her harness & leash
Blanket
Go

Besides obvious - wallet, passport, iPhone, iPad, laptop, if possible I would grab keys and drive car away.

I’m not attached to any possessions - I would grab my legal docs that I keep in a storage container, and a big photo album, where I have condensed all memorable family photos into one album. That’s it!

GOOD MAN! She will thank you.

Once I knew everyone was safe, I would grab our meds, our ID docs (all in one place in my safe), the good jewelry (also in the safe) and a few of my "special guitars. One, a Martin acoustic I've had since college, and three custom made electrics. If I had room, I'd also grab my 2 vintage Fender guitars and my '58 Les Paul Re-Issue...

I might grab my laptop, but everything is backed up to the cloud, so that is easily replaced...

Golf clubs, passport, maybe my wife depending on how things are going at that moment.

Car keys
Sneakers
Lots of cash
A sandwich
A Map
If I only have 15 minutes all I'm interested in is getting my butt out of there, material things mean nothing if you're not around to enjoy
it.
Oh, the map is important, after fires, earthquakes and mud slides, the map will help me decided where in the country I would rather live than California.

Totally depends on the fire circumstance.

If it's in the middle of the night, my wallet if I can reach it.

If I have a warning. As much as I can fit in my car.

#1 important papers/IDs/cards and cash
#2 Lots of water and food
#3 Blanket, Towel, Clothing and shoes for all types of weather
#4 Phone and Computer with chargers
#5 Toiletries
Let's hope we never have to deal with this topic, but good to be prepared.