Once your house is on fire, you only have 90 seconds to evacuate before the heat and fumes overpower you.
“In just two minutes a fire can become life-threatening. In five minutes a residence can be engulfed in flames.” writes emergency experts Barbara Salisbury and Sandi Simmons in Preparedness Principles (2006).
The fire victims in Napa Valley in the US woke up at 2 am to see their whole street on fire. All they had time to grab was their cellphones and keys as they escaped in their cars. Some just had a few minutes to run away.
Earlier, one woman was watching the report of the wildfire on the 10 o’clock news. She looked out her window and saw the distant fire on the hills across the six-lane highway behind her house. Winds were blowing 50-70 mph (80-112 kph), and a fire ball flew over the freeway and landed on the tree outside her window. Her roof quickly caught fire and she only had moments to escape.
The strong winds spread the wildfire quickly to neighboring counties and burned over 99,147 hectares (245,000 acres), 8,400 structures, and left 100,000 homeless. Schools, banks, and businesses were all destroyed. The region’s $50 billion wine and tourism industry stand to lose its yearly 24 million visitors.
The residents fled to evacuation centers. Many stayed more than 14 days. Donations flooded in but the most requested items were cellphone chargers, water, toiletries, wipes, snack bars, jackets, blankets, new socks and underwear, and gas cards.
Not enough time for all that you want
Not all fires will spread immediately and many US residents nearby had about 45 minutes to two hours to evacuate. But regardless of how quickly you have to escape a fire, the suddenness of the frightening danger can confuse you and delay your escape as you try to bring what you can.
“At that moment, you have to decide what is important,” said one evacuee.
One woman rounded up all her paintings in the middle of the room, then she started adding more valuables to load into her car. But it took her so long to collect so much that she ended up leaving everything behind when the fire engulfed her house.
This week, some residents returned to their burned homes to see what remains. They sifted through the charred rubble for anything they can salvage. One man found intact ceramic figurines that he and his wife collected over their years of travel. But many found nothing.
Many homes had fire insurance so they will be compensated for their property. But what the victims really wanted was to find a shred of memento of their lives and loved ones.
“It was all just melted,” said one woman. The only thing left standing are the brick fireplaces and stone walls of what were once homes.
Preparation is key
It’s hard to imagine that we will be victims of any sort of calamity, which is why we go on ignoring that possibility. But we have to at least have a plan for emergencies.
“Being a little prepared is a whole lot better than not being prepared at all,” writes Salisbury.
We might think that we can just evacuate and buy as we go, but if there is no electricity we cannot withdraw from the ATM, use a credit card, or fill up on gas. If stores and services are closed, we cannot buy provisions. (Salisbury)
What can you take in 90 seconds?
We can do specific actions right now to help us quickly escape a fire with our valuables.
- The best preventive measure is to install smoke detectors: outside every bedroom; inside every bedroom; and on every floor of your home. It doubles your chance of surviving a fire. Check batteries every year and replace the units every ten years. Know what your alarm sounds like so you can act quickly when it rings.
- Place fire extinguishers on every floor of your home and near heat sources like the kitchen, where most home fires start. You can also put tubs of baking soda or salt to put out fires.
- Store your valuables in a safe and accessible space. Half of home fires occur between 10 pm to 6 am when most people are asleep. So you should keep your valuables near your bed where you can grab it quickly in the dark in case there is no electricity or there is too much smoke. Place your phone, chargers, devices, laptops, money, wallet, and keys in an accessible location near the bed and stow a bag nearby to contain everything if you need to go quickly. Have a flashlight with fresh batteries. Don’t rely on your phone light because you don’t want to drain your batteries if power is down.
- A massive fire destroys everything, even bank vaults. You need to make sure that you can recover your important documents. Give copies to a trusted adult, take pictures, and save electronic copies on a portable hard drive or flash drive. You can do the same for photos and memorabilia. Keep the drives with your bedside valuables.
- Make a list of last minute items which you use regularly: medicine, braces, eyeglasses, contact lenses, extra cash, jewelry, and health equipment like an apnea machine or crutches.
- Make a floor plan of your house and clearly mark all windows, doors, and exits. This can be laminated and prominently displayed by the halls. Keep one with your bedside valuables. In a fire, the smoke rises so it is best to crawl on the floor to avoid inhaling fumes. Use a flashlight. A headlamp is ideal so you can use your hands to grab your gear and escape.
- Write down your evacuation plan and let your family know it.
To save time, assign each member a task: Mom will corral the kids and grab the emergency bag; Dad will secure the bedside valuables and last minute items; another will grab the emergency food; each one will dress up and get their phones, chargers, gear, and flashlights.
If you have time to dress up, wear protective clothes that cover your arms and legs, thick socks, and sturdy shoes. Cover your nose and mouth with a moist cloth to block out smoke.
You need two exits for each room so know where they are. If you are on the second floor or a higher floor in a building, know how you will get down safely. Do not use the elevators in a burning building.
You need a visible meeting place a safe distance from your home, like the next-door neighbor or a store across the street. Everyone should stay outside and be visible so you know with one glance who is missing.
Have a second farther meeting place accessible by foot. It’s best if you have another trusted adult you can go to. If not, find a safe, well-lit place you can use at any time of the day.
If you are not together at the time of the fire, make sure everyone calls or texts you their location. Cell phone lines are likely overwhelmed during an emergency, but text messages have a higher chance of getting through. Landlines are also more reliable than cell towers in an emergency.
If you have an emergency bag, everyone should know where it is so they can grab it.
- Plan your escape route. You need to know the way to the nearest safe place. If the whole neighborhood is alerted, the roads will likely be clogged with vehicles or it could be too dangerous to drive. One Santa Rosa, US resident drove back to her house because the roads were congested and escaped on her bicycle with her dog in a duffel bag.
- Assign an emergency contact person outside of your family. If you are unable to contact each other because the lines are down, call or email this person to let them know you are fine and give them your location.
- Your evacuation bag does not have to be complicated. It just has to get you through 24-72 hours of being on your own until you can find shelter and provisions. In the best case scenario, you end up at a friend’s house or hotel. In the worst case scenario, you are stuck with other evacuees or on the road and you have to rough it.
Your bag can be a strong backpack, a duffel, or a stroller suitcase. Make sure you can carry it and it can withstand some beating.
Think of your needs when you choose what to pack. Treat it like an overnight bag. Don’t overload it as it needs to be light. My modern survival gear is now a cellphone, iPad, laptop, chargers, snacks, and water.
You need at least one set of clothes especially if you left a blazing fire and everything on you smells of soot. It’s best to pack lightweight, quick-drying, and sweat-wicking materials like polyester, nylon, and silk. Cotton feels soft but retains moisture and takes a long time to dry.
Choose clothes in good condition that fit well because you will likely need to move a lot. It is critical to wear comfy shoes and thick socks. You don’t want to be miserable away from home with sore feet.
You always need to wash, so pack a bar of mild soap that can double as shampoo in a pinch. To avoid spills, pack a moisturizing balm for hair, face, body, and lips. Have a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, razor, nail clippers, deodorant, and comb. Wipes and alcohol are handy for sanitizing, overall refresher, and cleaning without water. Have toilet paper and a small washcloth.
You can include a small first aid kit, plastic bags of all sizes, a battery radio, a whistle (for when you are trapped or you cannot shout), leak-proof water bottle or container, and hard candy or gum for energy.
Experts recommend protein bars but it’s hard to keep track of their spoilage. I want to just pack a bag once and forget about it until I need it.
It’s easier for me to have a ready cloth bag up in the pantry filled with packaged snacks, ready drinks in tetra packs, and hard candies. This accessibility allows me to use up what’s due to expire and contain food in one place. Assign a person to grab this emergency food.
- Car emergency backpack. We spend so much time in our cars anyway, so having this doubles as a back up in case we are stranded anywhere. This is also useful if you are unable to grab your evacuation bag inside the house or you cannot enter your home after a fire. You need to be able to carry this in case you travel on foot.
- A small office emergency bag in case you are stuck in the office without electricity or you need to evacuate on foot.
The Napa fire made me realize that I could not gather my valuables, documents, loved ones, and survival necessities even if I had two hours. Everything was scattered all around the house and our family did not have any sort of fire escape plan.
It especially pained me to think of leaving behind the family photos and videos, the kids’ crafts and writings, and baby memorabilia. It helps to share photos of these to other relatives so if you lose everything in a fire, you can still reconstruct some photos for your memories.
Preparation takes time and there is no absolute way to be ready for every possibility. But an awareness of what I need to form a simple plan and assemble a basic emergency bag gives me some reassurance that when a fire occurs, I saved a few seconds by having most things in place.