Other than humans and pets, I'd get my laptop and laptop bag which usually has external drive in it, phone, charger, and purse. If I had time I'd get passports.

I probably wouldn't try to get physical pictures or other items.

I can pack a whole bag for me and the kids in five minutes. Clothes, medicine, toiletries, books for all of us, chargers, ear buds, water bottles, snacks, my suitcase safe with cash, passports, birth certificates, recent vaccine records for the dogs. Then I would grab the kids and dogs and go, with probably two and a half minutes to spare.

My husband would still be sitting on the toilet, then puttering around his office, probably printing his email.

He has life insurance and survivor benefits. We’ll be fine.

I’d grab my son and my keys. Wouldn’t even go back in the house for my purse. I don’t understand all these people with important documents in 2025, I don’t have anything that would merit taking, it’s all available online or can be replaced. I’ve maybe needed a second form of ID like 5 times in my life, not wasting time grabbing my passport.

Anonymous wrote:I understand that this is a thought exercise but - nothing! I get my kids, and if there's time, my cats out and I get out. I'm not staying in a burning building even if I "know" I have five minutes to grab a laptop or pictures.

Keep people (and if possible) animals, alive. End of priority list in a fire.

Maybe the building isn't burning yet - but half a mile up the road is, so you have five minutes to evacuate. Also, fwiw, I live alone and have no pets. So there are no kids or cats for me to wrangle.

Other than ourselves? The fireproof safe with all our important documents, and that’s it.

Kids, backup drive, wallet

Cats, laptops and phones with chargers/cords, go bag we keep in the basement next to the fire box, fire box or its contents (it’s heavy).

We’ve been through this, the lesson learned was take your photos. We have managed to get some stuff from friends and relatives, but we lost tons of photos and slides.

I'm not one for sentimental objects so it makes it a bit easier. We used to live somewhere where we may have had to evacuate quickly. Usually you would have enough of a warning to know to get stuff ready so when the evacuation would happen it was easy to grab stuff. If DH and I were home the plan was always:

I grab duffle bag from closet and throw a few clothes and our important documents in it (safe in the closet).
Then I grab DS and our laptops.

While I'm doing this, DH gets the dog in the car and then wrangles the cat. Then he loads the car up with the gas cans and emergency supplies we kept in the garage.

Now we live somewhere where we are more likely to have to hunker down than escape (New England) but generally keep the same kind of emergency set up. We still have gas cans in the garage. Still have emergency supplies. Still have our important documents easily accessible in a safe.

Unfortunately I’ve been in an emergency situation. Thankfully it was a false alarm but we didn’t find that out until later. It was good practice and I stand by what I grabbed.

Car keys, cell phone, charger, wallet, people. (We didn’t have any pets with us at the time.)

Forget the photos and the memory stuff. It’s not that important when you think you might have seconds. I grabbed my charger because it was right there. I grabbed my keys so I’d have a way to escape if needed and my wallet for a way to pay for things.

I understand that this is a thought exercise but - nothing! I get my kids, and if there's time, my cats out and I get out. I'm not staying in a burning building even if I "know" I have five minutes to grab a laptop or pictures.

Keep people (and if possible) animals, alive. End of priority list in a fire.

My birth certificate, passport, jewelry, glasses and a satin thing from my grandma in my bedroom. Oh, a bra if I wasn't already wearing one. In my living room, I'd grab my work and personal laptops, my medicine, wallet and keys and purse, and sneakers, and from the bathroom I'd grab some contact lenses for each eye.

This would take me maybe 60 seconds, tops.

I had to evacuate once, immediately, not in 5 minutes. It was the middle of the night. I grabbed my wedding rings and toothbrush. It still makes me laugh.

Are we talking about a single house fire or one of these wildfires eating anything in its path?

I am not from there, but my ex grew up in San Diego. Her sister almost lost their house in Miramar a number of years ago.

My aunt and uncle lived in Lake Arrowhead and lost 2 homes. They were also in Oregon when one of those massive wildfires occurred. In their community their's was the only house that survived. There was no magic just the grace of nature burning right to the edge of the foundation and stopping. Firemen just said it happens. Fires jump over houses.

What they all have said is to take those documents. Keep them in your fire box but take them. You don't need the added stress of replacing all of that. You will have more important things to worry about.

But they also said cash. Several thousand at least in 5s, 10s, etc. ATMs go down, lines at banks etc will be enormous. Credit card machines stop working and cash becomes king even if they are working. Save the stress. You and your family will have more than enough to deal with.

Anonymous wrote:1. We take the box with passports and work permits. This is KEY because we are foreigners applying for a green card.

2. All pets. They all have emergency carriers. The bird will put up a fight, so I know the emergency procedure with pillowcase.

3. Phones.

4. Kids are older but of course we'll help them (or they'll help us) escape.

Knowing that a random stranger has done drills with their bird for a quick evacuation makes me feel better about the world.

I would grab the dog. We had friends lose everything in a CA fire a bit more than a decade ago and they were able to save their dogs and nothing else. All of us college friends got together and pooled every photo and souvenir we had from our time together to recreate some of what was lost. One of them was an athlete who had won major awards and the organizers for those competitions did make new awards for them (arranged by another friend as a surprise).