Fire Season Bug Out List

     Fire season is fast approaching and there are a lot of good ideas on planning for evacuations. For example, take a look at Steve's container idea in the previous post. There really is no right or wrong to evacuation plans - except for having no plan at all.

     During the 2003 fire here in San Diego, I got to see an example of someone not having a plan for evacuation. The fire had already taken dozens of homes in the Scripps Ranch suburb of San Diego when a TV camera crew spotted a lady leaving her house in an area that had just been ordered to evacuate. She was walking a little unsteadily to her car carrying a potted fern. Her car looked otherwise empty and I remember thinking, she's in shock and didn't know what to take. So she just grabbed the first thing she saw - a potted fern. She got in the car and left her house and who knows how much she lost to the fire which consumed the entire neighborhood. That image stayed with me while I kept thinking there had to be some things far more precious than a potted fern which she left and she now sorely misses. If she'd only had a evacuation plan so she didn't have to think about what to take during the crisis.

     I started looking around at various plans but finally settled on a concept I call a "Bug-Out List". It has some major benefits compared to other plans. It doesn't make any assumptions on who is at home or how much time you have to evacuate. It doesn't matter if you have 3 minutes, 3 hours or even 3 days to evacuate. It mostly requires you to sit down with your family and create a list of things to get in order of importance.

     So let's begin building the list.. First let's assume that you are in bed asleep and that when you wake there are no lights or power and it's the middle of a dark, overcast night - no moon or stars to help you see. A big earthquake could cause something like this and we should be thinking about a worst case scenario.

     First thing you should be able to grab right at your bedside is a good flashlight however your cell phone can also double as a flashlight in a pinch. Next, hard-soled shoes for everyone in case there is glass or sharp objects on the floor or outside. Did you know that feet being cut by glass was the most common injury in the 1992 LA earthquake?

     So far we're only talking a minute or two getting our feet protected. Next, you probably want to grab your clothes and jackets. Just grab them - don't stop to put them on if it's dangerous inside but we need them if we have to go outside. Even the warmest evenings can quickly get miserable if we're outside in our pajamas.

     Ok, here's our list so far which assumes we only had 3 minutes to evacuate because of an immediate disaster such as fire or earthquake.

1. Flashlight
2. Shoes
3. Clothes
4. Jackets

     Now let's change the evacuation time to 30 minutes and keep adding to our list additional items in order of importance. Once we've escaped the danger, we now need to concern ourselves with staying healthy and treating injuries. So to my list I add any first aid supplies I have ready to go and all the prescription medicines my family will need.

5. Big First Aid Kit
6. Prescription Drugs

     We now have to consider the survival triangle: Water, Food and Shelter from the elements. Shelter and water are going to be the most important of the three sides, depending on the environment. Shelter from the elements is first but without water you could be dead in a few hours if you are in a very hot climate. So the next things on the list should address shelter, water and then food. First, personal shelter in the form of blankets and to that we will add bath towels. Towels can be used as shelter, for example as a head wrap, in additional to their more classic uses. Next, the camping gear will shelter us if we cannot return to our house and there isn't any other shelter available.

7.   Blankets
8.   Towels
9.   Camping Tents
10. Camp Heaters
11. Camp Stove
12. Matches
13. Firestarters
14. Water
15. Non-perishable foods: canned goods, dried pasta and beans. And don't forget food for your pets too!

     Food, water and shelter have all now been addressed. Probably within the 30 minutes you had to evacuate too!

     With more time available, you could get some less obvious items onto your "Bug-out List" such as toilet paper to go with a camp toilet or covered bucket which you might need if help is delayed. Radios, batteries, laptop computers and computer backup drives will be coming into focus when the above needs are met and more time is available for evacuating. My list goes as far as our photo albums, stamp collections, artwork and musical instruments if there is enough warning. For instance, I can have the trailer hooked up to one of the cars and loaded if there's a day or more time.

     In conclusion, you can make the list cover just a few items or virtually your entire house depending on how far you wish to take it.  Then just hang it on the wall where anyone can easily find it.  But if something happens, all you have to do is tell whoever is there to keep going down the list until you have to evacuate. You won't be grabbing a potted fern in desperation. You'll be getting everything off of the list in the time that you have and that potted plant won't cause you leave anything more important behind.

TJ Walters