Fire Evacuation Plan – What Should You Save?

A fire evacuation plan is so important! Have you considered the top five things you’d save in an emergency? Saving loved ones takes priority over everything else, but what if you had 3 minutes to grab five things? My sister didn’t have the luxury of time to think about this question when she and her family of six ran out of their burning home in the middle of the night.

Once everyone was out, she confessed, she ran back in for her phone. She felt like her phone was close enough to an exit that she could safely retrieve it. The ability to call for help and connect with extended family in the middle of your very own personal HELL is an important thing. She wishes she had a fire evacuation plan so that she would have been able to save more essential items.

What things are typically saved if there isn’t a fire evacuation plan?

This topic comes up from time to time in the preparedness community. The question usually creeps across social media platforms following a crisis. It’s a motivating question, especially after reading tragic stories of loss and the nonsensical things evacuees grabbed on their way out the door. Some of the items that people have inexplicably reached for in a crisis:  a yearbook, a bears head, half a blender, shoe polish, and the list of nonsensical things goes on and on. People panic when they are forced to make quick decisions about what to take with them. They more commonly grab things that were recently on their mind and not essential items or priceless keepsakes.

Having a plan helps the likelihood of evacuating with items that you want and need rather than miscellaneous stuff. Have you thought about this question? Do you have an evacuation plan in place? What top five things should you save if you had to evacuate your home in a hurry? Please make a list and practice saving those items.

There are many reasons for an evacuation plan: flooding, fire, famine, and terrorism are the most common in the news. Stories of evacuees have caught my attention over the years. Some of the items I remember they WISH they had grabbed are medication, good shoes, clothes, toiletries, laptops, photos, identification, and keepsakes. My sister is not alone in wanting to save her cell phone.  It is the #1 item on the list by the American Red Cross of the 5 Things People Most Regret Leaving Behind in emergencies.

Fire Evacuation Plan

My husband and I have contemplated a fire evacuation plan over the years, since my sister’s house fire in 2009. Several people we know have had house fires since then. Now we have an evacuation plan and talk about it a least once a year. What top five items would we save? My list is very similar to that of the American Red Cross. My list is more of five areas of our home in which we would grab certain items:

1. 1. 1. Laundry baskets

         Laundry baskets??? When you see firsthand the cost and hardship of replacing everything fire victims own, a few things stick with you. Most of the time, they only have the clothes on their backs. Clothes are a nightmare to replace! In a crisis, every penny counts. They hurry out to buy enough clothes to get them by then, it hits them. They NEED EVERYTHING! Shirts, sweaters, pants, socks, shoes, underwear, PJs, and a jacket. Over $250 for one complete outfit which clothes one person. Multiply that with every member of your house. There is also the problem of buying something cheap to save money. My mother-in-law had a house fire, and her new shoes fell apart after two weeks. I have several more memorable stories about replacing clothes which is why it is first on the list.

         The laundry baskets would hopefully have a couple of unwashed outfits appropriate for the current season. I’d also throw in the closest sneakers. Another reason this is first on the list is that the basket provides a way to carry a lot of stuff in one trip. The plan is that my husband and I would each grab one laundry basket (we have 2, one for light colors and one for dark colors).

      2. Wallet, purse, phone, and keys

         All of these items are kept together and are fairly close to the laundry basket. These small items are easy to forget when you’re in a hurry. Especially, if they’re in random locations throughout the house. Keeping them together and always in the same spot gives me the best chance of taking them with me in an emergency. I am assigned to grab these items.

      3. Safe Contents

         The fire-safe has our passports, important documents (aka: emergency binder), pictures on thumb drives, and keepsakes. The fire safe fits in the laundry basket even though it’s big and a little on the heavy side. My husband is assigned to grab this item. Something to consider:  It is faster for him to grab the whole safe rather than unlocking it and just grabbing the contents. If I were responsible for the fire safe, it would be faster for me to unlock the safe and grab the items inside rather than try to struggle with their bulk and weight.

      4. Photo albums, Scrapbook, Journal

         Our scrapbooks are large, but they are also very precious to us. They contain our wedding pictures and the adventures we have spent our lives accumulating. I have a select few that we will try to grab in an emergency. Writing in a journal is something I do a couple of times a year, and I also sketch from time to time. The journal and sketchbook are kept with the scrapbooks so I can easily add them to my basket.

      5. Bug Out Bag

         Our bug out bag has food, toiletries, hygiene kit, sleeping gear, fire starting kit, and a week’s supply of my medication. I also keep military laundry soap in it to wash the clothes in the laundry baskets. We keep a case of bottled water and bug out bag in the trunk. Sometimes the bag is removed and placed by the garage door. My husband is assigned to make sure it’s in the trunk.

Stopwatch

We start in our bedroom as if we had just woken up. It’s the furthest section of our home away from the garage door. We grabbed the items on our fire evacuation list and headed for the car. The drill took us 1 minute and 36 seconds. If we’re evacuating our area because of a natural disaster or doomsday scenario, we have a secondary list.

Fire Evacuation Plan Supplies

It is also important to practice leaving your home through different exits. Is it possible for you to exit through a window quickly? Since a parent would head first for the children, consider escaping through their bedroom window? If your room is not next to your children’s rooms, consider adding a fire blanket to your room. A fire blanket is designed to smother flames or protect a person from burns in a fire emergency. Another fire safety prep worth considering is a window safety ladder. There are ladders designed for window wells in basements or for two-story windows. Additional safety items that may come in handy are fire extinguishers, an evacuation bag, and canned oxygen.

More preparedness resources are needed if a community is in the middle of executing a fire evacuation plan rather than just a family, like a forest fire. This is because, typically, there are community resources available to families that have been devastated by fire. Resources such as the Salvation Army, Red Cross, and food banks have helped families with their basic needs. However, if the majority of the community is in need, there are fewer resources to go around.

My family’s fire evacuation plan includes items like food, power outage kit, and camping gear. Our total evacuation time, including these items, is 3 minutes. Every few years, it’s important for us to reevaluate our family’s fire evacuation plan and make improvements.

Related Article: Starting Over After a Housefire

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