What would you/could you take?

[Glutton4...]

I don't want to think about it! Were I to find myself in that situation, I would operate on 'auto-pilot' so gawd knows what I'd save beyond Husband, Dog and Laptop!

[Nicos]

Hard one Feral!

We are 20 mins from the nearest pompiers ( firemen)

Apart from OH ( I'd like to think he'd be rescuing me first! )given half a chance I'd try and save part of our house with our 3 huge fire extinguishers.
I realise a house fire is VERY different from a bush fire

I'd like to try and save our external hard drive ( back up)..and get the cat out.

It does make you think about what you need and what you'd like to save doesn't it?
.....21st C trappings

Have to say, I've been watching the news/weather etc for your area...and you have been in my thoughts on a daily basis gal xx

[veggiechicken]

Friends of a friend have been rebuilding a house and living in a caravan on site. On Christmas Eve they spent their first night in their new home. By 2 am the house had burnt down (electrical fault) and all they could grab as they ran from their bed in their burning home was a laptop and handbag. Fortunately the laptop bag contained the insurance docs and other important papers. Should we keep our insurances handy - as, at this very moment, I'm having trouble remembering which company insures this house

[Florence Fennel]

My late mum, bless her, kept all her important documents with her at all times. She always carried a very big handbag that was in arm's reach at all times

[Nicos]

Problem with handbags Flo- is that they can easily be yanked off the arm of an elderly person.

Apparently my grandma sewed her valuables into one of these... ( probably 10x bigger !!!!)

[Nicos]

Perhaps a tad too hot for Feral to wear????

[Glutton4...]

... friend have been rebuilding a house and living in a caravan on site. On Christmas Eve they spent their first night in their new home. By 2 am the house had burnt down (electrical fault) ...

That has happened soooooo many times - and usually around Christmad. Awful. A lovely little thatched cottage near my Folks' burned down. It had just been rebuilt, family moved in, and they lit a fire for the first time. Up it went!

Just awful.

[Pa Snips]

To add a bit of levity to an otherwise serious thread...all you need is a good knife and a fire-steel, just ask Bear Grylls.

Seriously though, I would aim to take the irreplaceable first and foremost, followed by the more valuable, then whatever could fit in the remaining space. At this point in time I don't know exactly what most of those things would actually be, though my wife and cats would be at the top of the list.

[greenishfing]

When I was young (and reckless) I took a job in a war zone. Rule number one was that you kept a bag within arms reach with essentials in it. Old habits die hard. Many years later when the boat I lived on was sinking the bag was to hand. (we managed to stop the leak but at least passports etc weren't sodden.) More recently our house burnt down and yet again at least we had money, 'phone, passports, cash cards and medecines. The bare essentials. Given time I would have grabbed the computer. 'phone charger, toiletries, undies. memory sticks full of photos and make-up/jewellery.

[Florence Fennel]

Problem with handbags Flo- is that they can easily be yanked off the arm of an elderly person.

In my mum's time Nicos, they would have had more respect, or been in fear of being bashed with it!

[binley100]

TBH it depends on how much warning you've got ........dog and handbag for sure , then as much as is crammable in the cars if there's time. Some time ago a couple of semis along from us had a roof fire (decorators burning paint off under the eaves) and one of the residents was in the bath with the neighbours hammering on her door to get out ...... clothes was most important for her ....

[Feral007]

We don't really know what the emergency situation would be. Is it, you smell smoke in your house see the flames and have to make a run for it. Or the flood waters are rising and you have an hour to evacuate ..........or even, are we saying, you can fill your car with whatever you want to keep for ever, but everything else is destroyed?
I'd make different choices for each of those scenarios!

Well that's the thing, you don't exactly know. We saw smoke when we were in town 25 k's away. Fire between us and home, but not dangerous then.
Went home chucked in the work certificates, etc. Looked out boxes and things to putd the animals in if needed and car filled up with diesel before leaving town.

We don't know how long we'll be out. We don't know how long the fire would take to get there, or if at all.
It flew past us 14 k's south, but visible when we arrived back from first horses out. We watched it move across our vision in20 mins then gone like it was never there.....but it's still there behind the mountains.

So we were expecting to be out a couple of days. 5 days so far, could be 5 weeks, could be it won't be there when we get back. That's the thing, you just don't know and you're stressed.

I found it easier to take nothing. It was when we had a chance to go back and get some things, either wanted to take too much or nothing.
Still can't find the insurance papers.

Oh and don't forget the phone/lappy chargers. And a torch.
We took the electronic devices as they have a lot of our photos etc on them. I also took the phone because everyone wants to know how we are, and I can't remember everyone's phone numbers.

[Moopmoop]

I can only imagine that you're stressed and worried sick but the most imortant thing is that you're safe. It would be terrible if you were to lose your home and everything in it, but as long as you escaped with your lives then everything else can go. You might get off very lightly with no damage to your property, you'll just have to keep your fingers crossed and wait and see. We're all thinking of you anyway.

[SarzWix]

I'm amazed how many folk seem to think that phones, laptops clothes and toiletries are not replaceable. or are you all imagining being alone in the bush, as presumably Feral would be? There's not that much "bush" anywhere in the UK and nowhere is more than a days walk from habitation.

It's the content that would be irreplaceable, not the articles. I have the last text messages my mum sent before she died on my phone, and I'll never get those back! If it was a close call, of course I'd leave it, and everything else, and just get the kids out...

[zazen999]

We have a file of 'important papers' [one of those A4 jobbies where you can slip the paperwork into plastic pockets] so I'd grab Mr Z, that, any food or cash with wallets and phones and get out of there.

Obviously my next thing to take if i had time would be photos but I have so many both in negative form and on the hard drive - but luckily most of my negatives are in one file so I'd probably grab that and the hard drive and leave anything else.