PWBPeeps: Fire Drill!

“If life is fair, and I know that it is not, BUT, IF life is fair, then I’ve HAD my fire!”

-Sally DeLurks, 1996 and beyond.

(Please note: I lost only items in my fire. No animals were harmed in the forming and the telling of this story!)

Watching a building burn is devastating. Helplessly watching a building you own, that contains items and/or beings about which you care, burn is an unspeakable devastation. I know this from personal experience. Even having that experience, I have trouble imagining what it must be like to flee from wildfire, leaving most of what one owns, to return to nothing.

I grew up in tornado territory, with the once-every-five-years-or-so hurricane drive-by. It was (then) too wet an environment for wildfire to be much more than something sad and terrifying that happened to people in other parts of the country.

Tornadoes usually have a small footprint within the weather conditions that spawn them; large personal impact where they hit, but small area compared to the region affected by the violent weather. Tornadoes move fast but have limited area of actual impact and very short duration, generally only a few hours. Very little prep can happen, but sheltering in place is usually the safest thing to do, unless one is in any kind of mobile, be it vehicle or home.

With inland hurricanes, one has time to prepare and evaluate whether one remains in the path and should evacuate. Hurricanes are wide-spread damage but move slowly, with a general duration of a day or two. Wildfires do not unfold like either of these calamities. They are wide-spread and fast moving, with an unlimited time frame.

Last September, we had a tense, scary encounter with wildfire. For about three days, three small cities to our SSW and SW suffered extensive major fire damage. There was an uncontained fire burning to the east of us, which spread over the same three days toward the north and NW and damaged two towns up there. And finally, there was a fire near the interstate WSW of us. We were sitting in the middle of an ever tightening circle of fire. We were (sort of) prepared to run, but didn’t know which way.

I learned from a different incident last fall that Violet is highly resistant to being crated. That’s a different story, for another day. I am sure that she hasn’t favorably changed her opinion. Early this fire season, I resolved that if I had only 5 minutes to evacuate, I didn’t want to have to leave Violet because she refused to be located and crated. I was determined to get as much advance evacuation planning as possible done by August 1, the official start of fire season. I am far from an expert at this, so please contribute your thoughts in the comments. I’d like to share with you the things I’ve thought about, in hopes that you will never need to think about them. Having both cats and dogs, I hope it is a broad enough spectrum to be helpful.

Since we have two medium to large dogs, and two cats, we are not planning to seek a hotel should we have to evacuate. We have an SUV as an escape vehicle and would plan to be in that as long as a week, if necessary. The SUV allows us to load things to stay in the vehicle until the end of fire season. So, this discussion covers things already loaded into the vehicle and last minute loads.

Needs Assessment

Pets: Everybody needs to be fed and watered (which means bowls!), comfortable, calmed, entertained and have waste disposal. Cats need to be mostly contained in crates and will need a litterbox. Dogs need harnesses and leashes. Jingle Dog must have his ThunderShirt!

People: We need water, snacks, clothing, toiletries, medicines, personal electronics and charging devices.

Family Stuff: Cash! Sleeping gear, important documents, family laptop, irreplaceable photos. Flashlight.

Situational Concerns: Fire season is high summer. If you are storing things in the vehicle, be sure it’s safe and/or practical for storage during all-day parking temperatures (like at work….) For example, we have a flat of bottled water, but it’s not in the car because of seasonal temps. It’s in the standby pile.

Additionally, “packing into limited space goes much better with 27 little packages than with 3 big packages.” This is the advice of an experienced multi-day road rally driver. Small holes fill better with small stuff. So, I recommend more, smaller boxes for collecting this stuff together. Don’t try to put everything into one box!

If you live near family, prearrange specific meeting places, based on in which direction you may have to run. Be specific! Don’t say “somewhere off exit XX”; say “the Applebee’s parking lot at exit XX”, or “the rest area at mile marker XX.” Phone service will be overloaded. Think in concentric circles. Write the meeting places down on paper and put in the glove box. Put them on your phone. Insist that your evacuation partner(s) have the same info on their phone. If you and/or your partner spend a workday apart or away from home, plan now how you will meet! Remember that you may not be able to reach each other via phone.

Pets

A litterbox is necessary, and easy to assemble. Being able to maintain it is also necessary. I found a 2.4 Gal/9.0 L, lidded, container in the kitchen.  I had a spare scoop that would fit into the container and a roll of biodegradable (corn-based, of all things!) pet waste bags. And some wipes that would be suitable for hands or fur. All fit into the container. Snap on the lid and put in the back of the vehicle. Will add a roll of 13 Gal trash bags to this container, just because it’s bound to come in handy and there’s room inside for it. 😜

I ordered a 2.5 lb bag of kitty kibble and a 11 lb bag of dog kibble. I decided if we have to go, we will not try to do wet feeding while in evac status (too bulky to pack and an unnecessary hassle). I will rotate the kibble into their meals after fire season, if we don’t have to evacuate this year. I put these two bags of kibble and a 10 lb bag of litter into a small box, along with four 1.5 cup collapsible bowls (food and water for each cat), four 4.25 cup collapsible bowls (food and water for each dog), a spare quarter-cup scoop and a pair of scissors, to open the bags. I need to add a week’s worth of treats per animal and a pair of chip clips for bag closure to this box. I put this box into the back of the vehicle. Food, bowls and waste disposal kit are all collected and loaded. There’s also the flat of bottled water creating the standby pile. Evacuation-specific purchase costs so far: collapsible bowls. A luxury item. Yeah, you gotta have bowls, but what spares you have on hand will do, if you can do without them all fire season.

We need two soft side, well ventilated cat crates, suitable for travel and longish-term “captivity”. Crating Violet will require a top-loader crate. I am not counting this in the evac-specific costs because we need to replace the single front-load only crate we currently think we’re using. (🙄) The new crates are pricey, but incredibly practical and highly suitable for our needs. They are guaranteed to fit airline carry-on specs, have a waterproof lining under a fleece floor covering, a solid floor, feet for stability and regulation seat belt loops. The cats will be comfortable and secure in these. Oh, and they fold up flat (the crates, not the cats! 😜). I’ll put a few toys, sprayed with lavender, in the accessory pockets of each crate. These will go into the standby pile. I’ve planned to crate Violet as soon as fire alert status goes to yellow, first task to be accomplished. It will make her mad as all get-out, but she will be confined and safe! Crates are in the standby pile. I should probably think about getting some leather gauntlets and put with the crates.

Harnesses and leashes are already in the vehicle. I still need to gather some dog toys and put in the vehicle. Jingle Dog’s Thundershirt cannot be pre-loaded. It goes in the standby pile.

That’s all the pets’ stuff…I think. I promise that the rest of this will not be as detailed. 😉

People

• Water- Our needs, along with the pets’, will be covered by the flat of bottled water until such time as more can be obtained. In standby pile.
• Food- Snack pack has peanut
  butter, large box of granola bars, prepackaged fruit cups, 2 lb jar of nuts, a 2 lb bag of hard candy, plastic ware, napkins and hand sanitizer. Also, a tube of lip balm is stashed here. In standby pile.
• Clothing- Two complete changes of clothes. Sturdy boots. One long-sleeved, preferably hooded sweatshirt. Evacuation areas will probably be in the fire zone; this is not the place for tank tops, shorts and flip flops. I chose clothing I can live in comfortably for a week and that I can sacrifice for the entire fire season. Pack all in suitcase and put in vehicle. Loaded.
• Toiletries- I refreshed our travel kits with travel size items. Don’t forget to take sunscreen! I bought a new hairbrush and manual toothbrush to permanently live in each of our kits. Kits in suitcase. Loaded.
• Medicine- Each of us have a 7-day, 2 compartments per day pill container. These are loaded with a week’s supply of medicine and supplements. These can go in the suitcase, snack box or the cooler, based on the temps the drugs can tolerate. Ours are packed and where they ought to be.
• Electronics & chargers- Sufficient chargers and cables for all devices, all spares, are loaded into the briefcase. Personal devices will be gathered and added to briefcase upon fire alert status going to red. Checklist taped to exit door. Status: at ready.

Family Stuff

• Cash- Got some for both of us. Carrying mine hidden in my wallet. At ready.
• Sleeping Gear and other comforts- 2 throws and 2 pillows. Loaded. We own a small clip-on oscillating fan with a suitable plug for car use (I don’t remember if it’s a USB or auto accessory type plug.) that I should locate and put in the vehicle. Thinking about finding a pair of basic chairs-in-a-sack and a very small folding table… Probably should get a small first aid kit.
• Important Documents- Copies of health insurance and homeowners’ or renters’ insurance policies, last will and testament, originals of land deeds, auto titles, marriage certificate, birth certificates, passports, social security cards. Any other important documents. I collected our relevant docs into a file folder and put in the briefcase. At ready.
• Irreplaceable Photos- Wedding album already stashed in the briefcase. At ready.
• Family Laptop- To be collected upon red alert status. Briefcase awaits, right next to the laptop. Stash laptop in briefcase, zip and go. At ready.
• Flashlight- In vehicle glovebox. Loaded. Considering a USB rechargeable…
• Empty cooler in standby pile. If time allows, whatever cold drinks are in the frig (and my flavored coffee creamer) can be loaded. Otherwise, it goes along, empty.

Checklists

• Checklist written on inside of litterbox container’s lid. In Sharpie. I’m not gonna use this container for anything else, might as well permanently mark it.
• Annual purchase checklist for items to be refreshed annually. Bags of kibble, people snack items, etc.
• Checklist of items that can be preloaded.
• Checklist of standby pile items
• Checklist of briefcase contents. Thinking I should get a colorful plastic folder and write the docs checklist, in Sharpie, on the folder.
• Checklist of things to be sure to gather on last run through house. At the top of this list, in big letters, put a reminder to remove the vehicle from the garage, when yellow alert is called. Power failures often accompany wildfire. Include lights and door-lock status on this list. Add the briefcase and cooler to the list. Tape this checklist and a pen to the exit door. Mark items off as they get loaded.

Excluding items that will eventually be consumed in household use (kibble, snacks), or have uses other than evacuation (new crates), the only evac-specific items I bought were the collapsible bowls, for under $30. I had a lot of useful items on hand.

I sincerely hope that all this planning is in vain. I am unwilling to risk losing any animals to fire and feel some relief at having a plan. If you live in an area that may have periodic evacuations, please think through the actions you need to take to keep yourselves, your family, and your fur family safe.

I want to say again that, while I looked at FEMA evacuation guidance, I am a relative newbie to fire country. I was horrified by wildfire tearing through my community last year. I know people who lost everything in those fires. I know of people who lost friends or family in that fire. I’ve never had an evacuation plan before. If you have knowledge of, experience with, thoughts about and/or opinions that contribute to the conversation, please share in the comments section!

Thank you for reading all the way to the end! Here, have a virtual cookie! We have homemade snickerdoodles and homemade chocolate chip oatmeal, both Mr. DeLurks’ specialties. 😎

I offer my most sincere apologies for 1) a diary barely animal related, other than being the heart of my motivations here, 2) a total lack of animal pictures, and 3) waving warm cookies at you but not really giving you any! I’ve been thinking about an evacuation plan since late May and finally got it to the point where I think I’ve got all the needs covered. I want to get you to think about your evacuation plan, if you may ever need one. I want to share my plans, in case I thought of something you haven’t. I also seek your good ideas and suggestions. If you wish for Chewy.com links to the collapsible bowls or the kitty crates, Kosmail me.