Reading about the recent fires in California that have destroyed so many homes, my wife and I have talked about what we would do in case there was a fire in our house. I was thinking about a couple of instruments that I would try to save as I ran out the door. My one hundred year-old violin comes to mind. I was a little shocked when my wife confided that the large wooden chest with the Christmas ornaments was the first thing on her list to be removed. It is on casters so that it can be rolled out the front door, she explained. Save the Christmas ornaments first? What about the important papers, pictures, photographs and things like that? OK, dear, whatever you say.
Oh, jeezum, I have so much valuable wood stuff (including wood) that I’d probably just decide to go down with the ship. Honestly, between the flutes, whistles, recorders, harps, guitars, cello, dulcimers, humle, that’d be enough. But add in the boxwood, blackwood, rosewood, dogwood, and other stuff I can’t even remember, it would be too depressing to see it all torched. I can only hope that climate change won’t desertify Maryland, at least not while I’m alive.
The only thing that’s getting saved is the cat. As much as I love my guitars, none of them are irreplacable.
Having evacuated twice here in the last few years in the face of a wall of advancing flames, it’s not a hypothetical for me. It’s amazing how impending total loss sharpens the mind, and affects the decisions you make. It’s also amazing how much stuff you can cram into a full-size car, but you get to the point where triage really hits you over the head. Music wise, both times my concertina, main guitar, some whistles, and trad recordings made the grade, but other irreplaceable treasures were left behind. It’s the weird stuff like childhood toys (and, yes, Christmas ornaments) that make you question your sanity …
My wife and I are extremely accident prone and quit burning candles. We once had a liquified candle fall into the gas floor heater. That was a lot of smoke and smell but that was all.
We would be quite fine watching the house burn down as long as the dog was safe. If we had time to save things, we would save the sheet music. There is too much hand written editing and transposing and tabulature to waste. The insurance money could buy new and better instruments.
I can appreciate saving the Christmas ornaments. I can tell you about every ornament we own. But they’re packed tightly in a closet and have no chance of survival. The ornaments are probably the most expensive thing we own.
I kind of don’t want to bring any non-living thing with me. Maybe a change of clothes and a cell phone.
Depending on the immediacy of the situation I’d probably just grab my bug-out bag on my way out the door. Maybe raid the fridge too.
If there’s time I’d save the pipes and other instruments, my computer, my hdtv, and my laptop.
If there’s even more time I’ll try to save some of my favourite books.
It’s in these kinds of situations when you discover whether you own your things or the other way around.
we have a fireproof box for our important documents. Wife, child and cat are most important obviously but I’d kind of think about my grandfather’s Lionel train set and some papers my other grandfather gathered regarding our ancestors in Europe.
knock on wood I never have to worry about this
What I’ve been taught is that, in a fire, you literally have seconds to get out if you’re going to get out at all. Within the space of just a couple of minutes, not only can fire block your exit routes, but the air itself will soon get so hot that just to breathe will kill you.
As much as it would pain me to lose my instruments, if you are in a fire, get people out, get pets out if you can, then please don’t go back in, because your chances of ever coming back out are already pretty slim at that point.
knock on wood I never have to worry about this
Yep. Knock wood, but please buy smoke detectors, too. This falls under the “pray to heaven for a helicopter but row like hell for shore” category.
–James
There’s a story here this week in which a set of 2-year-old triplets are in critical condition due to a fire. It was an electrical fire in a mansion in Bethesda. There were no smoke alarms. No fire extinguishers. The father tried to put out the fire with a garden hose for 15 minutes before calling 911 and before getting his kids out of the house. The guy was formerly a higher-up in the Department of Homeland Security – you know, the people who want us all to have an emergency plan in place.
Please folks, have smoke detectors, and get all living things out of the house before doing anything heroic.
You know, I found myself struggling a bit to understand some of the comments here until I realized the critical missing element. A wildfire is not like a house fire. If you wake up to your smoke alarms ringing and your home in flames and smoke, the decisions you make are conditioned by absolute immediacy. Lives before property, and necessity before sentiment.
But imagine being shaken awake by a family member, stepping out your door, and seeing this:
Then you look down the street, and you see this coming your way:
These are photos of my neighborhood during the Cedar Fire in 2003. Now you know that you have an hour, maybe two or three, before a lifetime of your relationship to material things vanishes. Lives and pets will be OK, there’s time to escape. But then what?
You grab your important papers, family photos, computers and data, and what you need to live out of a suitcase for the next year of your life. The rest becomes a slow motion exercise in examining the meaning of your personal history, your responsibilities to posterity, and the transcendent importance vs. intrinsic value of stuff - all constrained by the size of a vehicle and the ticking of a clock.
Between non-evacuatable disasters like earthquakes and tornadoes, and preparatory disasters like hurricanes and floods, the time frame of wildfires gives them, I think, a unique psychological character.
Incidentally, though our immediate neighborhood was under evacuation orders, many of us chose to stay until the last moments as a “skeleton crew”. And as the fire leapt up the street from house to house, with no fire fighting crews in sight, it was those who leapt onto their roofs with garden hoses and fire retardant who saved their homes - and the rest of us. The lesson learned, for better or worse, was that in a large scale firestorm disaster heroism does count, and you may be pretty much on your own.
I’ll have to think about this …
How come the houses all look the same?
djm
By coincidence, today I installed our new smoke and CO2 detectors–one for the kitchen, and one for the hallway outside our bedroom.
Just having smoke detectors isn’t enough. They run on batteries, and batteries run dry and need periodic replacement. Also, like any electronic component, the smoke detector itself can fail. That’s why they have “test” buttons–they should be tested at least once a month, once a week is better.
I also like to replace the entire smoke detector after it’s four or five years old, whether it tests ok or not. After all, this has one unique quality that almost no other piece of equipment in your home possesses: if it fails, you could die.
–James
You’re better off with a CO one I’d think, it’s not the CO2 that kills you.
The feckin things go off regularly when I light the fire. Smokey cottages and all that.
During the summer it went off several times during the night. Quite alarming but no smoke or fire to be seen.
Peter, you are correct, my bad.
–James
done and did. 
I like fire extinguishers, too.
You should at least have one in the kitchen. If you have a shop, also a good spot.
Couldn’t hurt to have one reasonably close to your computer(s), too. It’s rare but has happened that a failing PC power supply can start a fire, especially if the computer case is full of dust.
Some folks also carry them in their cars, also probably a good idea.
As with smoke detectors, periodically check them and replace them after their recommended lifespan is over.
–James
We have two CO (carbon monoxide) detectors for safety sake. CO is a colorless and odorless gas that can result from a poorly vented or malfunctioning gas burning stove. Gas furnaces should be inspected yearly by a professional to insure that the bonnet above the burner is not leaking CO gas into the heated airstream.
I also think that it is prudent to have multiple smoke detectors in the house. We have three in different locations. It doesn’t do any good to have one smoke detector when smoke from a fire could be starting in a distant part of the house, far away from the detector. In that case the fire and smoke could be substantial in one part of the house before the one smoke alarm was finally screaming.
Unfortunately my smoke detector goes off whenever I sear something or roast coffee. It’s turning into a boy who cried wolf kinda thing.