Emergency planning: Are you prepared?

[Graves923]

So, at about 2:30am, I was woken up by my fiancee telling me our apartments fire alarm is going off. How I slept through this I have no clue... Anyway, I put my hoodie on and checked our apartment and didn't see anything out of the norm. Then I checked outside and saw my neighbors from two doors down outside with smoke pouring out of their kitchen window.

After seeing that and watching the fire trucks pull up, I had Jen grab the pet carriers just in case we needed to leave. We got our guinea pigs rallied up, leopard gecko in a shoe box, and then... Kyle's turn... Thankfully he was sleeping so I was able to carefully grab him and put him in his carrier without catching any teeth.

Luckily, we didn't need to evacuate so we put the animals back into their enclosures. This lead me to be up all night thinking about how badly this all could've been if the fire was in my apartment with how unprepared we were. Having to find the carriers which we stored away in the back of a closet to me having to make a carrier for the chameleon quickly because he outgrew the old one I made for him 2 years ago.

So, to get to the point of this, do you have a plan to evacuate your animals if you have the time in the situation?

 

[AmandaS]

Im glad you brought this to everyones attention.
I did not have a plan. But I will now!!
Im glad it wasnt your home!! How did your neighbor fare?

 

[Beman]

The only thing I have are carriers in an easy to get to spot and my important paperwork for my daughter and I next to them so I can grab those as well. Honestly here I am at more risk of an earthquake or a tsunami. But where I lived in AZ we had to worry about wild fires. Every time I have lived in an apartment I have been concerned about fire from neighbors though.

Glad yall are safe!

 

[Graves923]

Im glad you brought this to everyones attention.
I did not have a plan. But I will now!!
Im glad it wasnt your home!! How did your neighbor fare?

They were trying to fry some food on a stove top... Oil splashed and caught fire in the pan and they did the worst thing you could do with a grease fire and tossed water on it which spread it over the stove top. Between them using their extinguisher and a neighbors they had it isolated to just the stove/oven.

No injuries besides a severely charred and melted oven.

 

[Graves923]

The only thing I have are carriers in an easy to get to spot and my important paperwork for my daughter and I next to them so I can grab those as well. Honestly here I am at more risk of an earthquake or a tsunami. But where I lived in AZ we had to worry about wild fires. Every time I have lived in an apartment I have been concerned about fire from neighbors though.

Glad yall are safe!

Yeah this was a bit of a wake up call. I spent the night gather our important stuff and moved our small portable file box to the coat closet near our door. Also moved all the carriers near each animals cage.

 

[AmandaS]

Im glad it wasnt so severe.

 

[JoXie411]

So, at about 2:30am, I was woken up by my fiancee telling me our apartments fire alarm is going off. How I slept through this I have no clue... Anyway, I put my hoodie on and checked our apartment and didn't see anything out of the norm. Then I checked outside and saw my neighbors from two doors down outside with smoke pouring out of their kitchen window.

After seeing that and watching the fire trucks pull up, I had Jen grab the pet carriers just in case we needed to leave. We got our guinea pigs rallied up, leopard gecko in a shoe box, and then... Kyle's turn... Thankfully he was sleeping so I was able to carefully grab him and put him in his carrier without catching any teeth.

Luckily, we didn't need to evacuate so we put the animals back into their enclosures. This lead me to be up all night thinking about how badly this all could've been if the fire was in my apartment with how unprepared we were. Having to find the carriers which we stored away in the back of a closet to me having to make a carrier for the chameleon quickly because he outgrew the old one I made for him 2 years ago.

So, to get to the point of this, do you have a plan to evacuate your animals if you have the time in the situation?

Wow happy y’all are ok and nothing happened. I only have one pet carrier ready to go. I need to make two more now!

 

[AnamCara]

I have the small cage from the chameleon kit and lights -- could temporarily set it up almost anywhere. I keep the lights and vines in a tub and I use a small cat carrier for transporting Mona.

However - when I read this headline my first thought was "No. I am not"

Things I need to add / thing about:

Water / spray bottle
Feeders if we need to evacuate for any long amount of time. (last times I've been forced to evacuate I could not return for some days)
CHE / Heat Lamp -- need to throw a dome hood in the tub.

What else should I throw in?

 

[Beman]

Yeah this was a bit of a wake up call. I spent the night gather our important stuff and moved our small portable file box to the coat closet near our door. Also moved all the carriers near each animals cage.

Yeah I learned the paperwork thing when we got evacuated suddenly for a wild fire. I did not have everything centrally located and the threat of everything being gone when we returned was very real in that situation. At the time I did not have a cham just a dog so I never was concerned about getting her out. Now with Beman it is a major stress since they require so much. I do have renters insurance though which is good to have should something happen and you need to replace things.

 

[The Wild One]

Oh my gosh, so happy y’all are safe

 

[nightanole]

All small animals are near pillow cases. We are fine. At least the tarantula kicked the bucket so i dont have to find the world's biggest spider cup.

 

[GoodKarma19]

Yikes! I'm glad everyone's alright, and the fire didnt spread!

A few years ago I lived in an area prone to rapidly moving grass fires in the summer/fall which would blow up in a moment's notice and cause evacuations. I used to keep a bug out bag - enough food for each of the birds to last a couple days, bottled water, a change of clothing for myself, a couple granola bars/etc, and any important documents. All of my carriers were nearby, and after a couple practice runs I could have everyone safely packed up and out of the building in 5 minutes. We had a fire less than 300ft from our house on one occasion, and I'm very glad I had everything together!

I haven't had to go anywhere fast with Lily yet and hope I never will, but I keep bottled water on hand with a syringe for emergency hydration on the go in addition to her insulated travel box. I'm not too concerned about supplements or food; she can do without if need be, and I can always go and buy some!

While not strictly concerning fires, this thread has some excellent tips and tricks!

 

[snitz427]

Great topic! I think about this now and then, too... especially in terms of my cat, who will hide in a scary situation. Probably not a bad idea to have an all-around "response plan." What to do in case of evacuation, extended power outage, etc.

I use small shipping boxes (little larger than a shoe box) with a vine through it for the travel carriers. They take up a lot of space for 6 of them... so I am thinking of picking up a couple collapsable, ZIPPING, mesh laundry bins from Amazon. I should be able to fold 6 of those up small, with bendy vines inside. In an emergency, just pop them open and unzip.

 

[Thatwizard420]

My Neighbors House burned Down, luckily he was a whole space away, so we didn't get no damage to our trailer. Imagine if there wasn't a space between us, or the space is occupied by another trailer, it would of cause a domino effect of trailers burning. I slept trough it, like didn't found till the morning that it had burned down. I'm not even prepared to save my own life. I definitely need a plan.

 

[jannb]

I am so thankful you and your family are safe. We have carriers for everyone because of the hurricanes here BUT they are not always easy to get to. I’ve got to see if we can get them more accessible incase of a fire.