What one item would you take?

hollydolly

hollydolly

SF VIP
Location
London England
You have a matter of minutes to flee your home or lose your life... you will never return again..living your life in exile somewhere a long way away from everything and everyone you know

Apart from possibly your children or partner, you have the chance just to grab one thing and nothing more to remind you of home..


What would you take?...remember, you have only minutes to make a decision, you can never return


Have a read here of a few sad examples that might make make you think..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-30655404
 

Well I wouldn't be taking ammo with me...I'd going to a 'safe' place....much as there's loads of stuff I would like to take, with just minutes to get out I think I would grab the External HD with all the family pictures on it.
 
That's what we think now. True story:

My aunts small apartment building caught fire years ago. Her daughter and husband were there. The firefighters told them they had a few minutes to grab whatever and get out.

Her daughter frantically grabbed a few magazines. Her big, 6 foot 4 inch husband came running out with a little candy dish. My aunt ran for her life.

When panic hits, there's no telling what we might do!
 
Good grief Rose, what a strange bunch of items your family grabbed ...I suppose you're right if panic takes over sense probably gets left at the back door..but as you can see in the link in the OP...those that were interviewed did manage to take things that were reminders of home..
 
hollydolly said:
Well I wouldn't be taking ammo with me...I'd going to a 'safe' place....much as there's loads of stuff I would like to take, with just minutes to get out I think I would grab the External HD with all the family pictures on it.
Click to expand...
You should have every consequential piece of digital stuff (photos, contact lists, passwords etc) on some secure cloud storage, then you'd be free to go after something with intrinsic value. For women I suppose that would be shoes.
 
I actually have a backpack of supplies because I went to an emergency training program the state was sponsoring and gave us this emergency preparedness kit in case. You do have to keep it updated as things expire but it was pretty danged complete with supplies. Yeah, seems the sensible thing to grab. The thing that will help your survive the immediate emergency. But I want my wallet too. I mostly never carry a purse any more.

RadishRose said:
That's what we think now. True story:

My aunts small apartment building caught fire years ago. Her daughter and husband were there. The firefighters told them they had a few minutes to grab whatever and get out.

Her daughter frantically grabbed a few magazines. Her big, 6 foot 4 inch husband came running out with a little candy dish. My aunt ran for her life.

When panic hits, there's no telling what we might do!
Click to expand...

The truth! My daughter and I once fled a burning apartment building. She grabbed the stuffed dog she had since she was 3 (she was 12) and her school books. I was glad she saved the dog but not so much the heavy school books as we spent the next days shuffling around from ER, a Red Cross shelter to a motel to an apartment. (People give to the Red Cross, they are utterly awesome. Paid for the motel and the security and 1st month's rent for the new apartment as well as giving us vouchers for food, household goods, clothing and furniture. Nothing outrageous but enough to land us back on our feet. I think very few realize they do this. I know I didn't until they were there for me.) I grabbed my purse containing my wallet which contained my ID, what cash I had on hand, and my debit card. (No cc at the time.) I stopped to lock the door until my daughter screamed at me Mom, what are you doing!? We have to go!

Shock makes you act weird, people. She snapped me out of it and followed her down stairs with smoke so thick I couldn't see her in front of me. She wanted to go to the back fire escape but I thought how it was wood and led into a small courtyard where we'd be trapped if the fire raged and said no, front stairs. We went down and out covering our mouths and nose with cloth (I had the presence of mind to tell her to do that and still stopped to lock the damned door). Turns out everyone who did go for the fire escape had to turn around and make their way to the front stairs because the fire raged up that thing. No humans were hurt but a dog and cat were killed and my daughter still got smoke inhalation. All because some asshole on the first floor fell asleep smoking.

My daughter, about to turn 32, still has that dog. Well, grandson has largely usurped him but she still has him. He's as flat as a pancake but still hanging in there! Hope he lasts for decades to come!
 
The OP states that you have to flee or lose your life, and then live in exile....... hmmmmn. I don't have a pet, but if I did it would be the dog/cat.Otherwise, a warm coat, or a photo albumn perhaps.
 
It is hard to know what a person would do in an emergency situation but I think I would
take my purse containing some money, health card, drivers license, other cards and some family pictures.
Who knows maybe I would not be thinking clearly and take an antique plate that belonged to my great grandma.

Blaze Duskdreamer, Thankfully we have never had a fire but I do agree the Red Cross is a great help when this
happens and folks lose everything.
We often hear on the news here of house fires and the Red Cross stepping in to help.
It is one of the charities that I like to donate to because of the good work they do.
 
Blaze, that's a very scary story, very glad you had your wits about you with regard the wooden fire escape..


Out of interest what do you keep in your Emergency Bag?
 
hollydolly said:
Well I wouldn't be taking ammo with me...I'd going to a 'safe' place....much as there's loads of stuff I would like to take, with just minutes to get out I think I would grab the External HD with all the family pictures on it.
Click to expand...

Oh cool, I hadn't seen this when I did my post HD:)
 
My laundry hamper. Did have a fire start once on the deck, popped the two cats in the laundry hamper, slung my purse over my shoulder and hollered at a neighbor to show me how to work the fire extinguisher.
 
oh yeah Lee, if I have some pets, they are with me all the way;) What's scarey is when the pets get lost during a tragedy, they get scared (naturally) run and hide. I had a friend that went out to the area of destruction when Sandy hit the East Coast and spent days finding and reuniting pets with owners. I was proud of her, she is my age but ready to help where she can.
 
My photos are all in the cloud and on various internet sites. I just spent a couple of years putting over 50 years of photos into shutterfly books so I'm not even worried since I can always reorder the books from them. Expensive but at least I don't have to worry about photos any more. In that fire, I lost about a third of mine, including the cat's kitten picture. I'll never not have them covered via two or three avenues at least (currently the three, flash drive -- yes, I love those things, cloud and shutterfly).

hollydolly said:
Blaze, that's a very scary story, very glad you had your wits about you with regard the wooden fire escape..


Out of interest what do you keep in your Emergency Bag?
Click to expand...

I'd have to go through it to tell you what all's in there because they packed a ton in there but off the top of my head: food and water for a few days (that does not look too appetizing as the water's in a pouch and food is in some kind brick form that doesn't need refrigeration or a can opener; both contain instructions as to how much should be alloted per person per day), flashlight, bandages, protective plastic sheet and duct tape, radio, and urinals that adapt for both men and women (eww), even some word puzzles and stuff to keep you from going nuts. I must say it was complete. Of course now they have my name as an emergency responder. Uh oh. Did not realize the class came with that catch.

nwlady said:
oh yeah Lee, if I have some pets, they are with me all the way;) What's scarey is when the pets get lost during a tragedy, they get scared (naturally) run and hide. I had a friend that went out to the area of destruction when Sandy hit the East Coast and spent days finding and reuniting pets with owners. I was proud of her, she is my age but ready to help where she can.
Click to expand...

Cats will often try to defend their home too. Probably dogs also but if a cat sees their home on fire, they will try to go in to defend it against the fire. We had a trailer burn when I was married and only my neighbor grabbing her prevented my cat from doing just that. The man deserves a medal. She was a vicious cat normally and freaked out. She clawed and bit him all to hell but he held onto her. I still feel as if I haven't done enough to thank him given I had that cat for 12 more years.
 
What an awesome guy, I'm sure you thanked him enough, just pay it forward as they say;)
 

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