We take fire safety very seriously around here. You know this. It's been decades in the making and today was our annual brigade. Since we technically have five complete divisions (five households if you count the main house, Duncan and Dalton's apartment downstairs, August above the garage, Sam and Matt in the grey house at the edge of the cliff and Batman's monolith, six if you branch out to Ruth and her husband but we gave them the supplies and they know how it goes) it's a large operation and no one gets a pass. There's no maybe later. No opting out. You show up and you show up ready to roll. Ready to get the job done, as it were. I'm strict but Lochlan's stricter.
Each house gets 2 fire blankets and two current fire extinguishers per floor for the larger spaces, one of each for the smaller. They are wall-mounted in easy to grab places and everyone knows where they are-not told- they must independently tell me where they are and then are confirmed to be correct.
No one has ever failed my pop quizzes, if you wonder.
We test the smoke detectors and the carbon monoxide detectors. We check the lights on the detectors and make sure they flash. Our phones get alerts. This is the way when one of us is deaf.
We make sure everything charging is done and unplugged or out in the open. Batteries live in battery bags or boxes. Compromised batteries live in the driveway and are taken to the recycling depot to their special boxes within days of failure.
We make copies of up to date insurance policies, new digital wallets and investments and put current bank statements in the safe(s) along with coins, cash, stored media on hard drives, really expensive jewellery, passports and birth certificates. The safes are fireproof and bolted to the floors in hidden locations. I would gut the contents into a bag and go. If I couldn't get to it I know I could come back later and I know where it would land if it fell through burning floors. Even so, stuff is always replaceable.
We moved the cat carriers to the foyer to the top of the closet, with a bag that contains food and treats and litter and a spare litter box. a few toys and blankets.
We each have a go-bag of clothes and toiletries with room for devices and shoes and a blanket. Another three bags live in the butler's pantry on a shelf with water, electrolytes, and food. The food and water gets rotated out and replenished regularly. There are jackets for all and shoes too by the front and the back door.
Not to mention we are semi-off-grid and full-time preppers anyway, with rain barrels, solar and wind power, a fortress of a property, truth be told, and enough supplies to live on for months here. The issue each summer is what if it all burns down?
We cut all shrubbery away from the porches and the trees away from the roof. We're plotting to get rid of the remaining cedars and we choose rock and concrete next to the house. Any fence that touches doesn't touch and is 4-6 inches away. It will buy us time.
The attic has been checked and is in good condition. Nothing is up there save for fireproof insulation. The gas shut offs are labelled clearly. The gas fireplaces are off for the season and so are the wood ones, inspected, cleaned and closed. The outdoor firepit has a moat now but outdoor fires of that size are banned anyhow. We're down to tiny campfires on the beach if at all. We all have the wildfire app on our phones and we have an evacuation plan that we're working on as well as a meeting place away from home should we need it.
If it does all burn to the ground I'm taking my boys and my children and moving back to the East Coast where summers are brisk and windy and there's nothing to burn on land already destroyed by salt-air. I'm going to call all of this a wash and start over, more simply this time. Less stuff. Less headaches. Less risk. Less heat. Less expense and less worry.
It's not supposed to happen but you should always prepare as if it's about to. Then you can sleep at night knowing you're prepared.