If a fire started, What do you do?
 

Ok guys Whats important?
If a fire started, What would you do?

1. Get out and run (and family& dog)
2. Grab the wallet
3. Grab any sports collectibles around
4. Grab the safe (if able to carry)
5. grab any electronics (laptops cell phones, ipads)
6. grab a garden hoses and buckets
7. Tell the fireman to hurry up, i got collectibles in there

1 & 2

We get a lot of fires in SoCal, and when the news crews come in the first thing most people lament losing is their photos and videos.
Save people and pets first, photos 2nd, the rest is just stuff.

Family is more important than anything else.

I know that this was supposed to be a tongue in cheek post...but as a volunteer firefighter I can offer some serious advice. If you do have a fire... and you can close the door the fire room...do it. A closed door to the fire room can stop the rapid spread of a fire. If you do get stuck in a fire, it probably will be the smoke that will do the most damage to you or kill you. There usually is a small layer of clean air close to the floor. If you can put your face into your shirt and crawl along the floor, you increase your odds of getting out. When you get out, do not under any circumstances go back into the fire building. You will probably not get out and the way we deal with a fire with people in the structure is very different than if the building is empty. Of course the most obvious is make sure that your smoke detectors and co detectors are working.

Jeff

Fire
 

After starting a fire at Bob and Anthony's house, I would wait until they went out the front door and then go in the back door to try to save their collections. I would do the same for Larry, but do not know where he lives...which is probably just how Larry intends it

If at my house I would exit, wait 15 minutes and then call the FD, since I would like a smaller house at this stage of my life, and my heirs would not have to worry about how to get rid of my collection.

Since my wife's family lost their entire house in a Tornado in 74, we have always backed up pictures off premise

Good advice Jeff. I hope none of us will ever have to put it to use.

#7, but I corrected it for you.

Cards are in a fire-proof safe. Not too worried about those.

I have two fire safes. One with cards, which are always replaceable, and one with the family heirlooms. I'm grabbing the second every time. Depending on how long I had, I might grab a couple watches from my collection as well.

Hi Chris, I collect watches as well. I just picked up a new Omega Seamaster as a present for myself for my upcoming 50th.

Jeff

Thanks for the advice. I don't know if I would have thought to close the door in a panic.

Hi Jeff, very nice. Congrats on the pickup and happy birthday! I haven't gotten anything new in a while - 2010 was my last purchase - but have been keeping my eyes open for a nice vintage piece. I'm incredibly picky regarding the patina, so it has been a very long search. I love having a collection if pieces I can wear and enjoy.

All you guys with cards in fireproof safes, how do you account for temperature? I'd be just as worried about the cards burning, or the slabs melting all over the cards. Are these media safes?

Oh, and 1 & 3.

Honestly. I had a fire in early November. Got the kids and dog out to my car, called 911 and went in to quickly assess the situation. Once I realized that there was nothing I could do about the fire, I closed the door to that room(not because I thought it was what I was supposed to do, just a quick natural reaction) and got out.. Luckily the damage was limited to that room, plus some smoke damage to the entire upstairs, and a little water damage downstairs..

My collectibles honestly didn't cross my mind.. Possibly because they were the furthest away possible from the fire(smoke) in my house. And luckily, not under that room, the water from the firehose causes a bit of damage itself.. Maybe the fact that there was minimal odds of damage came into play, BUT also, it might've just been that ultimately, they're not that important in a life or death situation..

I live in an apartment with firewalls, so, unless a fire started in my apartment itself I would not be too concerned with the heat. The primary purpose was to avoid water damage if the sprinklers went off.

Thanks Chris...I won't be adding anything for awhile now that I have the Omega. Good luck on your next "find".

Jeff

Couldn't the fire spread through the attic though?

Safes
 

I would be a 1 & 3 man myself. I've scanned all of my pictures and digitized family videos and have 3 off site back ups.

Bill, fire rated safes are typically rated for a certain temperature and time...ie can stand a 350 degree temp for 120 minutes or something similar. Prices typically vary accordingly along with size.

Z Wheat

I am on the 24th of approximately 30 floors. There was a massive fire in an apartment here a few months back, but the ones above it were fine and below it only suffered from water damage from what I recall. I don't even think the ones next door had much in the way of damage either.

FYI guys..typical construction such as cement block is rated for 2 hrs and even stairwells are as well with usual core-board sheetrock and rock-wool insulation.
It can only stand so much, eventually the fire will get there....Its suppose to only give time to get out in a fire. Typical sheetrock wall, such in offices spaces are only 1 hr rated fire-walls and thats usually the corridors and maintance rooms.

I myself have 2 safes..one is a heavy but portable and the other is much larger, but weighs like 100 pds + for the bigger items ...and YES i do worry about them in a fire.

Years ago, after a divorce, i moved into a small ground-floor condo, where i felt i only needed to worry about fire or theft. So, after some thought, i decided to store my collectibles in an old beat-up cardboard box on the floor in a bedroom closet where i could grab it fast and run in the event of a fire. Some months later, i awoke to the sound of trickling water around four AM, and found three inches worth had flooded the entire apartment from a blocked storm drain. In a panic, i saw that the bottom part of the storage box was already soaked. Fortunately, i had thought to line the inside of the box with several layers of heavy plastic, which saved the contents. But, i was seriously annoyed that the possibility of such a sneaky and fast-moving threat had not occurred to me.

Don't worry Chris, your Exhibit Portrait and Post Panel are safe with me :)

1. Insure it to value and let it all burn...

2. Pitch all those cases of 1990s wax that you still have into the flames then see #1.

3. Pick up the check.

I'd go with family and old photo albums, everything else can be replaced.

After family and photos, I have a couple of heirlooms that I would pitch out the window. I also collect some vintage airplane photos and manuals that I know to be one of a kind. I would grab those as well.

Depending on the circumstances, I might grab a fire extinguisher. Since I love to cook, the most likely place for a fire to start in my home is the kitchen...or the deck, if I'm grilling on the barbecue.

Closest I ever came to torching the abode involved accidentally creating a new grilling recipe, "Pollo en Fuego." One-time deal...I definitely do not recommend this recipe to others.