Southland wildfires: essential possessions
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What people grab in an evacuation and what they should take are often two different things.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection recommends that people have an evacuation plan and a list of indispensable belongings to take in the event of a fire: medications, identification, vital documents and valuables.
As recounted in the story ‘Stuffing a lifetime into a suitcase’ following last year’s fires:
In the chaos of disaster, logic doesn’t always reign. Los Angeles psychologist Helen Lena Astin said there’s no predicting what people see as essential in times of crisis. She remembers a friend doubling back to his house during the 1978 Mandeville Canyon fire to retrieve his tuxedo. He later explained that it was difficult to find a tuxedo that fit him well.
Even residents whose homes are not destroyed may have only limited access to their belongings for an extended period of time.
Some residents of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, which was nearly flattened by fire, were allowed to return to their homes temporarily this morning to gather belongings and to view the damage. Officials took four vans carrying about eight to 10 residents each back into the devastated mobile home park. Each resident carried a red plastic bag to fill with possessions -- mostly clothes, documents, IDs and medications.
-- Lauren Beale
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