The Gun Counter

CA fire season is sizing up to be a record shitshow this year. Redding nearly burned to the ground, save for the valiant efforts of firefighters, and the grace of God stalling the winds thereabouts. A big chunk of Mendicino also went up, and both have been keeping us socked in with ash and smoke for a couple of weeks now.

Until last Friday:


That was taken from my driveway. With an 800mm lens, but still, not quite as comfortable as watching the MODIS fire sensor data from a satellite feed. More pictures and a longer write-up over at the blog.

Overall, I'd say we did reasonably well, and a damn sight better than most of the folks on the street. Still, I need to make sure SWMBO knows which guns in the safe are on the 30-minute list, and make sure all the really important documents stay in the fire box (the gun 'safe' isn't fire rated, since I can't really afford the weight for PCS moves until I retire), but otherwise we did okay. The firefighters here got everything contained after nightfall, since the winds (thankfully) died. The other end of the street was on mandatory evac notice, and we were on pre-evac, but were ready to load kids, pets, and roll at that point.

Just a quick suggestion... you can significantly increase fire resistance in your safe with a couple layers of 5/8' drywall--at the loss of just a few inches of space--which can be easily removed and dumpstered before your next PCS...(be sure to put some inside the door too)

Stay safe and keep us posted.

Frankingun wrote: ↑Tue Aug 14, 2018 1:15 pm Stay safe and keep us posted.

As of last night, the fire was 100% contained, and all of the evacuations had been lifted. Which leaves us with a large firebreak upwind for the remainder of at least this fire season. Since I should be PCSing before next fire season, this makes us much calmer for the remainder of the fall. We'd have been 'screwed', but not 'totally screwed', since we got all the important paperwork, photo backups, and wouldn't have left any living creatures in the house. The biggest take-away for me was really needing to go back over the lists for what to grab.

3-seconds (wake up and house is on fire): Self evident - Self and kids, leave doors open for pets to escape. This is why you should have at least a pair of house shoes next to the bed.

30-seconds (wake up and the house next door is on fire, no fire dept on scene): 3-second list, plus grabbing pets by the collars and pitching them in the car. Maybe the fire box if it's in the right place (ours was NOT). If either of the houses next door are on fire, it doesn't have to 'jump' to our house, it'll just ride the fences and come right on over. Given the proximity of the houses here, this situation looks different here than it would in say VA, where we were on 2/3 of an acre.

3-minutes (next door is on fire, fire dept is on scene): Lists above, plus firebox and heirloom guns (we only have a handful), laptop, and the lab's food since he's on really expensive prescription stuff, and I can't be sure we'll be able to get to a vet immediately to get more.

30 minutes: Pre-evac (where we were Friday), or full evac if you're already home when the order is given. If the cops are telling you to LEAVE NOW, see 3-minute list above. We loaded the 2 motorcycles in the utility trailer, put the generator in the back of the truck, loaded up food for all the pets and the cat's litter box setup for the travel trailer, and got things like the stuffed animals that the kiddos sleep with.

Anybody got pointy sticks for these lists?

Old Grafton wrote: ↑Tue Aug 14, 2018 12:40 pm Just a quick suggestion... you can significantly increase fire resistance in your safe with a couple layers of 5/8' drywall--at the loss of just a few inches of space--which can be easily removed and dumpstered before your next PCS...(be sure to put some inside the door too)

The safe is upstairs. Any fire which would destroy the contents of such an uprated safe would likely have already destroyed the room it's sitting in, causing it to fall down into the first floor. The other complication is that the safe is at max capacity since we bought it specifically so we could put all the guns AND ammo inside since I wasn't able to get a concise, clear answer on storage requirements for here in CA. Technically they say to lock stuff up separately, but whatever. Either way, the loss of 1-1/4" all the way around means I'm not able to store all the guns.

Eventually, this 'Residential Storage Container' will likely end up as the storage spot for ammo, while the firearms themselves will get locked up in a UL-rated SAFE. All that said, your idea sparked a bit of google-fu through the intarwebz, and it appears I can get at least SOME benefit from putting a couple layers of 5/8" fire-rated gypsum board OUTSIDE the safe. Not the best solution, but at least an upgrade from where I'm at currently. And the same 'pitch at PCS' option applies.

Didn't see it on the list, but I assume they're there somewhere: box/folder with important documents (birth certificates, marriage license, passports), and documentation of high dollar value items (guns, electronics, jewelry) for insurance purposes. This also assumes that you don't have those stored off site somewhere, like a safe deposit box.

You can fit a real safe under your weight allowance - I have an 1800 lb Graffunder that went with me for 3 PCS moves and a retirement move. Then again, I don't have motorcycles, which probably eat up a good chunk of weight. (The weight of the Graffunder also meant it stayed in the garage until my most recent house, which has a slab floor and a wide door to move it through.)

And lastly - Beale AFB, I'm guessing? (Edit: nevermind, I read the blog - Travis. I went to school at UC Davis, and drove that stretch of I-80 with some regularity.)

I'd have sufficient food and water for family for at least a day pre-staged in either the vehicle or travel trailer in case you get stuck in evac traffic. (more is better).

charging cables for cell phones in the vehicle, again in case you get stuck for extended periods on the road.

Have prescriptions in a grab bag or pre-staged in vehicle.

If you're really paranoid, a change of good outdoors clothing for entire family along with good walking boots/shoes in the vehicle in case the evac route is blocked and you need to walk to get to safety

+1 on whatever clothing you might need to be outdoors for a bit.

randy wrote: ↑Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:46 pm I'd have sufficient food and water for family for at least a day pre-staged in either the vehicle or travel trailer in case you get stuck in evac traffic. (more is better).

charging cables for cell phones in the vehicle, again in case you get stuck for extended periods on the road.

Have prescriptions in a grab bag or pre-staged in vehicle.

If you're really paranoid, a change of good outdoors clothing for entire family along with good walking boots/shoes in the vehicle in case the evac route is blocked and you need to walk to get to safety

I always leave at least a case of water in the travel rig, but should probably up that to 3-4 cases, since it'll keep pretty much indefinitely, and we rotate it by use every time we go camping. Easy enough to throw a half-case worth of bottles in each vehicle in the various cubbies, storage, and other nooks & crannies.

Food is the sticky wicket here, since it'll have to be something unaffected by heat. With temps in this area regularly running into the low 100's through fire season, pretty much anything would need cycling by the end of the year. IIRC, MRE's are supposed to be good for ~5 months at those temps, but with the interior of the car/truck being hotter, not so sure. The car is a Ford Flex, which doesn't have a trunk, and neither does the truck. The tonneau cover on the F150 did a decent job of keeping the bed area cooler than the cab while sitting out in the sun, but the F250 has a camper shell with windows, so no love there. Something like emergency energy bars that I'd rotate every 6-8 weeks would probably work okay.

Charging cables just got renewed everywhere (car, truck, motorcycle saddle bag backup battery pack, and travel trailer) since the S9s we just got use USB-C instead of the micro-USB like everything before did, so we needed new cables.

Prescriptions can't really be pre-staged for the same reason food is a pain, but having SWMBO put all of hers in the same toiletries bag every night would help with that.


I've been reading up on general preparedness recently, and ran across the idea that it's a process, not products that you have on hand. Really good paradigm, since it captures the idea that this is something you can't ever really quit doing. "I got all my preps..." is a really dangerous thing to think, since you may be out and about, or might find out that your plan for an earthquake doesn't really work too well for fire evac, etc. It's not really about having a comfortable and completely 'normal' life should the SHTF, but about understanding the basics better than most, and just being less screwed.

On Rx that's why I stated "in a grab bag" as an option. My medicine cabinet has one shelf with just my prescriptions on it along with a list of all of them. Takes about 2 seconds to sweep them into a bag on the way out the door.

If I had an imminent threat (such as your fire incident) I would keep them in a bag with my bug out bag.

I stage my daily doses in multi compartment pill boxes every week, so those are also easy to grab on the way out and could be pre-staged with my getting my morning or evening doses from the bugout bag.

For food, Kim had a system of keeping large Tupperware type tubs with non-refrigerated food pre-staged that could be grabbed on the way out the door. IF you had an imminent threat, you could go ahead and load them in to a vehicle for overnight.

Agree on the process. One reason I like threads like this is to exchange ideas and come up with new ideas to handle issues I hadn't thought of yet.

It goes along with an Eisenhower quote that is posted in my County's EMA office:

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Water, just in normal bottles, will not last in the heat. (Dealt w. that on a boat, before.)