What changes are you making? Nomex onesie? Pontoon boat? If there’s anything I’ve learned from watching this is know how to GTFO while it’s easy. May be a false alarm but so what?

Not sure how you learned that lesson. From what I heard, the fires hit while everyone was asleep, so you just had to be lucky to get out early. I'd say Hawaii showcases how important being prepared is, and having a bag that you can grab and go with.

The fire near Lahaina started early Tuesday morning, some buildings were evacuated but by 10am residents were told that that fire was contained. By 5pm everything was burning up and people were having to flee. Many people were getting home from work, and sitting down to dinner.

Ah, I just looked it up, and I was misinformed. Thank you for correcting me!

They just reported the fire was moving one mile per minute

I don't live near any wildfire prone areas so fortunately, I don't need to prep for that. But fire is the #1 emergency people face. I bought a pair of fire blankets (they came as a pair) for the kitchen but I can use one of them and put it on the outside of the bag to grab it easily if I have to escape a fire. I also have a full face respirator, so maybe I'll stage that next to the bag once I get it up and running again. I've bought a number of bags over the years that are just in storage. I think I can fill them with extra stuff and stage them in different places, since I have it and it's not being used anyways.

The people in Hawaii didn't think they lived in a Wildfire prone area either.

Never assume! We had a fire in Balch Springs last year that was accidentally sparked by a roadside mowing crew. It spread to the neighborhood just across the field and it was amazing that only 12 homes were completely destroyed (many more were heavily damaged)—it could have been an entire subdivision lost. There were drought conditions of course, but the local fire department was completely overwhelmed and just didn’t have the necessary equipment to fight the fire effectively. They called in mutual aid from every surrounding city and ceded command as soon as Dallas Fire Rescue arrived. The whole point of all hazards planning is to ensure that you have all the basics covered because you simply can’t ever know what’s going to happen.

I've definitely got some floaties in mine.

They had a red flag warning which means a high fire risk. Biggest takeaway for me is to be ready to go when you get a warning like this, and high tail it out of a fire starts. You don't want to be packing your car while the flames are coming

My bag is currently mostly empty after I ended up using it. This story from Hawaii was a good reminder that I need to work on stabilizing my life and rebuilding my kit.

Care to share this story?

Nothing crazy. I was already planning on living out of a suitcase for a couple days while I moved. But then I injured my back moving some heavy shit. So now half my stuff is still packed up in boxes and bins that I can't readily access until my back heals a bit. I used all my extra clothes, the first aid kit (numerous times), phone chargers, toiletries, water bottle, and probably more that I'm forgetting. One thing missing from my kit was a pen and paper. Hell I *still* keep forgetting to buy a pen and it's been a problem multiple times. As a side note, FRS radios totally saved the move when the headlights on the U-Haul stopped working at night.

Perfect not-the-end-of-the-world example of why a BOB kit is essential. Pen and paper... Noted. FRS... Username checks out. Thanks for sharing.

Seconding my good friend* u/IGetNakedAtParties comment. Your experience would be practical instruction, and very much appreciated. * I get naked at water. Body of water? Naked and in it lol!

I think it shows us that you need the ability to get out *fast*. Five minutes is too long. So I repacked some things. The main bag stays in the vehicle at all times, it's the "zero minute" bag. If you have to drop everything and run, it's in there. It'll keep you alive but not very comfortable for 72 hours. Seasonally rotated for clothing and sleeping bag. The second bag is inside the closet by the front door. Clothing and meds, toiletries, cold weather gear. That one is if you have one minute to spare. If I have five minutes, the pets go in the carriers, the pet go-bag goes in the truck, and my wife grabs the hard drive and the contents of the safe. I think I'll have some thought about midnight evacuations. Wake up from a dead sleep in your underwear and you need to evacuate *now*? So do we keep a set of clothing and shoes in the vehicle with the go-bag? Or do we have a set of turnouts with the pants situated in the boots like firefighters? Or is this scenario just a bit too ludicrous? Maybe a mechanic's coverall hanging in the closet... you could get dressed in 15 seconds. I think I'll stage some stuff in a locker at work and maybe at a relative's house.

I’m just getting started doing bugout, but middle of the night evacuations is the reason I started keeping my purse next to the bed, and always making sure my keys are in my purse. If I have my purse I at least have some very basic gear.

The purse is one I wonder if I should move it. It's always near the door I'd go out to get the car. That area is at the front of the house. If I need to evacuate out the rear (where my bedroom is), I'd be screwed. My bob is in my bedroom for a snag and grab regardless of the direction I go. I work from home so if there's a daytime emergency, I'm mostly at the front of the house (where my office is).

Yep, I have a similar thought process. I’m thinking combining systems that work together is the way to go. - purse - contains my license and my bank cards. Keys. First aid kit. Basic hygiene items. This stays mostly with me throughout the day, but at night I keep it next to where I sleep. - Get Home Bag/kit - in my car. I also work from home, so this doesn’t move from its location in the car ever. I’m still building this out, but it has a bigger first aid kit (also functions as my car’s first aid kit), extra changes of clothes for the fam, water, snacks, cash… other stuff? I’m still building this so the nature of its stuff is still up in the air. - BOB - the usual concept. I guess I’ll keep it near the back door, which is where we’d exit to get to the car. BUT, if that exit is inaccessible, then I guess we’re not grabbing it. It’s a good-better-best system. I’m just trying to make sure that the kits build on each other. But I’m also trying not to get wrapped around the axle on perfection. If all I can grab is my purse, and my purse has some thoughtful items in it, then cool beans I suppose.

Look into a Wake Up, Shits Happening bag for ideas. Kept on your nightstand or next to the bed for just such emergencies.

>I updated mine to include some changes of clothes I keep a second dry bag filled with season appropriate additional clothing, mainly filled up during winter time with very cold weather items, but other times with more rain gear and such. The dry bag also obviously can fulfill many roles, such as storing tinder, etc. The thing I like about this is that I can easily rotate out the clothing throughout the year, without having to mess with the main BOB. This way, I actually do it most of the time, as I'm generally rather poor at consistently following through with lots of annoying maintenance. I've learned to simplify the process so I can more consistently follow through.

That’s a good point about convenience leading to follow through. I dragged my feet on food rotation for my main bag simply because it was such a chore to open it up and unpack the stuff on top to get to it. I started keeping my food on top in my bag and do a better job now.

Heh, I program systems, tools, and editors for other game developers for a living, so in that capacity I've learned to heavily focus on engineering systems in a way that provides the desired workflow as the path of least resistance. Humans tend to be amazingly ~~lazy~~ efficient, and no amount of training or hounding people to change their behaviors ever holds a candle to a well engineered path of least resistance option. I'm still not great at consistently translating that to my home life, but when I do, it usually also works out well.

That's a really good idea! What kind of clothing items do you keep per season?

Winter: * Military style cold weather headgear with what is essentially a painter's type face mask that velcros in, and a face/neck covering that also straps on under the main fluffy hat with ear covering, etc. This tends to be too hot unless it's damn cold, but it's amazing for those times you need it. * A pair of insulated rubber gloves, for working in the cold with wet things, such as fishing or even just setting up camp. I added these after some trial runs where I damn near froze my fingers off just doing normal camp setup stuff in the freezing rain. * A pair of warm mittens that convert to fold back and expose fingerless gloves. * A pair of thin wool glove liners, which can combine with various other gloves. * Snow boots (some old snowboarding boots). I've gone back and forth with having these in the bag vs. just with laces together beside the bag, as they take up so much space and weigh a ton, and you'll likely know if you'll need them when heading out the door. Currently I'm keeping them close, but outside this bag. * 2 extra pairs of wool socks. * 2 sets of merino wool pants and shirts, one thicker, and they can be combined in layers for the very cold. Non-Winter: * Gators (keep ankles and boots drier) * Extra poncho and/or large rain jacket & pants. There's probably more I could do there, especially for the non-winter, but that's what I've got going so far. Having a pair of normal clothes for Tuesday style problems would be nice. I'll never forget the time I was holding my baby daughter on the airplane when she overloaded her diaper all over me, and thanks to the brilliant advice of my wife, I had an extra pair of clothes in my carry on bag. I still do that when I fly, and I keep an extra set of clothes (shoes/boots too) in the car as a regular prep there, but I haven't really worked it into my BOB plans yet, as I've been more on the leaning out phase of that lately. If you have tips or ideas, I'm all ears.

Nah that sounds like a really solid kit. Out of curiosity, do you switch bags between the summer and winter? I imagine that the winter gear is super bulky.

I use the same bag. It's a dry bag style, and I just roll it up a few more times when I don't have the winter gear in there, as yes, the winter gear is a lot bulkier.

I keep socks, underwear and a shirt in my BoB, I also keep a full change of clothes in an oversized ziplock bag right next to it that I can grab. Something I did for my girlfriend, since she often is wearing shorts or other pants that may not be as sturdy; I took an extra pair of military surplus pants in her size, put a belt on them, and put a few basics in the button closed pockets (knife, lighter, basic first aid etc). That way she can grab them with the bag, or put them on immediate in case of an emergency and have the basics on her person right away. I highly recommend if you don’t primarily wear pants you would be confident bugging out in

Native Hawaiian here. I never really considered a wild fire scenario. But now I will. I dont live in a "dry brush" area but my neighborhood is densely populated like many Hawaii neighborhoods/towns are. If my neighbors house caught fire it'd be a matter of time before mine did too. However I live within 2 miles of two different fire stations. Lahania was just a "perfect storm" of events unfortunately. As for my go bag i havent updated it in a few years. i definitely will now. I also used to have a go bag in my car but it got stolen a few years ago and never replaced it. I will be replacing it now.

If u don't live there not necessary. Focus on what u need to survive with things that are likely to happen IN YOUR AREA

The thing that I wonder is how many people burned while stuck in traffic. The road in/out of Lahaina is one lane each way and often bumper to bumper on a normal day. Even though they offer no direct protection from heat or fire, I think a bike/motorcycle is a smart thing to have as an option to get around gridlock while traveling much faster than on foot.

Survivors are saying that police allegedly blocked roads leading out of Lahaina town, even front street as the fires were spreading into Lahaina. Waiting for more info but I’d be lying to say I’m not inclined to believe it. The entire situation has been egregiously mishandled by officials

There are also a lot of reports of roads blocked due to live downed power lines and the power company failing to shut them down. Between the fast moving fire and downed lines, there were a lot of legitimate reasons to block roads. There may have been poor choices there too, but I have yet to see any evidence of that.

That’d be crazy. I have been there for work many times and the road in/out is one lane on each side and backs up all the time under normal circumstances.

It’s been confirmed, and covered by multiple news outlets atp

I’m good. I don’t live in extremely desirable, land on the coast, that developers have been eyeing and trying to get a hold of for a long time. Those D.E.W ‘s won’t come near me

It reminded me to check my sun screen.

change of clothes is great. I take my bag in my car when I'm driving more than 45ish minutes, the amount of times extra clothing has been a game changer is beyond worth the space it takes up.

With all the canada fires going on and 2023 being considered the worst in recorded history and with our liberals doing nothing to help, the only option is to fend for yourself. Keep an eye on the local news, and if they start bringing in experts to talk about how dire it is and to get ready for an evac, that is when you pack your things so that you can drive away within 10 minutes. That means have packed up containers of shelf stable foods, containers of clothing and necessities, all within arms reach of your car that remains regularly topped up with fuel. And pray you didn't fall for the EV bullshit.

No. I review my stuff twice a year, and when/if I make an upgrade. For example, I'm hoping to get a new backpack soon, as mine is getting a bit up there in age.

I have two BoBs in my home. My 50L main bag & a lighter 25L bag in case I have to move fast. Cancer left me unable to carry heavy loads quickly anymore, that's the only reason for it. In my vehicle, I have a 35L mobile BoB/GHB that goes everywhere my vehicle goes. I'm far from home often because of work & I want to have what I need just in case.

Fire blanket, Fire hood respirator

Hawaii… I can’t wait to leave.

well there are several levels you can imagine what to prepare for. one is a general Bob, second is a Additional bag for clothes and necessities that's not in your Bob. A Duffle bag and clothes that you don't use can be stored and easily grabbed when SHTF. I have a Thumb drive full of data, documents passwords and stuff that I can't lose, keep updating it. Put a garbage bag in the duffle to help water proof it. Add some extra cash in some spaces.

No, but that's only because I had already just reviewed and updated a couple of weeks ago for a prompt evac if needed.

Brb painting my roof blue