If your house was on fire what would you

[C.E. Evans]

As fate would have it, I live next door to a fire station. They look at me funny when I've got hot dogs on the backyard grill...

 

[Chaos Descending]

My wallet and my PC.

My wallet has stuff that would be very difficult but not impossible to replace.

My PC has stuff that would be impossible to replace.

Damn near everything else in my house either doesn't matter much or would be not that hard to replace with my insurance settlement money.

 

[JiNX-01]

Laptop and picture of my parents.

 

[RandyS]

Nothing. I'd put the fire out.

Duh.

Haha yeah then we could save everything!

Well, maybe not EVERYTHING, but attempting to put the fire out first is just common sense.

 

[Holdfast]

- Wallet/car keys (hey, I'm counting them as one as they live right on top of each other).
- The flash drive with my important computer files backed up on it.




Everything else is replaceable, and covered by the insurance. The above would be either impossible or inconvenient to replace.

 

[Ghost07]

the bag with my embroidery in it, and my Nora Roberts book collection.

After all, I'll need something to do while they try to put out the fire.

 

[Miss Chicken]

My iPad ( at least I would have some ebooks and some music) and the Waltzing Matilda musical jug that was recently left to me in my mother's will.

 

[Roshi]

The cat. The rest, that's what insurances are made for.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The OP did say that family and pets were already outside.

 

[Kestra]

The OP did say that family and pets were already outside.

Yeah, otherwise I would have chosen my cat.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

My ass with both hands.

 

[Captain Ice]

All of my old photos/albums (they're all in one box right now

My Computer tower (or at least the external drive)

 

[Candlelight]

I would normally say my hard drive but have made a clone at work which I update once a month, so probably not that.

I have photos of my wedding which don't exist as digital files (one day they will) so probably them.

I have a portafile with passports and birth certificates so maybe that too. Would be a pain to replace, not to mention expensive.

Have got contents insurance so everything standard should be replaced. Not emotionally attached to any furniture.

 

[Roshi]

The OP did say that family and pets were already outside.

Ok, then I stand by my initial comment. I made several back-ups whether they be online or at friends' and parents', so yeah, basically I don't need to "save" anything from the flames.

 

[Trelane]

Wallet & Keys. Then urinate on the building as it burns. I live in the crappiest building in town, (bed bugs, hooker stroll, and no security gates / guards.)

 

[iguana_tonante]

Wallet and laptop.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

The five most important things absent family and pets are:

Wallet
Personal Records
Laptop
External Hard Drives
Photo Albums

If I had to get rid of three of those, I guess it would have to be the laptop, photo albums, and records, since most of the important data from the laptop would be stored on the hard drives, and most of the photos and records are copied in digital form on the hard drives as well.

But that's a tough call to reduce it down to two things. I keep the external hard drives, photo albums, and the personal records file in a locked emergency box with handles on it to grab and go in case of a fire or other emergency, and my wallet and laptop are always near me, so in reality unless the fire was rapidly spreading and completely overwhelming I'd probably be able to get it all after making sure everyone was outside and grabbing my cats.

I should probably just get a fireproof safe and not have to make the choice.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Both my grandparents and an aunt lost their houses in bush fires - my grandparents in the Tasmanian bush fires of 1967 and my aunt in the Canberra bush fires Of 2003. In both cases there wasn't time to save family photos. Soon after my aunt's loss I went out and bought a scanner and scanned all the family photos and loaded them unto my Flickr account marking them private. My sister knows that they are there and knows how to access them. If there is a fire at my house there are copies of the photos.

I am surprised how many people I know who have scanners and computers but haven't bothered to do this.

 

[SmoothieX]

1. My notes from college and both grad school programs and my PE prep. Textbooks are replaceable but those are not.

2. Memory cards from cameras over the years.

Anything else is just stuff that can be replaced in time, but those cannot be recreated.

 

[RandyS]

My ass with both hands.

Wow.

THAT heavy, huh?