One minute your phone is ringing and the message is a terrifying one. The wildfire is in the hills above your home and you’ve only got 10 minutes to pack up and go.

What will you take? Are your valuables close by? Your legal documents? Passport? Digital files? Computer?

Are there other items you’ll surely forget in the haste to pack up and get out the door? 

Learning to Live with Wildfire

While there has been a great deal of focus on the things you can do to prevent your home from being destroyed should a wildfire threaten it — through home hardening measures, planting fire resistant vegetation and maintaining proper clearances — your home can be replaced.

But many of the items described above may not be. Learning how to prepare what fire officials call your “go bag” and having it ready to go at the first sign of a fire coming your way may be the most important thing you can do other than ensuring you get out of harm safely.

Fire Safe Survival Workshop

On Saturday, May 18, the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council in partnership with local fire agencies, Office of Emergency Management, and police departments will be providing a workshop at Santa Barbara City College’s Business Communication Forum from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. that focuses on making the critical decisions in that 10 minutes framework.

The workshop is free and open to all community members and will provide presentations on several vital topics including what to do when you only have 10 minutes to evacuate, what to wear when evacuating, where to go in a last minute evacuation, and how to stay calm during evacuation.

Dealing with Uncertainty

“When it comes to wildfire there are so many uncertainties,” Charles Harris, who is the Fire Safe Council’s communications coordinator, tells me. “When it comes to dealing with evacuation especially, everyone always wants specific details about what to do,” he adds, “But you don’t know when the wildfire will happen, where it will happen or where you’ll be when it starts.”

Instead, Harris explains that the goal of the workshop is to provide people with information and skills that they could essentially use in a last minute evacuation when you have very limited time to make what could be life-altering decisions.

Workshop Components

The workshop will kick off with presentations by recently-retired Santa Barbara County Fire Marshal Rob Hazard and Wildland Fire Specialist Nic Elmquist from Montecito Fire at 10 a.m. They’ll give a current assessment of wildfire potential given the abundance of new vegetative growth due to the late winter rains, and discuss the basic questions dealing with evacuation: where to go; how to get out safely; and what to wear while doing it.

Then there will be a free lunch for attendees and a resource fair with tables set up for people to ask questions.

Big Time Bonuses

Along with this will be training in the use of fire extinguishers, an opportunity for you to have your evacuation “go bag” checked out by fire department officials and get advice on how to improve it. This could prove critical for a successful evacuation should you need to.

Along with this will be the opportunity to have your most critical paperwork scanned and saved on a thumb drive. The Fire Safe Council will be providing free drives and have scanners set up to digitize your documents.

Topping this off will be a raffle for various evacuation-related gear. You’ll receive an extra ticket if you bring your “go bag” with you or a picture of it.

RSVP Required

Anyone who is interested in attending the workshop can RSVP so the Fire Safe Council can plan accordingly for the number of attendees and number of lunches to provide.

You can sign up online or call the Fire Safe Council at 805.220.9037 to register.