Normally fires here start well to the east and move to the west. A fire that popped locally would be small, still a threat, but not huge and with the proximity of local FD should be put down quickly. Fortunately the ravine I'm in is built up to the east so there will be a high priority on stopping it before it gets near.

Still, after seeing how a few of these fires move, I do not assume it can't get here. Once a fire is big enough it starts to develop its own weather system and anything can happen; nothing should be taken for granted. Embers can jump large distances and with the dry conditions present, things can turn very bad, very quickly.

The "pack early" thing is something some folks just don't get. When a fire threatens they need to (but often don't) get that critical step out of the way while stress levels are low. When time is short stress rises and things are forgotten.

After the truck is packed I'll walk through and see if anything that should have been on the list was missed. There's lots that could be on the list but there's limited room so priorities are set. What things are important that cannot be replaced?

One thing that definitely goes with is my digital video camera. It will have done the walk through with me documenting everything that was left -- inside and out.

After I've finished my walk-through and everything is packed I'll take a walk through the neighborhood. Once one of the neighbors was bugging out to a relative's home on the back-side of the fire, Since they needed to drive through the smoke, which was everywhere, I gave them a few N-95 masks. During the same fire one of the neighbors who had been fighting the fire showed up at home for a long break. At that point I knew at least near term we weren't threatened.

The truck stayed packed for a week.