Last year, I had the questionable good fortune to have a fire alarm wake me up in a hotel while it was about zero Farenheit outside.

As is my practice when staying in a hotel, I had my pants, shirt and shoes from the day before laid out and ready to go. I was dressed, wearing shoes and carrying my jacket within less than a minute. A quick check with the back of my hand against the door, then the doorknob, was followed by a slow crack of the door to sniff for smoke. After that I was out of my room and on my way down the stairs. Despite being on the eighth floor, I was one of the first dozen hotel guests to get outside.

What I heard was that it was a small kitchen fire, with no injuries. We were out of the cold and heading back to our rooms in about 20 min.

My pants already contained critical items like my car keys, wallet, and so forth. The main things that I grabbed after shoes and clothes were my room key and pistol (which is legal for me to carry there).