This one was a bit north of Dubai, where the other two happened. This is the third major conflagration in a residential high rise within the past year. The first was the 79 story Torch luxury apartments in February 2015. The second was the 63 story Address Hotel on New Years Eve. And now the Ajman One Tower One complex, towers 6, 7, and 8 with 35-40 stories each goes up.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/28/middleeast...;iref=obnetwork

These bring up the issues particular to evacuating a residential high rise. At 5 stories and under, you can go outside the structure with a fire escape ladder. At 9-10 stories, the fire department can reach you. At 400-800 feet off the ground, you're really limited to evacuation down an internal stairwell. That is unless you fancy BASE jumping or rappelling down the side of a burning building.

So... knowing that you and a couple thousand of your closest friends are all headed down the same flights of stairs. How do you prepare?

The obvious:
Comfortable shoes
Flashlight
Smoke hood/respirator/???
Light weight backpack with critical documents, medications, and what else?

Given the weight constraints of carrying everything down, what is potentially over 1,000 steps, what do you take? Keep in mind that this is at a residential apartment and not an office, so you have a bit more freedom then in regards to what you can have ready.