What to do in case of an emergency

[MagPie]

To start off I have days off from work on Tuesday and Weds. Which makes me very thankful after the day I had yesterday. Well, anyway I have new neighbors above me. They moved in less than a week ago. They seem ok, aside from the fact that the guy leaves his cigarette butts every where and they are a little loud with the TV. They were watching Rent so I couldn't be too put out by it haha. I do like that movie.

Yesterday, while they were out, what I thought was their alarm clock was going off and they weren't home. I go oh great and jump in the shower so I could run errands. I had put Harvey in his cage before hand (thank god!). As I was getting out the alarm was still going. I take out Harvey's garbage and walk under their window and go hmmm that's way too loud to be an alarm clock. Walk around the corner to see smoke (and lots of it) billowing out their windows. I of course say Oh S*&%, drop the bags I was holding and run inside my apartment in a complete panic (I know no good, but fire is one of my worst fears). Grab my phone and the garbage not thinking straight. All I wanted to do was grab the animals and stick them in the car while I figure out who to call. Luckily their next door neighbor pops his head out. The alarm woke him, he works nights. I shout at him that the place next to him is on fire. He doesn't panic nearly as much as I am and calls 911. The neighbors finally show up and luckily it was mostly smoke. They had left the burner on and the pot caught fire. Luckily I was home and caught it in time and the fire fighters arrived quickly.

This whole thing made me realize I am slightly unprepared if I really had to grab everyone out. I don't really have a plan. What is everyones' emergency plan?
I'm glad I have carriers for the cats and rabbit. I used to only have one for the cats. Harvey's stuff is in a general area. But I really don't like how much I panicked. The cats and Harvey didn't seem to know anything was wrong haha. They just gave me blank looks afterwards while I was still sweaty and shaky.

It just makes me sick to think if no one had been home. What if I hadn't spotted the smoke? My animals are like my children, silly as that seems to some people.

 

[qtipthebun]

I'm so glad you were home.

My roommate and I have an emergency plan (if one of us is home) including grabbing bunny and bird (although getting the tip in her cage could be a pain).

We have a sticker on our window that is for the firefighter and it says what pets we have, so that they know what to do if we're not home.

But...that's something I worry about too.

Again, glad you all are okay.

 

[MagPie]

Yes me too. Thank you Hmmm I wonder if they'd let me put one of those stickers on my front door. The only windows I have are around the corner from the door.

This whole thing has also got me thinking about renters' insurance. I know I should have had it long ago. But with the very real possibilty of a fire yesterday, I wouldn't have money to replace all my stuff. I would only worry about grabbing the animals and getting them out. Ugh fire.... >_

 

[ArdenBunny]

I live at home with the parental units (I am 28). My Mom and Dad own this house. They have owned it since before I was born, but fires can happen in houses, too.



At the moment I don't have a rabbit. I do have two dogs though. Both of my dogs sleep in crates in my room. They are not allowed to roam the house at night for this very reason. That way, if I get woke up and we have to get out of the house NOW I know where everybody is. No hunting dogs down, no looking through rooms. They are two steps away from my bed.

Their collars and leashes are on top of one of the crates, and so is a pet taxi. Both of my dogs are pretty good on leash, so I always figured in case of emergency I would rush them out, and put them inside our car or something until help arrived. For a rabbit I would put them in a pet taxi and do the same.



That's my plan for a fire. I live in Arkansas, which always has terrible tornado weather. I still haven't gotten that one figured out yet. It would be hard to be stuck in a small closet with two medium sized dogs and a rabbit. :biggrin2:

 

[LaylaLop]

I'll be getting renter's insurance at the next place we move to since right now, well I have crappy Walmart furniture and no job to pay for the insurance buuut soon my bf and I will be moving into hopefully a rental house and we will definitely be wanting the renter's insurance since we'll be getting nice things.

Scary, but glad nothing bad really happened!

 

[MagPie]

Yeah it really got me thinking maybe this is a sign to get renters insurance. Now that I have stupid people who leave their burners on above me :rollseyes

Now I have mostly crappy furniture, but I have a few things I could never afford to replace. Like my cameras, especially the old ones that belong to my grandpa.

 

[kkiddle]

I just moved into an apartment three weeks ago, and I've been having dreams about this. More like nightmares! lol
I imagine that if that happened, I'd just have to forcibly GRAB Cheeto, as he is free range all the time. He freezes up if he feels a stressful situation, like if I was running around in a panic! Actually, my smoke alarm went off the other day, and I got to see how he reacts. He ran into the nearest closet, which would be easy enough to grab him from.
I worry constantly about what would happen if I wasn't home, since I live alone. Unfortunately, you can't really think about those things, but have a plan in case something like that does happen. The sticker thing is a good idea, post one at each entrance if you can. You never know where they might need to get into. You can also post an "information" sheet, stating where your animals might be hiding.
I am a horrible worry-wart and think about this obsessively, but what can you do? Other than be prepared, right?

 

[MagPie]

I'm a horrible worry wart too its terrible haha.
I've always worry about them when I am away; I also live alone. And I just know this little thing yesterday isn't going to help. Oooof course the cats looked at me like I was nuts and Harvey was sleeping so grabbing them would have been easy. I've had my smoke alarm go off before. My burner started to catch fire while I was cooking. So I was right on it but my alarm was so sensitive it went off anyway. The cats and rabbit ignored the alarm like it was nothing. But still who knows what smoke'll add to the situation.

 

[nobunnynoclue]

As for "stuff", it can all get replaced by my homeowners insurance so I'm not worried about that. The only stuff I would cry if I lost are my pictures which are All on my laptop. So I would want to save the life of my laptop but not before saving the lives of my human kids and husband. The animal kids, I would probably open the rear door and shoo everyone out including the birds, snakes, rabbits, and dogs. Similar to how a rancher would shoo horses out of a burning barn. Lol! I wouldn't think. I would just toss everyone out of an open window.

My vet's office gives away these little window stickers that say "pets inside". It's in case of fire. But I won't use it. I am too afraid a fireman would try to save my animals and forget about my human kids. Lol.

 

[SApple]

nobunnynoclue wrote:

My vet's office gives away these little window stickers that say "pets inside". It's in case of fire. But I won't use it. I am too afraid a fireman would try to save my animals and forget about my human kids. Lol.

You can also get those sticker to put on your kid's bedroom windows.

 

[eclairemom]

SApple wrote:

nobunnynoclue wrote:

My vet's office gives away these little window stickers that say "pets inside". It's in case of fire. But I won't use it. I am too afraid a fireman would try to save my animals and forget about my human kids. Lol.

You can also get those sticker to put on your kid's bedroom windows.

You can, but sadly we live in a world where it also screams...Here crazy person this is where my kids are :shock::shock:

 

[Trigger101]

Glad you and your animals are okay!!

My plan: My parents will get all of my brothers and sisters out and I get the animals. We keep the dogs leashes right by the door so I will just have to slip that one them. My mom and dad would grab the ferret on their way out. The bunnys are outside far away from the house so if it was a big fire I would be able to run and get them. Thankfully it is only two of them!! The cats are outside/inside cats and would have to just be let out the door because we do not have cat carriers. My brother and sisters could grab them and hold them but if they got scared they would be able to hide out at the neighbors.

if we are gone and something happens my neighbor will make sure all the animals are safe. We have this plan after she went away from vacation and no one took care of their dog!! he wasn't friendly with strangers so they had a family friend take care of him but he growled at them once and they quite going over there to take care of him so I went over there to take care of him since he new me real good. How we got the fire plan or any emergency from this was because that was an emergency really since it was 100+ degrees out and there dog was a husky/lab mix and had lots of fur and no water(any dog should have water but it was worse for him because of all the fur). So we sat down and went over everything and we each have spare keys,vets phone numbers, our cell phone numbers and at-least one family members phone numbers if they can not reach us.