LA Wildfires (from a prepper’s perspective)

I’d imagine by now you’ve heard about the wildfires near Los Angeles. Here’s one of many videos from two days ago about them, though I’m sure you can find more recent videos today:

Of course, there are many theories as to what’s happening, why it happened, who might be to blame, and so on. My guess is that there will be a lot of blame to throw around. But I don’t want to focus on any of that. What I find interesting is how people reacted to it. For instance, some people, perhaps caught off-guard, had to abandon their vehicles:

Given how bad the traffic there is already, I can only imagine how much of a mess abandoned vehicles made the situation! But it appears that some folks were relatively prepared, too, already having their bags and passports and whatnot ready to go. I presume they’re headed to the airport (or maybe Mexico?) though I’m unsure how wise that choice might be, either.

And here are some misguided young men who tried to ride it out, having to flee their home at the last minute (the following video has been fast-forwarded to the 6:10 mark; you only need to watch for about fifteen seconds):

I think they didn’t quite realize just how bad a wildfire can get, with the high winds and floating embers. Hopefully, they’ve learned their lesson and will choose to get out sooner! (And maybe they can put their phones away while they’re escaping, too.)

I’ve seen other videos of people just milling about, taking photos and videos of the blaze while it’s just over a hilltop. Again, maybe people don’t realize just how quickly wildfires can spread.

Thankfully, as of this writing, I don’t believe anyone has died. But if the fire continues to rage out of control, that will change.

Ultimately, I’m not trying to judge folks. Who know how I might react in a similar situation, especially when I have obligations to elderly family who live with us. It would be VERY difficult for me to leave my dogs and even our cats if we had to evacuate unexpectedly. And that’s to say nothing of my desire not to leave all of my supplies. But stuff can be replaced; people and animals can’t. I know that. I hope you do, too.

From a prepping perspective, I’d say that this disaster (and certainly most disasters) boil down to three things:

1. Planning ahead
2. Staying informed
3. Redundancy

At it’s most basic, planning ahead is what we preppers do a lot. We spend time thinking about what might happen and making plans to mitigate, react to, and recover from whatever happens. A wildfire, in this case, is largely about planning your escape. And escaping from L.A. (no movie pun intended) is no small task. But it can be done if you’re willing to take the time.

Staying informed isn’t difficult, either. You can watch the nightly news, buy a NOAA weather, radio, add smartphone apps, get email or text alerts from local authorities, and more. There are disasters, like an earthquake, that allow for little to no warning, but a wildfire usually does allow for some warning time. Thus, it’s more about knowing when to act on the information than anything else. Unsurprisingly, as with hurricanes, people are accustomed to ignoring the warnings … and that’s at their own peril.

Redundancy, the way I see it, is largely about supplies and getting actions accomplished. For instance, it could mean having different ways to power a refrigerator or multiple light sources. But it also means having multiple ways to bug out, in this case. It means planning different routes and even having different modes of transportation (e.g., more than one vehicle, scooters or bicycles for those who live in an urban area, and even the ability to escape on foot).

My guess is that most folks who were caught unaware in these fires failed at one or more of these three basic survival tenets.

Let’s hope they learned a lesson and will be better prepared in the future.