Evacuation Considerations for American Gun Owners
As I write this over 130,000 people in California have been evacuated from their homes as fires destroy over 2000 structures so far in one of the most destructive fires our country has seen in the last decade. Over 450,000 homes are without power and I can only imagine the toll this is taking on those communities.
On December 30, 2021, my home was put on pre-evacuation notice during the “Marshal Fire,” which destroyed 991 structures, caused 2 billion dollars in damage, and is currently the most destructive fire in Colorado history. Over the course of about 45 minutes, my family packed up our gear and prepared to evacuate our home. While we never ultimately evacuated we know several people who lost everything they owned and 3 years later many have still not recovered emotionally or financially.
From that terrifying experience, I want to share some considerations for those who are evacuating now and for all of us who may have to evacuate one day in the future. It is unpredictable.
While evacuating is about a lot more than your guns, my intention is to keep the focus of this conversation on guns specifically.
Insurance Policy
While it might seem like a weird place to start this conversation I think it is worth noting that most of us don't have an insurance policy that will replace every single thing in our home if the home was lost in a fire.
Home insurance policies generally have limits on personal property replacement and in my general experience most have more collective personal property than our policy limits would replace. In addition, you may have exclusions in your policy from fire entirely. More and more insurance companies are pulling out of areas that they consider to be of high risk of flood or fire or they add exclusions to the policy to give themselves an out should you lose your home or property to those kinds of disasters.
It is worth knowing what your policy does and doesn't cover and perhaps worth considering increasing your coverage to ensure that anything lost will be replaced.
What Guns to Take With You
There are two sides of my brain when I think about taking vs leaving guns in my house when I evacuate.
First, there is the practical fact that I might need a gun or guns during the crisis. During large-scale emergencies that cause homes to be evacuated, we do see an increase in criminal activity, specifically looting and property-related crime.
You may be planning to travel to stay with family in a different area or state or perhaps you are going to live out of a hotel until the crisis is over. Regardless you probably need to take at least some degree of effective personal protection so I would make sure I'm armed if I wasn't already and perhaps load an extra magazine into a pocket if I didn't already have one on me.
If you did need to pack up a large number of guns from your home do you have a good case or method to do so securely?
I would look for other EDC items that I traditionally have on me like a good pocket knife, flashlight, and pepper spray as well. And while I said I'd keep this article to the topic of guns and try not to stray into other survival and bug-out related topics I will just add the importance of having good medical gear with you as well.
Second, there is the financial matter. I suspect the average American household doesn't have a single fireproof thing in the house. However, gun-owning households are much more likely to have a fire-rated safe that could survive a fire and protect its contents. More on those safes below.
Since guns are relatively expensive for the amount of space they take up I would be inclined to either take them with me or make sure they are all left in a quality fire-rated safe.
Fire-Rated Safe
Speaking of fire-rated safes, many safes advertise being fire-proof or having a fire-rating. These safes are generally constructed with some sort of fireboard, composite materials, or K-wool insulation all of which are designed to protect the contents of the safe in a fire. Not all are created equally as some manufacturers have their safes tested and certified independently and others are only factory-certified.
A Liberty Safe opened after a wildfire burned down the home.
Regardless what you generally see in the fire rating is a temperature and a time period. For example, a safe rated for 60 minutes at 1200 degrees means that the inside of the safe stays below 350 degrees for at least 60 minutes when the outside temperature is sustained at 1200 degrees. 1200 degrees is a common testing point as it is generally considered to be the temperature of a house fire.
There are examples both of safes that survived fires and safes that didn't. There is no exact guarantee but if space is limited and I have to leave some things behind it seems to me that the safe is a good place for firearms and other valuables that I choose not to bring along.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. What ideas or tips specific to firearms would you give to someone who thinks they may have to evacuate one day?
Many fire safes (notably the ones that a certain state government, California I think, was giving to gun owners!) are made of material that tends to releases water vapor over time and causes their contents to rust, mold, and mildew, so any guns left in these fire safes will rust. That’s one reason I don’t keep guns in my fire safe.
Of course, the California government considers fire safes that cause guns to rust a feature, not a bug!
I hope I will never to experience the likes of the fires in Los Angeles but I do keep my firearms in a safe and I know I can get them out if I would ever have to evacuate. The thing I worry about is the ammunition I have may not have enough time to get that out and in a fire very dangerous. How do I warn people of this danger
I have lived in SOCAL since 1998. From 2003 till now, I have packed and left my home 5 times as my neighborhood burned. Here’s what I will share based on my experience and values:
1) Go over your Insurance policy with your company or your agent. Candidly discuss what is, and what is not covered, and any applicable limits. Purchase a rider/endorsement/schedule for all collectibles- guns, jewelry, art- whatever. Get it listed in detail with a photo and/or serial numbers. Consider an Umbrella Policy to up your aggregate limits. Be damn sure the Insurance will pay in the event of wildfire, flood, natural disaster, etcetera.
2) A basic first aid kit should be in your car. A basic bug-out bag should be in your home. You know this; so do it- now.
3) Don’t forget your prescriptions. Take the pain meds you only use now and then because you will need them this trip. Trust me on this point.
4) Besides family and pets, the irreplaceables are the photos, deeds, licenses, DD-214, etcetera. Keep them in one place to grab quickly when time truly matters.
5) Keep your automobile at least half-full of fuel all the time. It keeps you on the road longer and you can get to another town before you have to stop for gas. Those pumps likely won’t be inundated with refugees as the ones close to home will likely be.
6) Keep a Lifestraw in the car. Keep a case of water and protein bars where you can grab them quickly. Don’t forget a bowl for your pet.
If you are driving a Suburban, you’ll probably have room aplenty. If you drive a smaller SUV, sedan or coupe you will have to minimize based on space. Leave the sports car at home because it is insured? Maybe. Check the policy.
Say a prayer.
Funny thing is when I had a landline phone, I could call it and I’d know if my house was still there when the answering machine picked up. Cellphones don’t offer that reassurance.
This is a really good, experience-based list MG!
A few (experience-based) revisions/suggestions…
(2 – Kits) If you can find room in your vehicle (think creatively), your bugoug bag belongs inside your vehicle – and every member of the family should have one. If a fire or other “instant disaster” springs up, you may not be able to get home to grab your bag. If it’s with you all the time, you and your family can leave from wherever you are when a crisis strikes (because their bags are in the 2nd vehicle as well).
(3 – Prescriptions) If you are dependent on any meds, keep them consolidated in a small bag you can just “grab and go” – or at least organized in a way and near a bag for fast consolidation. Two if you need to keep meds refrigerated and non-refrigerated. I keep mine in a small MOLLE “blowout pack” that can quickly be fixed to my bugout bag. Ask your doctor about getting an extra month of meds for emergencies. Not all will help you out, but you can ask.
(5 – Fuel) As much as people say, “keep your tank half full”, I find most simply can’t keep up with that requirement – including me and my gas-guzzler truck. 1/3 full, for me, is my fill-up point and I have four 14-gal containers of fuel with stabilizer at home that can fill me and the wife up in an emergency and go on the rack of our vehicles for an evacuation. The containers have “gas pump-like” dispensers that can offer near pit-stop refueling speed behind a strip mall (to avoid the gas zombies who are running dry in an evac traffic jam).
(6 – LifeStraw) The LifeStraws most people have are only good for drinking the contaminated water in front of you. You could collect water in a container and use the LS to drink out of it, but it’s much more efficient to carry a 3L or so hydration bladder in your bugout bag with an in-line filter (basically a LifeStraw slipped in the middle of the drinking hose) that allows you to carry and drink the water on-the-go, even sipping it while driving.
Just a few thoughts. 🙂
Great thread and thanks to all for sharing your tips!
I have good quality gun safes sufficient to safely protect my guns. However, I have enough locking cases to take all of my guns with me. If I have enough time, I’ll take all of the guns with me. I’m somewhat concerned that I will be able to properly secure them wherever I go, but I’m not going to risk being separated from them.
I think M G LaMar has a really good list. Don’t overlook his comment about making sure the serial numbers are recorded with the insurance company (and I firmly believe in having a copy of the numbers on my computer and phone). One of the problems with the looting aside from simply losing possessions is that guns can wind up in criminals hands and subsequently in crimes. If you must leave guns behind and they are stolen, you will want to report make, model, and serial numbers to law enforcement immediately upon knowing they are missing. All this says, I would try to take as many of my firearms with me as possible even if I need to store them at a friend’s or relative’s house outside of the evacuation area. My EDC goes with me Every Day and I have a small safe cabled into my vehicle that can accommodate a few more handguns.
You absolutely cant rely on fire rated safes to protect your guns. A coworker of mine had multiple quality gun safes in his garage. The garage burnt down. The guns in the safes were not damaged directly by the fire. The damage was from the heat causing the oil to be cooked off the guns and then they rusted to the point they were a total loss. He was fortunate he had a separate insurance policy that insured his firearms at full replacement value.
It may be the next day or a week or more until you can get access after a fire. If you eant to see hoe this works yake a piece of polished carbon steel and wipe it down with gun protectant like you would a gun. Put it in an oven at 300 or 350 degrees for 2 hours then set it outdoors in high humidty on a covered porch for 24 hours.
If the plan is to leave firearms in a fire-rated safe…
Some safes have, or were retrofit with interior electric for lighting and/or heaters. The wire entry point is usually some type of small hole. That little hole can be the undoing of a perfectly good fire-rated safe, as that would be an entry point for hot, probably corrosive gasses to enter the safe. To prevent that type of failure, be sure to plug the hole with a fire-rated expanding calk, putty, or other type of fire-stop that will swell many times over in a fire and prevent any hot gases from entering the safe,