Wildfire Evacuation Prep: What to Bring, What to Protect, and What Should Already Be Safe

Published August 2026

We went up to my parents' place on Sunday because my mom forgot her medication. The road was open long enough for us to grab what she needed. What I saw when we got there is why I am writing this. The fire had come right up to the fence line of their 5-acre property. The barn and a couple of outbuildings were gone. The house and garage were completely fine. A fire crew had created a fire barrier in the back and front of the house, and that barrier is what saved everything. There was still heavy smoke and active hot spots.

I am Dominic Schwebs. I run Safe & Vault Store here in Spokane. I have spent 15 years writing about home security and fire ratings, and this week the conversation I usually have with customers stopped being abstract. Here is what our family is doing right now, and what I would tell any of you who might be next.

What's Happening in Spokane County

As of publication, three active wildfires are burning in Spokane County: the Fairview Fire, the Old Trails Fire, and the Autumn Fire. All three have triggered evacuation orders at every level. If you are new to Washington's evacuation system, here is the short version:

• Level 1 (Get Ready): Prepare to leave. Pack a bag, secure valuables, know your route out.
• Level 2 (Get Set): Voluntary evacuation. If you have vulnerable people or animals with you, go now. If you stay, be ready to leave in minutes.
• Level 3 (Go Now): Mandatory. You do not have time to gather anything you have not already packed.

Not every state uses this exact system. California, Oregon, and Idaho use similar tiered warnings with different names (California uses "Evacuation Warning" and "Evacuation Order," for example). Check your county emergency management website for your local terms and sign up for their alert system before fire season.

My parents were Level 3. There was no returning to make a second trip. When we went back on Sunday for medication, it was during a brief window when the road was cleared. Those windows close fast.

Fire departments are stretched thin during an event of this size. Crews are prioritizing life safety, then structure protection, where they have people and equipment. In my parents' case, they got lucky. A crew was in position and had time to build a barrier that held. Not every home this week has been that fortunate.

What to Do Before Fire Season

The best evacuation prep happens weeks or months before you ever need it. If you live anywhere in fire country, build these into your routine every summer.

Keep a full tank of gas when possible

During an active wildfire, gas stations get slammed, run out, or lose power. Fill up whenever you drop below half a tank. If you have a spare gas can safely stored in a garage, keep it full too.

Some evacuations also turn into hours of stop-and-go or bumper-to-bumper traffic, depending on the route and the volume of people leaving at once. An idling engine burns roughly half a gallon of gas per hour, so a long evacuation line can quietly drain a big chunk of your tank before you ever get to safety. When you are evacuating, the last thing you want is to be sitting in a gas line while smoke rolls in, or worse, to run out of gas surrounded by other evacuees.

Keep an emergency kit in your trunk

A well-stocked go-bag that lives in the car means you never have to build one under pressure. What we recommend including:

• Case of bottled water and non-perishable snacks
• First aid kit
• N95 or KN95 masks for everyone in the household
• Blankets
• Flashlight, extra batteries, and a battery-powered radio
• Physical maps of the region (cell towers can fail during a wildfire)
• Phone chargers and a spare battery pack
• Cash in small bills
• Copies of important documents in a waterproof pouch or on an encrypted USB drive
• A basic change of clothes for each family member
• Pet supplies: food, leash, carrier, vaccination records

Know two evacuation routes

Have at least two ways out of your neighborhood. Wildfires close roads unpredictably. If your primary route is blocked, you do not want to be figuring out plan B for the first time under stress.

Have a family meetup plan

If you get separated during the chaos of evacuation, agree in advance on a meeting point outside the evacuation zone and a shared contact who lives out of the area (long-distance numbers are often reachable when local ones are jammed).

Insurance to Handle Before Fire Season

The single most impactful thing you can do in the calm before a fire is spend an hour with your homeowner's insurance policy. Most people cannot answer basic questions about their own coverage, and those questions matter more than the safe you own.

Do these five things before fire season:

1. Read your declaration page. Confirm your dwelling coverage limit is enough to actually rebuild your home at current construction costs (rebuild costs have jumped 30 to 50 percent in the last few years in most Western states). If your policy limit has not been updated recently, you are probably underinsured.
2. Confirm Additional Living Expenses (ALE) coverage. ALE pays for hotel, rent, meals, and other extra costs while you are displaced. Most policies include it. Most people do not know it exists until they need it. Ask your agent what your ALE limit is and how long it lasts.
3. Ask about wildfire exclusions. Some insurers have added separate wildfire deductibles or dropped coverage entirely in high-risk areas. Better to find out now than after a fire.
4. Do a photo and video inventory. Walk through your home with your phone camera on. Open every closet, every drawer, every cabinet. Get close-ups of high-value items and their serial numbers. Save everything to the cloud with a timestamped filename. This 30 minutes of work is worth the time when an emergency happens.
5. Set up your online account with your insurance carrier. Most carriers now let you access your policy, file claims, and check status through a website or mobile app. Set up your login before fire season, not during. My parents did not have online access set up and ended up on hold trying to reach their agent. As a backup, also save a copy of your policy documents to your cloud storage in case you cannot get online at all.

After a fire, three things matter most: contact your carrier as soon as you are safe, photograph everything before touching or moving anything, and save every receipt for temporary lodging, food, and essentials so you can claim them under ALE. If your claim is large or the insurer is being difficult, a public adjuster (paid on a percentage of your settlement) often nets you more than handling it alone.

The Evacuation Checklist

To be honest, my family was not fully prepared. My parents evacuated in a hurry with what they could grab, and my mom left her medication behind, which is why I made the Sunday trip up. This is the checklist I wish we had followed. If you have any time before a Level 3 order comes, use this list. If you find yourself in a Level 2, this is your prep window.

The list looks long, but if you break it out, most of it lives in three places: a fireproof home safe, a medicine cabinet, and a closet. If your important documents and irreplaceable items are already consolidated in a safe, evacuation becomes "grab one thing" instead of "gather twenty things while stressed."

The Last Hour Before You Leave

If you have any warning at all (Level 1 or Level 2), spend the last hour on tasks that help your house survive and help firefighters do their job. My parents did not have time for most of this, and they were lucky a fire crew was in position to build a barrier around the house. For homes that do not get that kind of luck, these last-hour actions can be the difference between a house that burns and one that doesn't.

• Close all windows and outside vents. Embers travel miles ahead of the fire front and enter through even small openings. A closed window is one less way for a fire to start inside your house.
• Move flammables away from the exterior. Patio furniture cushions, wood piles, propane tanks, welcome mats, potted plants on the porch. Anything combustible within 30 feet of the house should be moved into the garage or well away from the structure.
• Check your gas utility's evacuation guidance. Some areas want homeowners to shut the gas off at the meter before leaving (quarter-turn with a wrench). Others prefer the utility handle it. Either way, only your gas company can safely turn service back on afterward, so if you shut it off yourself, plan on a service call before you can use gas again.
• Leave interior lights and exterior porch lights on if power is still on. Firefighters use lights to spot houses through heavy smoke. In many wildfires the power is already out (from line damage or a preemptive utility shutoff), so this one may be out of your hands, but flip the switches on your way out if you have the option.
• Fill sinks, tubs, and any large containers with water. Firefighters may use them if they set up around your property.
• Take a video walk-through of every room. This is your insurance record if the house does not survive.
• Leave a note on the door. Name, cell number, and confirmation that all people and pets have evacuated. This helps firefighters know they do not need to attempt rescue.

None of this replaces leaving early. If you are Level 3, none of it matters more than being in your car and moving. But if you have a Level 1 or 2 warning window, use it.

Wildfire Smoke and Air Quality

Even if the fire never reaches your address, the smoke will. Wildfire smoke contains fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that goes deep into the lungs and bloodstream. It causes real harm at levels most people do not notice until they feel sick.

Watch the Air Quality Index (AQI) at airnow.gov. Practical thresholds:

• AQI 0 to 50 (Good): No concerns.
• AQI 51 to 100 (Moderate): Sensitive people (asthma, COPD, heart conditions, pregnant, elderly, young children) should limit outdoor exertion.
• AQI 101 to 150 (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups): Sensitive groups should stay indoors. Everyone else should limit outdoor activity.
• AQI 151 to 200 (Unhealthy): Everyone limits outdoor activity. Close windows, run indoor air filtration.
• AQI 201 and above (Very Unhealthy to Hazardous): Stay indoors. If you must go outside, wear an N95 or KN95 mask.

Indoors, run a HEPA air purifier if you have one, close windows and doors, and set your HVAC to recirculate (not fresh-air intake). If you do not have a purifier, a box fan with a MERV-13 furnace filter taped to the intake side (sometimes called a "Corsi-Rosenthal box") is a cheap alternative that works surprisingly well.

N95 or KN95 masks fitted properly are the only masks that filter wildfire smoke effectively. Bandanas, surgical masks, and cloth masks do not.

Pets and Livestock in a Wildfire

Animals complicate evacuation. Every fire season, animals are left behind because their owners waited too long or had no plan.

Dogs and cats

Pack a pet go-bag the same way you pack the family go-bag. Include 7 days of food and medication, leashes, carriers, familiar bedding, and copies of vaccination records. Practice loading nervous pets into carriers before you need to do it under time pressure.

Horses, cattle, and larger animals

Large-animal evacuation is much harder. Do these things now:

• Identify at least two boarding options outside your typical evacuation zone (fairgrounds, other ranches, boarding facilities). Call ahead during fire season to confirm they have space.
• Keep halters and lead ropes near stalls, not in a tack room you might not reach.
• Have a trailer plan even if you do not own a trailer. Neighbors, friends, and local horse rescue groups can help but only if you have coordinated in advance.
• Practice loading. Horses that have never been in a trailer will not learn during an evacuation.
• If you cannot evacuate large animals, leave them in the largest, most defensible pasture with plenty of water. Cut them loose only as a last resort.

If you get separated from your pet

Contact your local animal control and the Red Cross Emergency Animal Rescue line as soon as you can. Do not go back into an evacuation zone to search. Wait for authorities to clear the area.

Where to Keep Your Most Important Documents

Before fire ever comes near you, decide where your irreplaceable documents live. Most families have paperwork scattered across a desk drawer, a filing cabinet, and a shoebox in the closet. Under a Level 3 evacuation, that scattering becomes a real problem.

You have a few options here, and they are not mutually exclusive:

• Digital scans in secure cloud storage (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, or an encrypted service). Free, off-site by definition, and accessible from anywhere. Good for reference copies of everything.
• A bank safe deposit box for irreplaceable originals like passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, and property deeds. Cheap, physically outside the wildfire's reach, but not accessible outside of bank hours.
• A fireproof home safe for the documents and valuables you need day-to-day access to, plus cash, jewelry, and things that would be inconvenient to store off-site.
• A waterproof/fireproof document pouch as a portable option that lives in your evacuation kit.
• Off-site copies with a trusted family member in another state.

The right answer is usually a combination. Here is what we generally recommend for most households:

• Cloud scans of everything, encrypted, with two-factor authentication
• A fireproof home safe for your will, insurance policies, a small amount of emergency cash, and a backup drive with family photos
• A written home inventory (with photos of every room and every high-value item) stored both on the backup drive and in the cloud

The fireproof home safe I use is the AMSEC BFS912E5LP Burglar and Fire Safe. It is a compact, UL RSC burglary-rated safe with ETL-verified fire protection (80 minutes at 1,200°F), an illuminated electronic lock, and a small footprint that fits in a closet. Around $950. It is not a wildfire-zone safe (more on that below), but for the everyday documents-and-valuables job at a normal home, it is what most families need.

My parents did not have a fireproof home safe. When the Level 3 order came, my mom had about 20 minutes to gather everything, and she made the call to haul their entire document cabinet into the car along with the bags of clothes she had time to pack. (Her medications got left behind, which is why we went back Sunday.) That works, but a cabinet is heavy, awkward to move, and not fireproof. If those documents had already been in a bolted-down fireproof home safe, my parents would have had a real choice: bring copies in a lightweight folder, or leave the originals knowing they would survive whatever the fire did to the house. Instead they made the safest bet they could under time pressure and moved everything physically. That is the situation this section is here to help you avoid.

Why Your Fire Rating Matters More in a Wildfire Zone

This is where I want to be direct about a recommendation.

For a standard home in the middle of a city or suburb, near a responding fire department, a 1-hour fire-rated safe is enough for most families. Crews typically reach a structure fire within minutes, and 60 minutes of fire protection is usually plenty as long as the rating is real.

How to tell if a fire rating is real. The gold standard is third-party certification from Underwriters Laboratories (UL) or Intertek (ETL). These are independent labs that put the safe in an actual furnace, verify the interior stays below 350°F for the rated time, and certify the result. That 350°F threshold is the UL Class 350 standard, chosen well below the roughly 451°F point where paper autoignites, so documents inside come out intact. If a safe carries a UL or ETL label, you can be confident the rating means what it says. That said, many reputable safe manufacturers do their own in-house fire testing to similar standards, and if you are buying from a well-known brand with a long track record, their rating is generally trustworthy. The concern is with off-brand safes at mega-retailers that use fire-rating language without any third-party certification or a manufacturer reputation to back it up.

A warning on cheap fire safes. Big box stores will show you dozens of "fire-rated" safes at prices that look too good to pass up. Many of them are essentially sheet-metal boxes with a thin layer of insulation. A real fire safe uses composite fire barriers and heavy steel construction, and it costs more for a reason. If a "fire safe" is priced like a lunchbox and weighs about as much, it is going to perform like one in an actual fire. You get what you pay for.

Two reasons:

1. Fire crews may not reach your home. During a large wildfire event, departments prioritize life safety, then structure protection where they have people and equipment. Individual homes on rural acreage are lower priority than saving a subdivision. Your safe may need to survive multiple hours of intense heat before crews can even access the area.
2. Wildfires burn hotter and longer than a house fire. A house fire tends to burn hot and fast, then get suppressed. A wildfire can sit on your property for hours, or reignite after the initial front passes.

If a fire-rated safe is going to be part of your strategy and you live in a wildfire zone, here are three we know well and would suggest for different budgets and use cases:

Two things matter regardless of which safe you choose:

• Bolt it down. A safe is only fireproof if it stays where it is supposed to during structural collapse.
• Consider a data media safe as a second unit if you need to protect external drives, backup tapes, or photos. A standard fire rating means the safe's interior stayed below 350°F for the rated time (the UL Class 350 standard, which keeps paper well below the ~451°F point where it can ignite). Hard drives, SSDs, and other digital storage start failing well before that, around 125°F. If you want a real chance of protecting digital media in a fire, look for a true data media safe like the Phoenix 2002 DataCare 2-Hour Data Media Safe, which is engineered to hold the interior below 125°F. See our data media vs fire safes guide for more.

A Safe Is One Piece of a Bigger Picture

I want to be honest about the limits here. A fire safe protects what is inside it. It does not protect the house, and it does not protect your family. Everything on this next list matters more than what safe you buy:

• Defensible space around your home. Clear brush and combustible landscaping at least 30 feet from the structure (100 feet on rural lots).
• Ember-resistant vents and covered gutters. Most wildfire-caused home losses do not start with a wall of flame. They start with an ember blowing into a gutter full of pine needles or through an uncovered vent.
• Clean roof and gutters at the start of every dry season. Same reason.
• A family communication plan. Agree in advance where you meet, how you check in, and who your out-of-state contact is.
• Practice evacuation once a year. Actually drive the two routes. Actually check the go-bag. Actually make sure everyone knows the plan.

The best safe in the world does not save you if the house burns down around your family. Do the yard work first. Then decide what belongs in the safe.

After the Fire: Safe Re-Entry

The fire is contained, the road is open, and you have been cleared to return. This is not the moment to rush. Fire-damaged homes are more dangerous than most people realize.

• Do not enter a burned structure until authorities have cleared it. Fire compromises the structural integrity of walls, roofs, and floors in ways that are not visible until they fail. If your home burned, wait for a professional structural inspection.
• Watch for hot spots. Wildfires can leave underground fires (in tree roots, mulch beds, or debris piles) that reignite hours or days later. Walk your property with a shovel and watch for smoke, steam, or hot ground.
• Wear PPE for ash cleanup. Wildfire ash contains toxic materials from burned plastics, insulation, electronics, and household chemicals. Use N95 or better masks, gloves, long sleeves, long pants, closed shoes, and eye protection. Rinse everything you wear before bringing it inside.
• Check your water. Wildfires can contaminate public water systems and private wells. Do not drink tap water until the utility or a well test confirms it is safe. Use bottled water for drinking and cooking in the meantime.
• Photograph everything before touching anything. Time-stamped photos of every room, every damaged item, every soot line on the wall. This is your insurance claim record.
• Opening a fire-rated safe. The interior of a fire-rated safe can hold heat for many hours after the fire is out. If your safe was in the fire, do not open it until it has fully cooled. Contents may be hot enough to combust when exposed to fresh oxygen. Wait at least 24 hours after the surrounding structure is cool, ideally longer. When you do open it, do so outdoors, with a fire extinguisher within reach.

Most homeowner's insurance policies cover professional restoration services. Get bids from at least two companies. Do not sign anything a contractor puts in front of you at your front door.

The Weight of Displacement

Evacuation is exhausting in ways that are not obvious until you are living it. My parents are on nearly a week of not being in their own home. They packed for a couple of days and it turned into most of a week. The emotional load compounds every night they sleep somewhere that is not theirs.

A few things I have learned this week:

• Kids notice. Even if they seem fine, they are picking up on the stress. Give them extra reassurance, keep normal routines where you can (mealtimes, bedtimes), and let them ask questions honestly.
• Protect your sleep. If you are staying with family, protect your sleep space. Adrenaline and displacement destroy sleep quality, and everything gets harder when you are exhausted.
• Accept help. Neighbors, coworkers, and community groups will offer meals, laundry, spare bedrooms. Say yes. People want to help, and refusing help does not make you more capable, just more tired.
• Watch for compounding stress. If you or someone in your household is struggling more than a few days in, reach out. The Disaster Distress Helpline is available 24/7 at 1-800-985-5990 (call or text).
• Give yourself permission to be affected. Losing your home, or almost losing it, or being uncertain for days about whether it survived, is a real trauma. Grief and anxiety are normal responses to abnormal events.

If you are the family or friend hosting evacuees, the most helpful things you can do are simple: give them a space that is theirs, do not push conversation, feed them, and let them cry or vent when they need to.

Where to Get Help If You Are Affected Right Now

If you are currently displaced or your home has been damaged, here are places to start.

National resources

FEMA disaster assistance: FEMA opens applications when the federal government declares a disaster. Apply and check status at DisasterAssistance.gov.

Red Cross Shelter Finder: Check redcross.org or download the Red Cross Emergency app for current shelter locations near you.

Your state's Community Action Agencies: Every state has a network of Community Action Agencies that offer emergency assistance for utility bills, temporary shelter, transportation, food, and home repairs. Search "[your state] Community Action Agency wildfire" to find your local office.

Insurance: Contact your homeowner's insurance carrier as soon as you are safe. Most policies require prompt notification, and having your policy number written down (or photographed on your phone) speeds things up considerably.

For our local Spokane area

Spokane County: The Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Resources page has centralized information on evacuations, shelters, and reentry. Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners (SNAP) at 509-456-7627 provides emergency shelter vouchers, transportation, and utility assistance.

Surrounding Washington counties: Rural Resources Community Action serves Stevens, Ferry, Lincoln, and Pend Oreille counties at 509-685-6000. Chelan-Douglas Community Action Council covers Chelan and Douglas at 509-662-6156. Okanogan County Community Action Council covers Okanogan at 509-422-4041.

Washington LIHEAP-qualified households in impacted counties may receive help with energy bills, temporary shelter, transportation, food, air purifiers, and home weatherization through the Washington Department of Commerce.

A Note From a Spokane Business

We are a Spokane business. My parents live in Spokane County. My sister lives in Spokane County. This is our community.

But if you are reading this from California, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, or anywhere else fire touches, this is your community too. We ship nationwide, and we understand what you are going through.

If you are affected and want to talk through what to bring, what to leave, or how to think about protecting what is left, call us. Even if you have no interest in ever buying a safe, we have been where you are this week. Happy to help however we can.

Stay safe. Take care of each other.

Dominic Schwebs
Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Manager
Safe & Vault Store