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Our Bathroom Bunker is now even Internationally Famous: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/22/how-a-high-risk-california-town-learned-to-live-with-fire

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❓🏡HOW TO SHELTER

Here's What CalFire says in its "Ready, Set, Go! Wildfire Action Plan" (page 9):
IF YOU ARE TRAPPED: SURVIVAL TIPS
—Shelter away from outside walls.
—Bring garden hoses inside house so embers don’t destroy them.
—Patrol inside your home for spot fires and extinguish them. Wear long sleeves and long pants made of natural fibers such as cotton. Stay hydrated.
—Ensure you can exit the home if it catches fire (remember if it’s hot inside the house, it is four to five times hotter outside).
—Fill sinks and tubs for an emergency water supply. Place wet towels under doors to keep smoke and embers out.
—After the fire has passed, check your roof and extinguish any fires, sparks or embers. Check inside the attic for hidden embers.
—Patrol your property and extinguish small fires. If there are fires that you can not extinguish with a small amount of water or in a short period of time, call 9-1-1.
—per https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/4996/readysetgo_plan.pdf

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🚽WHERE: BATHROOM BUNKER

The result of all our research was that for us, the Bunker of Choice is our bathroom with the smallest window and a bathtub. So, next step was to kit it out in Survival Decor:
1 — cleared out under the sink and part of a drawer to hold it all
2 — crammed stuff from the SIP info lists inside
3 — brainstormed anything else we'd need during the Hunker, and then afterwards to venture out

Here's Bunker Chic — Chez Let's Live To See Life On Mars:
—plywood to cover window
—fire extinguisher
—large fire blanket to throw over kitty carriers if window blows
—NOAA AM FM Radio (in case they decide to give Topanga status in between Malibu updates)
—airhorn (in case we need to signal for help)
—gloves, hat, helmet, goggles, respirator, N95, firemen's jacket and pants (in case window blows & for venturing outside)
—garden hose, nozzle (if we need to put out spot-fires after the wall o' fire passes)
—pliers, misc tools
—lantern
—drinking water
—and, of course, we'll bring our "Go Bags" — full of meds, etc. — inside with us…

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🚗IF WE ARE TRAPPED IN OUR CAR

Although we truly hope to avoid this, we are still nerd-compelled to plan for it. First, like our house, INSIDE our car is safer than outside our car. At the last TEMTF meeting, we learned from Fire Chief Smith that those Public Refuge Areas listed on the Topanga Zone Map would NOT be safe if we were outside of our car: temperatures from the fire blasting through are just too high to survive. Googling around again, since our Toyota Manual was strangely missing a section on Surviving Wildfires, we found:
—get car close to a barrier or wall if possible
—hunker down on the floor
—cover yourself with a blanket
—keep the engine running
—your tires might explode but stay inside the car: if you get out, you’ll never be able to stay ahead of the fire

We also stowed 2 fire blankets under our seats to throw over us and the kitty carriers — plus we ALWAYS carry a fire extinguisher for those pesky car accident fires that love to shoot up brush-covered roadway hillsides.
—*sigh*
—living in Paradise is HAAAAARD

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❓IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS

This year's County Fire Drill has a Fire Dept. contact (Megan Currier) for questions. Megan attends the TEMTF meetings, so she is familiar with Topanga, and she could be a good resource.

Megan Currier
Community Services Liaison
LACoFD – Division VII
Office: (310) 456-7923
Email: megan.currier@fire.lacounty.gov