Disclaimer: I live in nine-floor house, adapt to your case.

Have you tried this exercise: fire evacuation from the building? You should pay specific attention to items that you grabbed doing it first time and time you spent on it. It took me around five minutes (forgot to do exact timing) to evacute last weekend and some items that I’ve grabbed should be left behind and there’re items that I’ve missed. Before you ask: I’m fine, we’re ok. So, having said that, there’s list of what you should have, from my point of view:

• flashlight (you will need your battery in phone) - check and replace batteries on regular basis
• id - mine was in another jacket, not in a folder with a documents
• any papers that are important for you (real estate, car, etc) - everything should be in one place known to you
• cash
• necessary equipment - I’ve grabbed laptop
• proper clothing, if you have time (let’s say, fire is several floors above you)
• alert neighbours, help each other to evacuate eldes, children, people’s with disabilities

Do not forget to cut off natural gas, if you have it. Don’t forget to cut off power.

Take your time and learn how to do proper fire evacuation in your area: when to leave building, when to barricade. Use of elevators is usually prohibited. Take this (no elevators) into account, consider your kids, cats, dogs, etc and edit list of belongings you plan to take with you. I also thought all my life that I would never need it.

Be prepared, that during extinguishing a fire your apartment will be flooded. Fire was on 6th floor, apartments on 5th and 4th floors were totalled. 3rd floor was damaged. 2nd floor is ok. Power damaged all the way through 1st floor.

Contact your fire department and learn, don’t use my advise blindly and stay safe.

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