There were not enough time to get anything at all, not even your phone, keys, or wallet, you have nothing besides your clothes and any disability aids (like glasses, hearing aids, etc.). Anything that can’t sustain one hour of burning will be destroyed. All living beings are safe.

Things to thing about: money, sentimental stuff, journals, books, hard drives / digital data, and all of the time and effort you spend organizing your bedroom.

  • @TommySoda
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    7 hours ago

    As someone that has had this happen, you will lose everything regardless of how long it burns. Just because it doesn’t burn doesn’t mean it doesn’t get damaged. With water damage from putting the fire out damaging all your electronics, to smoke damage covering everything in a sticky residue of ash and melted materials from the actual building. The only thing I had left were the pajamas I was wearing and a pair of shoes the firemen pulled out of the house for me. Had to get new shoes as soon as possible because they smelled like smoke and were sticky with ash and chemical soot. My PC was technically intact, but it was so clogged up with the sticky residue and ash so bad that I had to get a new one. My wallet survived and to this day (this was 12 years ago) still has a hint of burnt house on it, so say goodbye to all your clothes.

    My advice: Get a fireproof box for the important stuff. Social security cards, birth certificates, etc. And this may sound stupid, but write down the serial number of literally everything you own because the insurance company will absolutely try to fuck you and you will have to make an itemized list of pretty everything you ever owned. We didn’t even get the insurance money until 3 years after it happened because of this.

    I think the only thing I’d grab is my PC. Mostly just for the hard drives. I still have photos from the early 2000s saved on that bitch and I don’t trust Google or Microsoft to keep my shit safe either.

    • MudMan
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      77 hours ago

      Yep. And what the fire doesn’t get the water will. Turns out fires that go out in an hour instead of burning to the ground do so because someone helpfully turned that fire into a flood.