I love this post - thanks marine and others, I will print this out and save me from trying to come up with my own list.

Screamin, here might be a reason for your marriage certificate. My Mom who is now 82 and has been married to my dad for the past 62 years went to renew her driver's license (my parents live in Florida) and she needed both her birth certificate and marriage certificate since her last name is now different on her driver's license. She previously had to ordered her marriage certificate ( as the same as you, she couldn't find original) due to some insurance changes with my dad's pension stuff. She was so upset, because she must have mailed in her marriage certificate to the pension company and now thought she couldn't renew her license. Luckily she did have an active passport that she could use in place of the birth certificate and marriage license. Long story, but it may be worth to find or order one. With identity theft nowadays, it's worth having everything to prove it is really you

A couple of items off the top of my head when you evacuate how you can help the firefighters when they are at your house:

Keep a door unlocked so that the firefighters can gain entry to either prep the house or for their shelter.
Turn on all your lights.

Keep your garden / water hoses connected to water sources. At the Bluebell fire, I utilized the houses water to (1) replenish water in the fire engine and (2) put out the spot fires around the house without using a line from the fire engine.

Have a ladder available or placed against the house so that firefighters may gain access to the roof.
And lastly, but most important, mitigate your property now before the fire.

Also one final thought – this year my wife and I obtained a storage unit to place the items that are a “must save” in the event of a fire. Since we are both on the department, there is a chance we may not have time to get those items out of the house. For Bluebell, we were evacuated, but by then we were already engaged on the fire.

(Disclaimer - These thoughts are my own and do not represent the fire agency I am associated with….)

Excellent thoughts and suggestions Spazcat - thank-you!

After reading all the info posted--I did some research and found a great website put out by state of CA on wildfire prep. Worth a look!

http://www.readyforwildfire.org/

This might also be a good time to remind people that wildfire isn't the only emergency/disaster that could affect us. There are lots of sources available, not the least of which is the info posted early on by Marine (thank you for doing this).

Another site we recommend in helping individuals and families in their preparedness efforts is one called Ready.gov (link: http://www.ready.gov/be-informed). This site is a FEMA site, but don't let that deter you. It has a lot of very good, easy to follow, easy to use information, including wildfire.

Good luck, be aware, stay safe.

ZHawke

If you prefer a more "local" perspetive when it comes to individual and family preparedness planning, there is a site right here in Colorado that can help:

http://www.readycolorado.com/

ZHawke

here are the evac levels for Jefferson county:

Thank-you WG2, I was wondering about this

I'll say you should definitely not forget underwear and toothpaste, was a big wish for me during the Lower North Fork Fire when asked to leave immediately. 12 pack of beer was also wanted. There is a hotel at the bottom of Deer Creek across from Johns Manfield that allowed pets. Have a bag packed for a week long vacation if you can. Any important documents should all ready be in a folder you can grab quickly.

you're welcome, gia!

One of the best ideas that I heard during the fires of the early 2000s was when packing clothes you should take the clothes from your dirty clothes hampers as that is what you usually wear.