Fire Evacuation List Recommendations

[adelhide]

firstly this is here because travel seemed the closest. if there is a better place please move it there.

I live in Australia, specifically rural Australia. and a few days ago we had a bushfire way too close for comfort. it made me realise i had no idea what i would need to bring in case i needed to evacuate the piggys.
how soon should it be done? tried to look online for how much smoke before i needed to evacuate, only came up with cigaret smoke. this also means when you can return, smoke lingers.
is it better to evacuate even tho the guinea pigs will stress, or wait till told to evacuate?
other than food and water what else would i need to pack in a evac bag?

 

[chesca_27]

I don't know when you would need to evacuate but guinea pigs do have much weaker lungs than humans.

Secondly, I found a good YouTube video on an evacuation kit for a guinea pig.

I believe it covers the basics, but I haven't watched it in a few years.

 

[Swissgreys]

Love the video with the guinea pig evacuation kit.
It isn't quite the same, but I was talking to the kids this week about what we would do in the case of a house fire (I go through this with them a couple of times a year because I feel it is important to have a clear plan. In a real emergency no one will be thinking clearly).
This time we needed to include the guinea pigs in the plan, because although they understand we don't stop to take things if there is a fire, we all agreed we would take the guinea pigs, and have now placed an appropriate container with a towel next to their cage where it will stay.

As for when to evacuate in the case of a bush fire I think it is different every time.
I grew up in rural Australia so it's a scenario I know well.
Sometimes the smoke was bad well before we got the evacuation order, and sometimes you could smell the fire, but the smoke wasn't too bad at all.
As you know a lot depends on the weather conditions as to how bad the smoke is.

I think having a basic evacuation kit (safe cage, some food and hay, and a water bottle) is a good idea, but once you are evacuated usually local people in the safe zones will happily step in to help if you need anything else.

It would also depend a lot on your house.
If it is fairly open and exposed with lots of large windows, the smoke may be more of an issue. We lived in a concrete house with an excellent basement that had very few windows, so it was always less smokey downstairs.
Do you have a safer room you could move your piggies into if the smoke was bad but you weren't told to evacuate?

Plus depending on where you live once the offical evacuation call comes in there can sometimes be a lot of traffic as people try to get out, so sometimes going earlier might meant less time spent in the car which offers minimal protection against everything (smoke and fire).

Good luck getting through bush fire season.
I think t is great you are coming up with a plan now, as it's so difficult to predict what a fire will do.

 

[Flutterby]

That video is very useful, its something that we all need to think about when keeping animals.

 

[piggieminder]

I keep the travel carrier in the greenhouse, this has made me think I should bring it in doors just in case. I'll leave it made up with it's fleece a small container of pellets and one of hay. Thank you for your thread, whilst we don't have bush fires house fires happen and it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[chesca_27]

I keep Oreo's carrier in a cupboard next to his cage. It is a small Ferplast carrier. I have hay and bedding in there and some nuggets already as well as a few chew toys. I don't know how I would attach a bottle to it though. For the vet, we just cut up veg but I probably wouldn't have time. There's no need for a house, because it is a very enclosed carrier. I have fleeces on top of the cage (for cuddle time) so I could always grab one of those.

I also have an emergency/evacuation cage set up for my hamster. He is a little easier as he is tiny and has doubles for all accessories, so I would only have to attach a bottle and grab his food (below his cage).

I just want to add that there are other times you may have an emergency, other than fires. We once came home to find our downstairs flooding and the pig cage was sitting in an inch of water. Thankfully, they were ok and didn't need evacuating.

 

[RoyalDuke]

This is a really good idea to be honest. I regularly fear that my Guinea Pig shed will catch fire! There's no reason it should but I still worry!
I have 2 of those medium size Furplast? carriers, I've only ever used them for quick visits to vet not anything extended. Truthfully if there ever was a fire, I thought i'd just snatch them up as quickly as possible and shove them in and get them away !
Could you use any airtight small box to store nuggets in? Like a small tupperware box or anything? I might have a spare one at home. I'll leave it in my carrier just in case. My boys all drink from bowls so I don't know what to do about that. Luckily I have good neighbors and friends to help should this ever happen.

Edit: Is a wet towel better to put over the top of the carrier or a dry one in case of smoke?