Sunday, December 09, 2007

What Would You Save From a Fire?

My friend Brown sent me this link a while ago, but I never actually posted it. It's a fantastically interesting question (and article), however:

"Imagine getting a knock on the door in the middle of the night. You have 10 minutes to leave, says the sheriff's deputy, and you don't doubt him. The air is suddenly so turbid that your daughter, who has asthma, is throwing up in the hall bathroom. Ash is gathering like snow on the front steps. You close the door and consider the question that is becoming an existential ritual for hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year: What do I take?"

What would you save from a fire?

As for me, the answer is simple. My laptop. (We are working under the assumption that all siblings and relatives could be safely evacuated and the question really is what would you save from a fire, not who would you save.)

6 comments:

Jewish Atheist said...

If you did regular off-site backups, you wouldn't need to worry about the laptop. :-)

Suri said...

ja --
Not necessarily. People develop 'relationships' with their laptops because of the part of themselves they put into it (and copying it over to an external hard drive doesn't quite cut it) and the hours they spend procrastinating on it. I've heard several people say that they wouldn't get a new computer even if they wouldn't have to pay for it and even if it has better features because they love their computers (their words, not mine).
If someone would accuse me of having such a relationship I'd be appalled, but then again, my answer to the fire question is quite simple too....

Irina Tsukerman said...

Leaving pets and plants aside, I would absolutely grab my camera. My camera is not perfect, but it's my baby. How else would I live without it? How else would I go around snapping hundreds of pictures and annoying people by making them pose or photograph me?

Erachet said...

Since I usually have my phone, wallet, and ipod all in one bag, that makes this a whole lot easier. I'd run up to my bedroom, grab my stuffed dog that I've had since I was less than a year old off my bed, grab my bag with my phone, wallet, and ipod in it, and then my laptop if it's packed up. If it's not packed up, I might not have enough time to pack it and I don't think I'd be able to run while carrying it AND the charger. So I might leave it (very regretfully) and grab my favorite books that I've read over and over and over. And I'd never leave the books that were Dr. Schwebel's to burn, either. It sounds like a lot, but all this would take not even five minutes to grab since they're all near each other in my room.

Anonymous said...

True story:
So, I’ve stopped of at the apartment of a friend on my way back to yeshiva. It had been a long night of classes at college and it was time for some serious decompression; time to veg out, lay like broccoli. After having reached a sufficient level of “zoning out” I notice that smoke has begun to pour out of one of the air vents.

Me: Hey! There’s smoke in the apartment.
Friend: (from another room) **pause** What did you burn.
Me: No, smoke…as in “fire”.
Friend: (to person on the other end of the phone) Gotta go, apparently there’s a fire in the building.

Now, this is a basement apartment so there was not a great deal of panic because we knew that, worst case scenario, we could just pop out a window to get out. However, did that knowledge prevent me from disregarding every rule of fire safety and simply reaching for the front door handle and throwing open the door…of course not!! Short story shorter we both race up the one story of stairs and out the front doors into the courtyard.
To his credit in all the hurry my friend had the presence of mind to grab his Tefillin. What was I holding onto, the item that had been in my hand when this all started and had forgotten I was holding onto in all the commotion (pretty tightly, seeing as how it had cracked)…the remote control.

--the building went up in flames, something about a box of cereal and a stove top

Chana said...

funny. sad but funny,

That is an excellent story (you also told it very well. The ending- "something about a box of cereal and a stove top" had me laughing out loud.) Glad no one was hurt and I love that you were holding the remote control. That's just...wonderful.