Fire is probably my biggest fear. I guess I should be more specific: the thought of the house catching on fire and threatening the people/animals/things I love is probably my biggest fear.
The worst outcome would be if a fire broke out and no one was home. Who would save Jazzy? That’s a terrifying thought: her being trapped in a flaming condo that is up on the third floor. I’ve read that cats are actually pretty good at escaping house fires, but unless the balcony door and/or the windows blew out, she’d be trapped in there. And the fall/jump is a long one. That’s hard to even think about.
If I was home, a fire would still (of course) be terrifying, but I feel like I’d at least have some sort of control. I keep my “essentials” next to me when I sleep; at minimum, this is my hard drive that has all my important documents/pictures/music/etc. on it. That would be easily saved, as I could shove it down my bra or something if I needed both hands free to get out with Nate and Jazzy.
If a fire was threatening from a distance (like in the CNN article), I’m not sure what we would end up taking with us when we fled. Jazzy, of course, and Jazzy provisions. Human provisions. I would take my laptop and a few of my books that I deem irreplaceable. Maybe some of my special trinkets from my trinket shelf?
I don’t consider myself a materialistic person, but I do feel like what we consider “inanimate objects” to still hold a degree of “consciousness,” even if that consciousness is a lot more loosely defined than the way we define it in humans and other living things (this view is very similar to panpsychism). I don’t like the idea of my things burning up in a fire mainly because I feel like they would “know” that they were left behind to be destroyed, if that makes any sense. I know that probably sounds crazy, but that’s how I feel about material things.
Anyway. The fear of fire is on my mind more than is probably healthy, but I always consider it any time I leave the house. It’s why I have three copies of all my important computer stuff and why I try to keep at least one of those copies in a different place than the others (or with me in my backpack) in case something disastrous happens.
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