I am going to assume I have 15 minutes to evacuate my home. In that time, assuming my husband, our two pets and I am safe, this is what I would take:
1) Photo albums, they are all in one basket, so it would be quick and easy to grab and throw in the car.
2)My Journal, I like my past writings, and would have a lot of relflections to make during this time of great devastation and would need to do this for therapy.
3) Overnight basket: I would grab a laundry basket and throw in clothes, shoes a coat, toiletries, and a book.

Now I have 3 minutes left, my husband is honking the horn for us to get out, on my way out I grab,a handful of sentimental comfort items: a letter from my father, a blanket from my grandma, and my pillow. I take one last look, get in the car and only begin to cry as we drive down the block. I continue looking back, thinking of other things I could have taken with just a few more minutes. Now the house is out of site, the only way to look is forward.

Sent by Erin Bofenkamp | 12:34 PM ET | 10-25-2007

Scary thought. Everything around me seems so important, sentimental. As a college student, I would think first of my bookbag, assuming my college campus survived- my studies would serve as a distraction post-tragedy. I would secure my grandfather's letters... I would fumble in such chaotic circumstances, I can't imagine making very good decisions about what to save, truthfully, I can't even imagine what that must be like.

Sent by Trevor | 1:26 PM ET | 10-25-2007

God forbid it should happen to anyone, but it does. I'd take all my photographs, of course, and the painting my sister did for me. I'd get my father's prayer book, the soup recipe in my mother's handwriting, and my grandmother's mantle clock. And I hope I'd have the presence of mind to grab a couple of changes of underwear (Mama always said...).

Sent by Rose | 2:36 PM ET | 10-25-2007

This is cheating, I am a risk manager, and I wrote plenty of evacuation plans for business. My cat goes in the carrier, the dog in his seatbelt. The bird cages fit in the back seat, the guinea pig and rabbit cages get stacked in the back. The reptiles have travel boxes, with heat pads, stored near the tanks. The fish I have no plans for sadly. I then take the laptop and the external drive where all my pictures have been stored. The safe sitting on my night stand holds all my important papers.
We all climb in my car, I tried it already we all fit. My clothing, books and house can be replaced.

Maybe people should stop building homes in the woods!

Sent by j dumas | 3:10 PM ET | 10-25-2007

passports, tax documents, important phone #s, water, clothes for 4 days for family, snacks bars, fruit, candy, favorite toys/books of children, computer, photos, immunization records, gold and silver jewelry, god idols (hindu), toilet paper, tissue paper, blankets

Sent by Smita | 3:34 PM ET | 10-25-2007

As I look around, it becomes very clear how much I can do without and wouldn't much miss. But, I couldn't do without my cat in her carrier, my purse, laptop, paintings, Tibetan carpets, some photos, passport, car and insurance and house documents, phone numbers, my Taryn Rose shoes, several favorite sweaters and jackets, jeans, down quilt,and blue/white china.

Sent by lynn | 4:05 PM ET | 10-25-2007

Living in Calfornia with our earthquakes and annual fires, I have thought about this some. I have the cat carrier and emergency cat food together in an easily accessable spot, same goes for the dog. Important papers (insurance, medical, legal) are in a metal box. Don't forget medications and extra glasses/contacts. I also have a back pack stored in my car with basic toiletries, blanket shoes, water, trail mix, cash, hat, and various other essentials. It is all ready to go in under 15 minuets

Sent by Kellie Horton, Simi Valley CA | 4:21 PM ET | 10-25-2007

If pets are safe, I'd grab my grandmother's wedding dress, my purse, passport, jewelry box, laptop, cell phone charger. Then again, as the passport and jewelry are in the "fireproof" safe, which would take a lot of time to get open, perhaps my time would be better served getting other things.

Sent by Jocelyn F. | 4:25 PM ET | 10-25-2007

People are putting all this information like you have so much time! You could end up having your house burned in the middle of the night and you'd have to get out in the underwear. Hello! Take the living things and run!

Sent by Maniakos Mitsos | 4:34 PM ET | 10-25-2007

j. dumas--consider getting a big clean food-quality-grade bucket or lexan and dump the fish in. I'm sure if they could talk they'd tell you they'd rather take their chances in a bucket than be left behind.

Sent by pat r. | 4:39 PM ET | 10-25-2007

I'd take our course our pets, medicine, clothes and over night essentials, but also all our birth certifcates to ease the re-entry into starting over.

Sent by Pat Cascio | 4:44 PM ET | 10-25-2007

I would take my cat & my dog. Nothing more...nothing less. Now, what I don't have & should, is an emergency bag for me & my animals. It should contain some clean clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, water, deoderant, food for my animals and their blankies. Maybe even a pillow for me.

Sent by Elizabeth S. | 4:45 PM ET | 10-25-2007

I am old and ill, I have no car, I live alone in a mobile home, I cannot walk without my walker, I have no local family. I would grab my 'emergency supplies' backpack, and my 'purse' which is a second backpack, one on my back, one strung between the hand-holds on the walker, cash and ATM card in my pocket, shoes on my feet, hat on my head, cat in my 'front-pack', and hope someone picks me up and takes me with them as I head out. Weighing them all, including the 12 lb. cat, I am carrying 35 lbs. and that load doesn't include pictures or momentos, for sure. No matter how you consider it, I am not going far, am I? When I am too tired to go further I will sit down beside the road and wait. I will have been praying every step of the way, I'll keep on doing that. Have you seen the photographs of people fleeing war or flood or other ill fortune? If there is no one to carry those who cannot walk, they sit down beside the road and wait for rescue or death, whichever comes first.

Sent by Harriett Dunn | 4:46 PM ET | 10-25-2007

Maybe Dumas has some anxiety disorder and lives in the car-ready to go. Run Forest run!

Sent by Maniakos Mitsos | 4:51 PM ET | 10-25-2007

That's easy: grab the baby, the two cats, our laptops and the accordion folder where we keep copies of our most important paperwork. Everything else is expendable. We have too many photo albums with almost 20,000 photos stacked away, but we keep digital versions of most of them archived online just in case.

Sent by andy carvin | 4:53 PM ET | 10-25-2007

I can't decide if I would take the stacks of photo albums or trust that all those photos are on the laptop, which is the first thing I would grab. All the birth certificates and passports are in one folder in the filing cabinet- easy to grab. And definitely the cell phone chargers. Unfortunately, I have three cats and only one carrier, so I should do something about that. I have read many "preparedness" lists of things that you should have stored, ready to go in case of an evacuation, but so many things would depend on the time of year (heavy coats?) or the nature of the emergency-- and then there's the question of space to store it all. (Water for a family of four for 72 hours? That's a lot.) I can understand why more people aren't prepared.

Sent by Eileen R. | 5:04 PM ET | 10-25-2007

Computer, and backups
Art (mostly sketchbooks at this point)
Articles of personal import (Final Fantasy VII soundtrack, etcetera)

I'm glad to hear that the fire hit a few wealthy neighborhoods. Let 'em burn.

Sent by Jody Sol | 6:30 PM ET | 10-25-2007

I'm with Mitsos. Take the living things and run! If your vechicle has a periodically updated stash of dried fruits, nuts, granola, etc., and a case of bottled water...you have more than enough!

Sent by Carolyn Nord | 7:03 PM ET | 10-25-2007

Everybody is writing about cats and dogs before photographs etc. It amazes me to think of people's priorities. You'd rather waste 5 minutes trying to coax your cat or dog into a box rather than rounding up the family heirlooms for your prosperity -- or gather the countless writings/projects you surely have not yet backed up to digital?

On that note, someone really should market a simple page-feed batch scanner that lets you dump random-sized scraps of paper in and manually input document titles for each using an attached keyboard. Then you could walk away and it would automatically scan and save backups of all your important "soup recipe[s] in [your] mother's handwriting," college essays etc.

Sent by tobloyd | 7:55 PM ET | 10-25-2007

Like a lot of other Californians, I think about this a lot. In my plan I grab the important papers, the photos, maybe the hard drive to the computer... But, then I think how often I run the car til the empty light blinks and how many times I run out of the house to get my kids to school and one of them arrives there while their lunch still sits on the kitchen counter...or how many times I have to be at work in 15 minutes and my keys are nowhere to be found. It is one thing to imagine what you would take and another to actually have to do it. The guy who can fit all his pets in the car is right - if you want to actually take things with you, you had better give it a couple of trial runs. And, leave a seat empty for people like Harriet!

Sent by Rachel Fernandez | 9:40 PM ET | 10-25-2007

Letters from grandparents, antiques that are small, large ones if you have time... Your china, again if you have time. Titles, insurance documents! Yes, have a go-bag of all the most important things, not the sentimental stuff. Having prepared for hurricanes is one thing, but a fire blowing over the top of the nearest hill in the middle of the night is entirely different. Your life & proof of your life like photos of everything in your home stored on the laptop computer you take with you may be among the most important things you take...

Sent by Shannon Denison | 10:01 PM ET | 10-25-2007

I'd grab my passport and yank the hard drive out of my computer. As for the "tragedy" of losing things, I hope this would be an opportunity to look at how attachment to things has kept me from living and doing the important spiritual grow I need. Given the amount of Affluneza in California, I hope this happens for the "victims" of this fire as well.

Sent by Linda Tisue | 12:29 AM ET | 10-26-2007

Assuming that all the members of my family and pets are out, the only thing I would take with me would be some family pictures, and my "treasure box" which contains notes and drawings that my kids have written and drawn since they were in Kindergarten...those are irreplaceable for me!

Sent by D. M. | 1:48 AM ET | 10-26-2007

Assuming all people and pets are safe. Fairly simple really (and this is in no particular order): photos, jewelry, financial records, family heirlooms, art with sentimental value, some clothes/toiletries for a few days.

Sent by Denise Basha | 9:27 AM ET | 10-26-2007

My dog, my husband, and my grandfather clock. Not necessarily in that order.

Sent by julia ann evans | 7:10 AM ET | 10-27-2007

When I was 5, my sister 6, brother 3, and mom 8 months pregnant we, along with dad escaped a flood with nothing but a loaf of bread and some butter (1955). Our neighbors were not so fortunate. Somehow we managed to survive quite well without our stuff. Sol should consider after everyone's house burns she will still have her hate. I'd take the dogs and pick up Harriett

Sent by Maureen Giuffre | 7:55 AM ET | 10-29-2007