I lived in Altadena, Calif., 20 years ago. Back then, no one predicted that a wildfire would leap out of neighboring Eaton Canyon and consume Altadena like napalm. But it did just that in January.

I moved to Port Townsend 18 months ago largely to escape wildfire risk. Now, the forest I treasured during my initial visit to the Quimper Peninsula six years ago makes me a bit uneasy. That’s because the peninsula is becoming a tinderbox and President Trump is firing firefighters with extreme prejudice.

My wife Susan and I have taken steps to prevent our cremation in Port Townsend, detailed below with lessons from the Altadena inferno.

This column is not about protecting your home. Instead, it focuses on getting out alive — and being made whole if your home turns to ash.

In Altadena, 59-mph gusts battered the 8.42-square-mile community. Gusts over 50 mph often buffet the house Susan, our cat Boo, and I share in Port Townsend, which is 7.35 square miles. In November 2024, PT recorded gusts of 61 mph.

“It was just crazy — the amount of fire and the way it just exploded in all different directions, carrying the embers everywhere,” Pasadena Fire Battalion Chief Danny Nausha said of the Altadena fire that rapidly razed 9,418 structures. Port Townsend has 5,300.

In Altadena, gusts carried embers two miles. If trees on Port Townsend’s western edge ignited amid westerly gusts, embers traveling two miles would rain upon Uptown and Fort Worden. The embers would start secondary fires, imperiling the entire city.

High winds grounded firefighting aircraft in Altadena. The same could be expected in Port Townsend.

Altadena benefited from a swift multi-agency response due to its proximity to many fire stations in Pasadena and other cities. Multiple agencies might respond to Port Townsend, but its isolation and restricted access would prevent a swift arrival.

Altadena burned despite a large and rapid response by firefighters, partly because it only takes two minutes for a house to become engulfed in flames once it catches fire, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The blaze was the first in a series of disasters for many Altadena residents. Others included discovering that their homes and personal effects were grossly underinsured or that their homes were held in the names of trusts, not their names.

To Susan and me, fire protection begins with our ability to replace our home and its contents affordably. We have Extended Replacement Cost Coverage with Cincinnati Insurance. Regardless of who issues your homeowners’ policy, ERCC is what you want (not merely Replacement Cost Coverage or, heaven forbid, Actual Cash Value).

Speak with your insurance agent annually to ensure that your policy, minus deductibles, covers the replacement cost of your home and its contents. Discuss coverage for fine art, collectibles, and pricey jewelry; appraisals or extra coverage might be needed.

What you do before a fire, such as obtaining excellent homeowners’ insurance (or renters’ insurance if you rent), will greatly affect how well you recover if your home combusts. Here are steps we’ve taken that you might find helpful:

We downloaded the following phone apps: Nixle (for public-service alerts), Police Scanner Radio & Fire (for Jefferson County Sheriff, Fire and EMS chatter), and Clime and Weather Live (two apps for storm tracking and severe-weather alerts).

We created print and digital copies of our important documents, including recent tax returns, birth certificates, passports, driver’s licenses, insurance policies, real estate and auto titles, and financial statements.

Additionally, we photocopied and made digital copies of the front and back of all our cards (including Social Security, Medicare, health and dental insurance, Triple-A, Costco, LifeFlight, Visa, and American Express).

The digital copies were sent to the Cloud. Those items, along with other documents and every photo on our MacBook Pro laptops, were also copied to four password-protected external drives (two for Susan and two for me). All four are LaCie Rugged SSD Pro 1TB Solid State Drives with USB-C Thunderbolt 3 cables.

A bank vault houses one of Susan’s drives and one of mine. The additional drives are in separate daypacks — Susan’s and mine — that contain our laptops and chargers.

The bank vault also contains the previously mentioned print copies as well as infrequently used items, among them Social Security cards, passports, and checkbooks.

If a wildfire approaches, the only items we’d gather are Boo (in his small travel container) and our daypacks, to which we’d add phones, keys, and wallets. We’d put Boo and the two daypacks in one or two cars and go.

We keep go-bags in our cars and never let the gas tanks fall below half to ensure our escape isn’t hindered by fuel shortages. If smoke has entered our neighborhood, we’d take our SUV for its off-road capabilities and leave the Prius.

Each vehicle contains two 20-inch-long duffel bags. One contains: clothing for three days and a down jacket, winter gloves, wool socks and a beanie, in vacuum-sealed bags; spare eyewear, Petzel headlamps with red filters, batteries, pen and notebook, a Midland ER310 crank weather AM/FM radio, two sporks, a Leatherman Multi-Tool, toiletries, and a week’s supply of jerky, protein bars, fruit bars and daily meds.

The other duffel bag in each car contains a jug of water, kitty litter, a portable litter box, dry cat food, and toilet paper.

At night, we close all interior doors except for those to our bedroom and the laundry room, which contains Boo’s litter box. Closed-off rooms would help Susan and me find and crate Boo quickly.

Scott is a former staff writer for the Outdoors section of the Los Angeles Times.