If you had ten minutes to evacuate, could you find your important documents? In this guide, I'll walk you through the paperwork every family should have ready before wildfire season, how I organize ours, and a few lessons I learned after living through the Almeda Fire.

During the Almeda Fire, I watched our neighborhood move from Level 1 to Level 2 while my husband and son fought another wildfire out of state. That experience taught me that understanding evacuation levels isn't just about knowing the rules—it's about having a plan when everything around you feels uncertain.