WHAT TO DO IN 1ST CRITICAL MINUTES

It’s finally happened: An earthquake is pushing your furniture around like a cat with toys, or a wildfire is roaring toward your house in a wall of crackling flame. Don’t panic. Take a breath if you can. And follow these steps:

In the event of fire

 Flee the minute calamity becomes imminent, and certainly if you are told to evacuate. It takes only two minutes for fire to ignite a house and five minutes to engulf it.

 Take your disaster kit — with important documents, first aid kit and survival supplies — with you.

 Back your car into an open space to load it, leaving it pointed in the direction you plan to head. While you load up, leave the car’s doors unlocked and the key in the ignition.

 If the fire has hit your house before you’ve had time to escape, check any doorknob you need to use before you open it. A hot knob means the flames are close on the other side of the door. Pick another exit.

 If you have to flee through a room on fire, crawl so you will be below the smoke level.

 Throw on a heavy coat to protect against burning embers.

If you have time and winds aren’t high

 Wet down the roof of your house with a garden hose. But emergency officials say don’t try to be a hero. They don’t want to waste valuable time they could use to fight the fire to rescue you.

 To reduce or slow the spread of fire, move combustible patio furniture inside, or at least on the other side of the house from where the fire is approaching. Flaming embers will have less to ignite.

As the earth begins to shake

 “Drop, cover and hold on.” That means, if you are inside, drop to the floor, find cover under a heavy table, and hold on to that table until the shaking is over.  If you are outside, dash away from buildings or large trees to as open a space as you can find.

 If you are driving, pull over to the side of the road. Avoid overpasses, bridges, power lines and other things that could tumble onto your car.  If it’s an epic quake, a tsunami might follow — so get to higher elevation once the ground stops convulsing.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle 2017 Paolo Solari uses a hose to put out embers that burn around his parents’ home at Solari Vineyards in Calistoga last October.