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[Pookahsmom]

Boy did we have a bad scare the other night!
  After the 3 hr clean up of all the snow dumped on us, my husband and I decided to put up our Christmas tree.  Now, we bought this thing brand new from Steins and we had never put it up before. 
  I would say after about 20 miutes of the lights being turned on, we began to smell a plastic like burn odor.  Not more than 5 minutes after that the smoke alarms went off!  This house is brand new as we have only lived here for a year.  (Now, at the same time, we also had a fire going in the fireplace.)
  As the alarms are hard wired into the electrical systems, you can't just go shut them off.  We ended up calling the local fire dept.and †hey recommended evacuating the house.  There was NO sign anywhere  of smoke!  So, at 11 or 1130 PM we had the fire dept on their way with lights and sirens blarring!
  They used heat imaging cameras all over the inside and the outside of the house and could find nothing.  They said it could have been one of two things; the tree or the fireplace.  We told them we have had fires before and the only thing new was the tree.  Their recommendation was to take the tree back (no easy feat let me tell you...that would take another post!::tickedoff: and have †he ƒireplace looked at anyway.
  We had initially told them we could not evacuate everyone (meaning the chins) and two of the 4 cats were hiding under a bed.  They suggested we devise some kind of a plan to get the cages out of house or we may lose tm in the even it would happen again!
  My question is.... Do any of you keep your chins in the house and do you have a means of evacuating them in an emergency.  We also live in an area of the midwest that sometimes gets some wicked weather in the summer (tornados).  What would you do??  

[Joyce]

Hi there,

I do have an evacuation plan!  We had something very similar happen to us, smelled smoke and had to call the fire dept.  They went around the house with one of those heat sensor devices and it lead them to a light fixture in my husband's closet.  The ballast was bad and had begun to leak.
Anyway makes you wonder how in the heck you'd get 5 cats, 2 dogs and 31 chins out of the house very quickly if you or the fire dept had to. 
I feel much better now that I have a plan for the 31 chinchillas.  We ordered travel cages from Ryerson's Ranch in Ohio.  We got several of their 6 hole cage units.  The entire unit is easy to carry and one chinchilla can go in each hole.  These cages are all kept in our chinchilla room should we ever need them.  If you have an extra hole or so they'll be good to house supplies.
I also got a 2 unit cage which is nice for our vet trips.
Let me look up the link for Ryersons and I'll post it below!

[Joyce]

   www.ryersonchinchilla.com

[Jo Ann]

We have all our cages on roller tables ... if need be,we can roll them out into the yard ... each table holds 16 breeding cages or 24 holding cages ... from there, it would be a tight squeeze, but we could get them in the 3 storage buildings we have.
     The beauty of it all is it makes it so much easier to clean behind and under them now.
     The travel cages from Ryerson are great! I bought a few with two holes ... had I known then what I do now, I would have bought the 3 to 6  hole travel cages.  The extra holes are great for storing grooming tools, hay, pellets, treats, lava stones, water bottles, meds, etc.  They do a good job of protecting them from the wind, also.  But, you do have to be extra careful not to leave them where the sun shines directly on them ... the metal heats up quickly.

 
Jo Ann

[Abby W.]

Much as I hate to say it, would any of us have enough time to evacuate our "kids" in the event of something like a fire?  I imagine it would take a while just to load everyone up into the carriers, and a fire may not give you that time.  Has anyone tried a "fire drill" and timed it?  I'm just curious how quickly this could be done.

Happily, I live in a concrete home, so we are more or less fire-proof, except for the furniture (it takes some pretty high temperatures to burn drywall), flood-proof, and hurricane/tornado proof, and we luckily don't live in an area that gets a lot of severe weather.

[Jo Ann]

Hopefully there would be enough time ... at least to save some/most ... you would be surprised how quickly your neighbors will help in an emergency.  One of our neighbors has a two car garage that has been offered encase of an emergency ... another their basement.

A fire drill would be a good thing to try, but for the chin's sake, in better weather.

Never say never ... that is when it happens.  I've seen it.

 
Jo Ann

[Jenova]

WOW. Thanks for posting this. To be honest I hadn't really thought about it. We only have the one chin, a hamster and a rabbit in the garden so it's not as bad as all you breeders.  But we're right at the back of the house so it would be difficult to get the little fella out (the hamster and the rabbit are easy). So now I'm going to buy a travel cage.

[Stacy]

This past summer our scanner went off saying there was going to be a tornado in the area with in 5 mins. Well we live in a trailer that would not stand up to that, so I woke-up my husband, grabbed my kids and we went to my dad's house. There was just no time to get all the animals. Thank God it hit a few miles from our house and everyone was fine, but there just isn't always time.

[Summer]

I don't know what we would do? Just in the house we have 11 cats, 15 chins,3 hamsters, 1 fish and at we have all five of the dogs. Outsaid we have the 2 bunny's, and 9 pygmy goats. I do have some carriers,  but not enough for evey one.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

With all the hurricanes last year this subject came up.
As I have my chins in the basement, and couldn't even get the cages on wheels out, I have latched on to something another person mentioned.
Pillow cases. I have gobs of them so I keep a stack down stairs now.
I have maybe 8-10 Carrier type cages, and a full size van. So all the carriers can be grabbed in a hurry, and I'll put chins in pillow cases and put them in the van.
I also keep milk crates in the van so I can pop them over some chins and take them out of the pillow cases.
I would imagine they too would be in a tizzy and not into fighting among themselves.
The cat and bird cage I can take as they are, and the turtle.
I'll have to grab a bucket for the fish, and hope for the best with them.
We'd all have to go to my daughters what a site that would be.

[Jenova]

Pillow cases is a brilliant idea... but what if they chewed through? 

[Debbie.nl.ca]

It's just a good way of getting them out, I wouldn't leave them in there any longer than it would take to drive to my daughters.
Even in the van they would be safer.
I would think they would be to confused to chew during an evacuation, I'd just want to be able to do it fast and safely.

[Summer]

Pillow cases is a brilliant idea. I will have get lots, as I adding more chins.

[Abby W.]

Yes, I love the idea of pillow cases too!  I have tons of extra ones laying around.  I am going to put them down in the chin room from now on.  Thanks Debbie!

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Most welcome, just passing on what others have thought me.
Sharing with friends is the best part about keeping chins .
Heaven knows most my local friends think I'm nutz