California declared a state of emergency in San Mateo county when an explosion, believed to be caused by a broken gas line, sent flames through San Bruno, a San Francisco suburb. The fire spread over an area of 10 acres, destroying more than 50 homes and killing at least one person. More than 20 others sustained burn injuries. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the explosion. The local news media interviewed residents who had fled their homes. One person after the next described how they picked up critical documents before leaving. There are two takeaways from this frightening fire. The first is that you should have all of your critical documents backed up and online available for remote retrieval. Scan in your critical documents and upload them to a secure site. When a fire strikes, you should not delay even one second to retrieve documents. Prompt evacuation is called for; do not put yourself in harm’s way by assembling documents and other items. Human safety is priority number one. The second lesson is that while we are all experiencing difficulty in this recession, we should give what we can to the Red Cross to aid those who lose access to their homes in fires.