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Grab and Go: What can you pack in 5 minutes?
Posted: 06.27.2012 at 5:56 PM
Brianna Smith

Brianna joined WPDE in May of 2012. She is a reporter who is excited to cover all of your local stories.

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Many people have been evacuated from their homes from the Waldo Canyon wildfire in Colorado Springs  and Tropical Storm Debby in Florida.

That got our news team thinking. What would you pack in five minutes if you had to leave your home suddenly?

My photographer and I decided to drive around and find an unsuspecting family.

We found the Barretts, and they agreed to sit down with us not knowing the subject of the interview.

We told Jennifer and Dean Barrett and their 3 kids who were home, to pack up everything they thought was important.

The catch? They only had 5 minutes.

So we set our clock and let them go.

As the seconds ticked away, you could see where their priorities were.

Their son Dylan came flying down the stairs yelling that he wanted to bring the Wii. That was quickly shot down by Jennifer, saying there wasn't enough room.

The kids grabbed their pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, and toothbrushes before their electronics.

In fact, their iPods were the last thing they grabbed as they headed out the door.

Jennifer zoomed from room to room throwing items in a bag and listing them off as she did so.

After the drill was over, father, Dean Barrett reflected on his choices admitting it's hard to pick and choose when you have so little time.

The Barrett family did a great job with the drill, but little did we know, the situation was extremely familiar.

In 2006, they lost their home and everything in it to a house fire, and then they had less than five minutes to get out.

The memory of that fire still brings tears to Dean Barrett's eyes.

The last thing we asked Jennifer was what she took that she could live without.

She answered with no hesitation.

"I can pretty much go without everything at this point. I've done it and if I had to do it again, it's fine as long as I have my kids."

So at the end of the day, I reflected with my co-workers and our consensus was the same... Family, pets, and photos first.

The rest can be replaced.

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