Damn right. I would too, in a heartbeat.

That's the way I, and probably almost everybody here, feel.

Joy

Exactly.

As would most of us.

One of the longest days of my life was the day of the gas explosions
across the street from me.  I KNEW there was a gas leak but needed to go
get groceries (it wasn't the first gas leak from this project they were
doing so I didn't think too much about it).  I got in my friends car, we
pulled out of the parking lot, the first building across the street
exploded and within 10 seconds there were 25 emergency personel to
evacuate 30 apartments knocking on doors and getting the manager to open
the doors of people who didn't answer to make sure everyone got out.  I
saw that absolute swarm of people and knew my babies were in there and
there was no way for me to get to them because they were getting people
out, not letting them in - and I knew it.

I didn't go get groceries (where would I have put them?).  My friend
went with me to my therapists office where we waited the hour for my
appointment together and I watched the smoke since her office is only a
few blocks away.  I was nuts.  If I had my cats, I would have been okay,
but I couldn't tell what was happening and I just knew they were not
with me and it was unsafe THERE.  From my therapists, I called a friend
and we sat in her living room with the television on while we got
conflicting reviews about what was happening and exactly where it was
happening.  I was insane.  And when they let us come back to our
apartments that evening, I was so glad to see them and so glad they
hadn't suffered from smoke inhalation - my apartment air was quite
clean, and so relieved I didn't have to take them to emergency care.  I
truly never want another day like that for the rest of my life.

If I had thought for one second that I could have gotten past emergency
personel to get back to my apartment, I would have done it, but there
was just no way.  There were too many of them.  So I can understand how
someone would sneak back in to rescue their animals. Having been there
and wanted to do that.

Bridget

Me neither!  Abandon Pan, Francesca and Nina to their fates in a FIRE???
NEVER!

Melissa

We had a fire in our old apartment building and we grabbed Nox (this
was when she was our only cat) and ran out.  They contained the fire
but they weren't letting people back in the building.  It was a
bitterly cold February night and it took them hours to get the fire
out.  Nox began to shiver.  So we went to tim horton's for
coffees--including Nox.  Despite the "no pets allowed" sign.

Well, the staff there heard her crying in her box, though we'd tried
to hide the box with our coats.
When they heard what had happened they were more than happy to let
Nocturne stay inside with us to keep warm until we were allowed back
in our apartment.

--Fil

Perhaps I should amplify my remarks.  I didn't mean to imply that one
should abandon one's pet, just that if Mittens or Rover is hiding
under the bed and won't be coaxed out, get out yourself and then see
the advice as above.  

Regards and Purrs that none of us ever has to make that choice,
O J

I regretted having to leave Annabel Lee behind in my house fire in
February 2003, when she ran and hid when I tried to get her out of
the house, but the smoke level was already high enough that I felt
that I would probably have been trapped inside, and died, had I
stayed inside to look for her.  The burning room flashed over,
resulting in a much higher smoke concentration, shortly after I got
out of the house, several minutes before the fire department arrived.
While I love my pets, I won't take as much risk to my own life in
order to save them as I would do to rescue a human.