How would I get my animals out of the house in case of a fire?

You should practice rounding them up. You need enough carriers to carry all of the cats. (Perhaps two to a carrier.)

The dogs can go on leashes.

You need to keep the carriers (perhaps in a hall closet) and the leashes close at hand and in the same place so that you can reach them quickly.

In an absolute emergency with no time to round them up, you need to open the doors and let them out. You can worry about gathering them up outside.

You should also get one of those stickers that lets firefighters know how many animals are inside the residence.

Talk with your local Fire Department about helping you to set up an actual contingency plan, then run a few drills. You don’t want to not have a plan if something were to actually happen.

It is something that I have worried about in the past – although we don’t have anywhere near thirty animals. One cat and two dogs is it. In the case of fire my wife would not leave unless the animals were out – and they tend to wander all over the house during the night. I tend to believe that they would find their own way out if the doors were opened – my concern is mostly the sure knowledge that my wife wouldn’t go without them.

If you had a board or prop so you could prop open each window and screen in a time of emergency, could the animals evacuate themselves? I imagine with smoke and a screeching alarm a cat might flee out any open window. I don’t know if a dog could or would do the same. Of course you’d have the trouble of rounding them up after the great escape but it would give them their own way to flee immediate danger.

You might want to see about putting the animals in designated places where they can’t get out at night. That’s about all you can do with so many.

Change the focus.

If you’re really serious, install a sprinkler system so that you can quench any fire before it gets started. Otherwise have extinguishers in every bedroom, the kitchen and at each exit so that you can knock down a fire that does happen to start. Practice so that you know how to use them—and aren’t afraid to.

Putting out a small fire before it becomes a large fire should be anyone’s goal (if possible to do safely) in any case.