Time in fire 00:10 seconds
It's 12:53 a.m. You and your family
are sound asleep. Ten Seconds ago, a small fire started in your living room. In the next five minutes, your life may change
forever.
Time in fire 01:00
One minute after the fire starts, the smoke
alarm sounds. You awaken. You don't smell smoke, but you get up to check.
It takes almost 30 seconds
to reach the stairs and start down.
Time in fire 01:44
As
you descend, you start to smell smoke billowing out of the living room. In the living room, the curtains are in flames.
The temperature at the ceiling is approaching 1,000 f
Time
in fire 02:00
You head back up the stairs to get your family. By the time you reach the top of the
stairs, you are blinded by smoke
Fire is not bright; it is hidden by thick, black smoke. Building materials
and furnishings give off poisonous gases as they burn. Most people who die in fires don't die from burns, but from
smoke and toxic fumes.
Time in fire 02:25
In the
blackness, you collide with your spouse. One of you goes to your son's room, the other to your daughter's
Your daughter's room is filled with smoke. She's still asleep. Wrapping her in a blanket, you carry her
from the room.
Time in fire 03:29
Downstairs,
the fire spreads through the living room. The temperature at the living room ceiling approaches 1,400 f
Carrying
your daughter, you reach the top of the stairs. Gasping for breath in the thick, smoky air, you start down.
Time in fire 03:54
The living room is enveloped in flames as the air
in the room catches fire and flashover occurs. Flashover occurs when a room gets so hot that everything in it ignites at once.
Time in fire 03:57
a wall of searing heat races up the
stairs. Had you been in the living room at flashover, you would not have survived. Nothing and no one survives flashover.
Time in fire 04:16
Fire is amazingly fast.
In less than five minutes, the fire is out of control. Fighting the heat and smoke, you head for your secondary escape
route at the bedroom window. Now you have reached the bedroom and shut the door behind you to
buy you some precious minutes to escape. You open the window and yell for help. The room is getting hotter and
the smoke is starting to suffocate your lungs. You signal for help by throwing objects out the window and waving
a blanket.
Your rest of your family had escaped and called 911 from a neighbors house.
Time in fire 05:18
In the distance you hear sirens approaching. The
fire is advancing through your closed door. You feel this may be the last minutes with your daughter as you hold
her tight saying how much you love her.
The next few minutes feel like hours. You are trapped by fire.
Time in Fire 10:58
Almost eleven minutes
after the fire started, the first fire engine arrives. The firefighters find your location at the window and quickly
ladder the building. As the ladder reaches the window your handing your daughter out to the hands of a firefighter. The
fire is now an inferno. Your life is spared by seconds. Another minute and you would not have made it.
You are
both rushed to the awaiting ambulance to be treated for smoke inhaulation and burns,but your family has survived.
Just in Time
Your life will be changed from this day forward.
You have lost your home and most of your possessions. However, you are blessed to have survived with your family.
Every 74 seconds, a house burns in the United States.
More then 4,000 Americans die in
fires every year. 80 percent of them in home fires.
The victim's are usually children and seniors.
Although the majority of fires start during the day, most fatal fires start at night. Like this one.
