Last week we touched on how to prevent fires in your home and important items to have on hand to alert you to a fire quickly and to contain a small fire. Trying to contain a fire yourself, however, is not always a good idea. We were able to sit down with Fort Dodge Fire Chief Matt Price this week and he stressed the importance of getting out of your home and calling 911 before a fire gets out of hand.
Most homes are full of synthetic materials. These materials are particularly concerning should a fire start near them. Click here to watch how quickly a fire spreads through two rooms, one with natural furniture and the other with synthetic. You’ll notice that before the five minute mark, everything seems to suddenly ignite in the synthetic room. This is called flashover. It happens because all the combustible materials in the room have been heated to their ignition temperature causing an almost simultaneous ignition. It took almost 30 minutes for the naturally furnished room to reach that point.
You’ll also notice the thick dark smoke that comes off the synthetic couch. Synthetic materials, depending on what they are made of, release a variety of toxins such as: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, and hydrogen sulfide when set on fire. These toxins in the smoke often make the smoke more dangerous than the fire itself. It’s important when you see smoke to get to the floor and crawl out of the house in order to prevent yourself from becoming disoriented and incapacitated. Smoke inhalation is the primary cause of death in fire cases.
So, the response to the question ‘how long do you have to get out?’ in the event of a fire – not long. In some cases, flashover can happen as fast as 90 seconds after ignition. If you see that a fire is spreading or if you have ANY concern that you can’t put out a small fire, please leave the home immediately and call 911.
