Remember Some of the Basics About Fire

1. A fire is likely to grow out of control within only 30-60 seconds.  Yes ONE minute or less.
2. What is a person’s worst enemy in a fire?  Time!  Why?  Because they mistakenly think they have time but they don’t.  Flashover, in a building or other contained environment, will likely occur within only 3-5 minutes.  If you are in a flashover, you will die – that simple.  My turnout gear is not even tough enough for me to survive for very long in a flashover environment.  
3. The issue of time is why people NEED to have enough fire extinguishers strategically located on their property, so that they can get to the extinguisher and be on their way back to the fire within SIX seconds of being made aware there is a fire.  Yes, only SIX seconds!  This may sound crazy until you actually witness the beast known as “uncontrolled fire”.  
4. The average American home will have a fire once every 10 years large enough to need a fire extinguisher and the average farm has a fire once every 3 ½ years.  Our customer has 3X the fires that someone who lives in a city environment does and the response time of their local volunteer fire department is typically 2-3X longer than people who live in a city with a full time fire department.  75% of fire departments in the US are volunteer.  Only about 10% are truly full time fire departments and the other 15% is a blending of full and part time. 

My point is that if we do not protect ourselves, then we have nobody else to blame when it happens.  I am sorry if I come across as preachy but I am passionate about this stuff, as we all should be to our own personal degree, and I do not want anyone to be hurt by a fire that could have been prevented by being proactive.