House Fires: Don't Underestimate Them

You just threw a party at your home. The last guest just left, and you're going to bed. But there's something you don't know: One of your guests accidentally dropped a cigarette butt on the living room sofa earlier in the evening. It's smoldering between the cushions.

How long do you have to escape between the time the cigarette fully ignites the sofa and the fire becomes deadly?

If you answered more than two minutes, you're dead wrong.

According to a survey a few years ago by the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 58 percent of 500 Americans believed they had more than two minutes to escape a home fire. Twenty-four percent of the respondents assumed they had 10 minutes or more before life-threatening conditions would develop.

In reality, a typical living room fire can become deadly in two minutes -- or less -- after the smoke alarm sounds. And such a fire almost certainly has the potential to kill household members in as little as four minutes after it began.

Designed to measure people's attitudes toward fire and the need for escape planning, NFPA's survey reveals that Americans have dangerously unrealistic perceptions about fire, and they underestimate the speed at which it spreads. Furthermore, the survey revealed that most respondents have had personal experience with fire alarms at home and other locations, yet a majority acted, or failed to act, in ways that significantly increased their risk had a real fire occurred.

Although more than half of the survey respondents said they had a home escape plan, only 31 percent of that group had practiced it, which means that, overall, only 16 percent of respondents have developed and practiced an escape plan. Of those who hadn't practiced, 38 percent never thought about practicing a plan or claimed they didn't have the time; 33 percent said practice wasn't necessary, often because they thought their home layout was so easy to escape; and 10 percent believed practicing escape plans wasn't necessary for able-bodied adults.

In addition, although 39 percent of respondents had had home smoke detectors go off in the past year, only 4 percent reacted immediately as though there might be fire. Of the majority (81 percent) who assumed it was a nuisance alarm, 22 percent reacted by disabling the detector.

Other key findings from NFPA's survey:

• Men are about equally as likely to have a home escape plan as women, but are more likely to have practiced it. Men are also more likely than women to say they would take potentially dangerous actions if a fire alarm sounded at work.

• More than 35 percent of the people who have been in a public place when the alarm went off did not leave the building. In explaining why, 39 percent of the group that decided not to leave simply assumed it was not a real fire.

• In restaurants or theaters, 85 percent of respondents said they would leave immediately if a fire alarm sounded; in malls, 83 percent said they would exit immediately. Some people said that in a mall they would wait to leave until the crowds thinned out.