Fire spread
The speed at which a fire spreads if a building catches fire gives you just three minutes to get out of the building!
04:01 a.m.
Your chances of escaping: EXCELLENT
04:02 a.m. - ceiling temperature 190°C
Your chances of escaping: FAIR TO AVERAGE
04:03 a.m. - ceiling
temperature 400°C
Your chances of escaping: HIGHLY UNLIKELY
04:04 a.m. - ceiling temperature 500°- 800°C
Your chances of escaping: ZERO
Fire kills.
Most victims of fires die of smoke poisoning before the fire has even caught. Even burning curtains or wallpaper can be fatal. Smoke detectors register the starts of a fire from the moment there is minor smoke development.
Smoke and fire alarms
Fire alarms are a legal requirement in homes and commercial premises in many European countries and the USA. In Germany, the law stipulates the use of smoke detectors in just some federal states (Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein). The number of fire victims in Germany is correspondingly high. In Great Britain, the number of fatalities due to fire dropped drastically when smoke detectors became a legal requirement there!
