Public`s misconception about fire revealed in NFPA survey
“Americans don`t think of fire as a major risk in their lives,” according to Dr. John Hall, assistant vice president of fire analysis and research at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). He based this conclusion on a recent survey of 500 Americans. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they believed that they had more than two minutes to escape a home fire; 24 percent indicated that they had 10 minutes or more before life-threatening conditions would develop. In fact, says the NFPA, a typical living room fire can become deadly in two minutes or less after the smoke alarm sounds and has the potential to kill household members in as little as four and a half minutes after it begins.
Other survey findings include the following:
Sixteen percent of respondents have developed and practiced an escape plan.
Eighty-one percent of respondents who had smoke detectors activate in their homes assumed it was a nuisance alarm. Twenty-two percent disabled the detector.
