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The Power of Fire

Have you ever imagined what it would really be like to have a fire in your home?

How long do you think it would take for a small fire to fill an entire room with flames?

How much time do you think you would have to get out safely?

Fire can start in an instant and consume your home in just minutes. It takes lives, injures, destroys homes, and steals precious possessions.

To often we train people today to deal with emergency situations according to their Fire Safety Plan but give little or no education on the POWER of FIRE or hazards associated with it.
 
Understanding Fire
As a small fire burns in the corner of your living room, bedroom, or office it heats items in the room, liberating gases from those items and filing the air. When there is the right mixture of gas and oxygen in the room, the fire burning in the corner now becomes the igniting object for all the gases.  You then have what is called "Flash Over". Simultaneously everything in the room appears to ignite at once. As the temperature begins to rise rapidly, more gases are liberated from products, causing the fire to burn out of control. At this stage fire quickly climbs to 1000 degrees Celsius and hotter.

Because most people don't understand the power of fire they often have an unfavourable attitude toward fires. They think fires are not a significant danger, or often think they can handle the fire situation themselves without calling the fire department. Most overestimate their ability to extinguish it, and underestimate the amount of time they need to escape.

Fire Is:

Fast:

  • A fire will double every 30 Seconds under normal conditions.
  • In as little as three minutes a small fire can erupt into "FLASHOVER".
Dark:
  • A small fire can produce enough smoke to fill a building in minutes.
    Smoke results in:
    • Teared eyes
    • Choking sensation
    • Impaired judgement due to Carbon Monoxide (CO)
    • Loss of spacial recognition
    • Sedation effect- Respiratory failure
Hot:
  • Within minutes air temperature in a burning room can reach 300 degrees Celsius. This temperature is hot enough to melt clothes, skin and scorch your lungs in one breath.
  • Temperatures can then climb to over 1000 degrees Celsius.
Deadly:

Smoke's poisonous gases spread quickly from where the fire begins and can overwhelm you long before you see any flames. CO, Hydrogen Cyanide, Ammonia and hundreds of other irritants attack your eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Inhaling these gases can disorient you and slow your reaction time. Escape from the fire becomes more difficult. Three of the most common deadly gases in fires are:

  • Carbon monoxide — displaces oxygen from the blood.
  • Carbon dioxide — causes people to breathe more quickly and inhale more poisonous gas.
  • Nitrogen Oxide: Mixes with moisture in eyes, nose and throat which causes coughing and hacking. Then turns into nitric acid which starts to burn the tissue.

More than 80 percent of home fire victims die primarily from the effects of smoke.


Fire Creates Emotional Trauma

In addition to the physical dangers, fire takes a tremendous emotional toll on people and their families. Losing one's home, treasured possessions and photographs is traumatic. Belongings collected throughout your lifetime or handed down for generations are impossible ro replace.

Rebuilding and recovery can be overwhelming. Think about cataloguing every item in your home.  Now consider doing it without being able to see any of the possessions. Fire victims must recall, record and replace everything they own while coming to terms with the tragedy. They must do this while rebuilding their homes and their lives.


Some Common Myths

I can recover if it does happen

  • Around 60 per cent of businesses that lose company records to fire never open their doors for business again.
  • Trying to manage the disaster, run the company, and rebuild lost property and clients is extremely difficult.
Statistics gathered by the Association of Record Managers and Administrators.

It won't happen to me
  • Business people know the key to a company's success or failure is planning for events before they happen.
  • The same applies for fire. Plan for an emergency by training your staff, it may be the difference between and injury or death, and opening your doors for business in the future. 
Fire Facts
  • Fire is the second leading cause of death in buildings after falls.
  • Fire is the leading cause of property loss and accounts for half of the claims against insurance policies.
  • A fire department responds to a fire somewhere in North America approximately every 10 seconds.
  • Fire departments answer over 75,000 fire calls annually in Canada.
  • On average, fire death occurs every two hours in North America. About 80% of deaths occur in home fires.
  • A fire injury occurs on average every 20 seconds.
  • In a lifetime, the average household will have two fires that are serious enough to report to the fire department.