Newer homes and furniture burn faster, giving you less time to escape a fire

[x635 4,066]

This was on the "Today Show" on NBC this morning.

To those who watched the UL Lab demonstration, and put aside the sensationalism in the video, I don't think they were exaggerating the old school room? What do you think?

Sensationalism may be warranted when it comes to fire prevention activities when presented to civilians like this. Thoughts?

Research shows that 30 years ago, you had about about 17 minutes to escape a house fire.

Today it's down to 3 or 4 minutes. The reason: Newer homes and the furniture inside them actually burn faster. A lot faster.

VIDEO: http://on.today.com/1Ok28eS

[antiquefirelt 994]

A big selling point for home fire sprinklers. We can't afford to let fires grow to the point where we need to escape them, as too often there won't be enough time to wake, orient and escape. Nothing we can do about existing homes, but it's time to start getting behind (or under) sprinklers.

Edited January 15, 2016 by antiquefirelt

[FireMedic049 597]

I thought the video was decent, but I had to chuckle some at the "reassuring" comment towards the end that was supposedly from the home builders association about how "safe" homes are built these days. Pretty ironic considering the prevalence of light weight construction methods these days that do not hold up well under fire conditions and the extent to which they lobby hard against the very thing that could be the most beneficial in them in the event of a fire - residential sprinklers!

[SECTMB 612]

+/- $5,000.00 for a 3,000 SF house.

[antiquefirelt 994]

+/- $5,000.00 for a 3,000 SF house.

$5000 for 3000 SF isn't bad in the market, that's only $1.66 sqft. Which in our neck of the woods would be a great deal. Of course the bigger the house the better the per square foot price and the pipe and heads are the only added cost the basic system controls we all have to start with.

In my eye if you're building a 3000 sqft house you can't argue the expense. Those people trying to erect 900 sqft homes on an FHA loan have a little more to complain about, but at some point people will not make the right decision when their financial situation is dire. Look at the people who choose cigarettes over their meds, or take the batteries from the smoke detectors to power the big screen TV remote. We see people put themselves and their families at much greater risk than others due to financial issues, there has to be a minimum established, and all the current codes say that includes residential sprinklers.