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Every day, Americans experience the
horrors of fire--but most people don't understand fire. Only when we know
the true nature of fire can we protect ourselves
and our loved ones.
Each year, more that 4,000 Americans die and more than 25,000
are injured in
fires ...many of these tragedies could have been prevented.
Here are some facts about fire:
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FIRE IS FAST--You
Have Very Little Time to Escape. A small flame can get completely out of
control in less than 30 seconds. In a few minutes, black smoke will fill
the building, and in a few more the house can be completely engulfed by
flames. Most home fires occur while people are sleeping: if you wake to a
fire you won't have time to collect valuables, because fire spreads too quickly
and the smoke will kill you. You have only time to escape, if even that.
And because even a small fire in another part of the house may
produce enough toxic gas to reach your sleeping quarters before
the smoke itself does, you may not wake at all.
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FIRE IS HOT--The
temperature in a room afire can be 100 degrees at floor level but 600 degrees or
more at eye level, much hotter than the oven in your kitchen ever gets. If
you inhale this super-heated air, you will scorch your lungs and die. The
heat can melt your clothing to your skin. Within a few minutes, everything
in the room can get so hot that it ignites suddenly and at once: this is called
a "flashover" and few who have seen it have lived.
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FIRE IS DARK--in
fact, it's pitch black. Fire starts bright, but quickly produces thick
black smoke and complete darkness. If you wake to a fire you may be
blinded, disoriented, and unable to find your way around the home you've lived
in for years.
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FIRE IS DEADLY--Fire
uses up the oxygen you need to live and produces smoke and poisonous gases
which will kill you if you breathe them. Even small amounts of these
gases can make you drowsy, disoriented, or short of breath. Odorless,
colorless byproducts of fire can make you sleep before the flames or smoke reach
your door. You may not wake up in time to escape.
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YOU MUST INSTALL SMOKE DETECTORS ON EVERY FLOOR OF YOUR
HOME, AND ENSURE THAT THEY ARE ALWAYS IN WORKING ORDER WITH
GOOD BATTERIES, IF YOU WANT A FAIR CHANCE TO ESCAPE FROM A
NIGHTTIME FIRE. SMOKE DETECTORS SAVE LIVES.
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The best way to deal
with house fires is to prevent them--and you'll find in these pages some tips
for doing just that: information you can use yourself, and ways to teach
your children about fire safety. We know that some families have members
with special needs, and we'll have fire safety tips that address these needs.
You'll learn how to protect guests in your home and how to ensure that
caregivers and babysitters can practice fire safety in your absence. We'll
show you how to spot potential fire hazards in advance of disaster. Of
course, you can never eliminate completely the risk of fire in your home, so
we'll show you what to do when the unthinkable happens...because thinking about
fire before it happens is your best defense against the "Orange
Monster."
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