FIRE!
RISK and ASSESSMENT
It Could Be Less Than Three Minutes Before Your Tenants Die
0 Seconds
Something starts smouldering.
It could be a phone charger, a hair dryer or straighteners left too close to the bed.
It could be a fan heater or even an oil-filled portable heater.
A dropped cigarette, an overloaded four-way electric adaptor or a shorted phone charger cable.
10 Seconds
The bedding, or maybe some papers or soft furnishings, have caught fire already. The flames are growing.
The smoke detector hasn’t gone off yet – even if it’s inside the room.
30 Seconds
By 30 seconds the bedding or curtains are well alight and thick black, poisonous smoke is starting to ll the room.
If you are lucky and there is a smoke alarm inside the room then it will have started sounding.
Essential to wake you up if you’re asleep when a fire starts.
1 Minute
The fire is spreading to other items in the room, the smoke is black, acrid and poisonous.
It’s becoming too hot to breathe. Drop to the floor to crawl out.
1 Minute 30 Seconds
The smoke and heat are unbearable. One lungful of that smoke could boil the insides of your lungs.
It’s full of poisonous gases like Cyanide.
2 Minutes
In just two minutes, this bedroom has become a raging inferno.
The air temperature is well above boiling point near the floor and 600C at the ceiling.
If you are still in there your chances of survival are low and even if you survive you’re likely to suffer horrendous burns.
2 Minute 22 Seconds
At just 2 minutes and 22 seconds, everything in the room spontaneously combusts.
The air temperature reaches 600 to 800 Celsius. Nobody will survive.
A few seconds later ‘flashover’ occurs as the black smoke itself ignites – creating a massive, all consuming fireball.
Landlords: Download our Free Tenant Fire Booklet
This book explains to tenants exactly how fires are caused and why the fire prevention meaures their landlord provides are so essential.
Landlords should all read this booklet too!
