In the time it takes you to watch a typical news story, just a couple of minutes, your family could become trapped in your burning home. But the push is on to change that.
A group of students at the Puget Sound Skills Center aren't just students -- they're fire cadets, ready for a day in class to heat up.
The lesson for the day is about fire sprinklers in homes and the growing evidence that they truly do save lives.
At the training center, there are two identical living rooms set up with furniture from thrift stores -- one without a sprinkler, and one with just one sprinkler head.
First to burn is the living room without the protection of a sprinkler. Cadets start a fire in a trash can in the middle of the living room, and within seconds it reaches the curtains, spreading to a chair. At 12 seconds, the smoke alarm goes off. At one minute, the furniture catches fire, creating choking smoke, and deadly gasses.
For now, instructors want it to keep burning. The idea isn't necessarily to put the fire out. It's to give the fire department time to get here. But in a free burn state, anyone inside wouldn't have a chance to survive. In just two and a half minutes, the fire has turned into a killer.
With the point made, cadets put the fire out, amazed at just what little is left.
Then they move to the room with the sprinkler. Again, at 12 seconds in, it looks the same and the smoke alarm is going off again. But once the temperature in the room hits about 140 degrees, that's where the addition of a sprinkler is truly evident.
Just 50 seconds into the fire, the sprinkler goes off and the flames are under control, giving anyone inside the chance to escape.
The fire service uses demonstrations like this to convince local and state governments to pass laws requiring at least one sprinkler in new home construction.
But home builders like the Master Builder's Association of King and Snohomish Counties, the lobbying arm of the building industry, says it continues to press against mandated sprinklers in single family homes. The told KING 5 News modern building materials and techniques combined with smoke detectors are already making new homes safer. They add sprinkler systems are expensive, and add extra maintenance costs.
Firefighters say the most basic tool to help you get out alive is having smoke detectors on every level of your home and a plan to escape a fire with at least one alternate route in case flames are blocking your way.
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