Smoke fills the room.
A blazing inferno lies outside your door.
No one wants to wake up
to the deafening sound of a smoke alarm,
but if you should find yourself
in that position,
don't do this.
In the United States,
a fire department responded to a fire
approximately every 23 seconds
throughout 2020.
Even worse,
there was one fatal house fire
every three hours and 24 minutes.
To keep you from becoming
part of the statistic,
we have a list of the biggest mistakes
you could make in a fire.
Ideally, if you find yourself in a fire,
you are on the ground floor.
Being trapped on a higher floor,
you might be tempted to use an elevator
or jump.
These both could be deadly choices.
When a building is on fire,
it's possible for elevators to malfunction
or have electrical fires
that could leave you
stranded between floors.
And jumping off the building
will most likely lead to injuries
that could be more dangerous
than protecting yourself in the building
until you are rescued.
You might think that breaking
or opening a window will allow fresh air
to enter the building
and help those inside breathe better.
However, this can increase
the development and intensity of the fire.
Fires require oxygen,
and breaking windows will only add fuel
to an already dangerous situation.
It will also make the job of the firefighters
even more difficult when they arrive.
Searching for different ways to escape
might be a good idea,
but you shouldn’t just open a door.
Doors actually work
as a sort of temporary barrier
for flames and the flow of oxygen,
so it's smarter to check
for alternative routes of escape first.
If you do need to open a door,
shut it behind you.
This will avoid fueling the fire
with oxygen
from other parts of the building.
One mother learned this lesson
the hard way.
She was woken by her husband yelling
that their house was on fire.
She got up, ran to the door and opened it.
She was thrown back
by the heat on the other side.
Thankfully, she was able to rescue
her young son from the flames
and all three escaped,
but this is an important lesson
about not swinging doors open
no matter the circumstances.
While hiding may seem like a good idea
to get you away from the scalding flames,
it will make it more difficult
for firefighters to find you.
When you hear the firefighters,
make your position known
by shouting or pounding the floor.
It is estimated that
34% of house fire injuries occur
while attempting to put out
or control the fire.
This is not the time to pretend
you're a firefighter.
New York City firefighter
Christopher Doyle instructs people
to never try extinguishing
a fire themselves.
"Each second increases
your likelihood of smoke inhalation.
Stay low and leave the fire area
as quickly as possible.”
Remember, it can take just 30 seconds
for a fire to become a serious problem
and just five minutes
for it to take over a building.
And after that,
your entire neighborhood could turn
into a raging wildfire.
Now what do you do?
Don’t worry,
we have the tips to survive that here,
on How to Survive.