Recently received an email from an acquaintance who suffered a house fire...
Last Wednesday, July 11th, before seven in the morning, I was awakened by the smoke alarm. Our house was on fire and went up like a tinderbox. We had less than three minutes to get ourselves and my 88 year old mother out before the flames were through the roof and we made it out with only seconds to spare. We got out of the house in our pajamas and I didn't even have shoes. The house could not be saved. Less than 5 minutes from the time I heard the alarm the house was totally in flames.
I am trying to figure ... is a 3- or 5-minute lag time from smoke-detector-to-fully-engulfed a normal time for a smoke detector? I know there are a bunch of firefighters on here who might have an opinion...