In five minutes your house can be engulfed in flames. A fire s heat and smoke are more dangerous than the flames inhaling the super hot air can sear your lungs. Fire produces poisonous gases that make you disoriented and drowsy. Instead of being awakened by a fire, you may fall into a deeper sleep. Since 1900, more Americans have died in fires than have been killed in all of the wars during the same period.
Residential fires are the leading cause of accidental death for children under the age of five.
Fire safety and how to prevent fires . Some floods develop over a period of days, but flash floods can result in raging waters in just a few minutes. Water runs off steeper ground very rapidly, causing natural drainage systems to overflow with rushing flood waters and a deadly cargo of rocks, mud, smashed trees and other debris. Mudslides are also a danger created by flood conditions. Nationally, floods claim an average of 263 lives each year.