QUICK QUIZ

1: In most of the district we do not have fire hydrants. How many minutes of "fire fighting" water is carried on a St. Charles fire engine to put a fire out in your neighborhood?

• < 5 minutes
• 10 minutes
• 17 minutes
• 25 minutes or longer

2: What is the #1 cause of a house fire?

• Cooking fire
• Furnace fire
• Candle
• Cigarette

DID YOU KNOW?

#1 Answer:
There are 750 gallons of water on a typical fire engine. Each hose line can deliver up to 250 gallons per minute to put out a fire. They can run up to three hose lines. With the maximum delivery of water through three hose lines, the water on our fire engines will last approximately 1 minute. What happens when they run out of water? They have to go refill the truck or have more trucks support.

#2 Answer:
Although many people think kitchen fires are the biggest hazard for a house fire, it is actually the simple candle that causes most house fires. Candles left unattended in living rooms, family rooms or bedrooms can quickly cause a small fire in an area that often contains other flammable material, and usually not noticed until too late. A small fire in the corner of a family room can grow in just a few short minutes, raising the temperature of the room to flash point, where anything that can burn almost spontaneously ignites. Furniture and fabrics that contain foam cushions, synthetic fabrics are as one expert told us, "solidified gasoline" as they are derivatives of oil products. You can imagine how quickly they can ignite when the room is hot enough.