The_Vorlon:
I read recently that with modern construction, the time to escape a house fire has dropped from ~10 minutes to the three minute range. Add in the wide open spaces of that large house, and they would have to be half way out the door when it started to have survived.
Did you perchance read that right here on The Straight Dope Message Board? We had a Christmas Tree Fire thread just a few weeks ago, here . There, we learned:
There are many youtube videos showing flashover. Here’s one showing a side-by-side comparison with a “legacy room” vs. a “modern room.” The modern room has flashover in less than four minutes while the legacy one takes almost 30. There really isn’t enough information to know what materials they use, but one to two minutes could be expected with a pine tree setting it off.