# $6M Maryland home burned up by electrical fault and 15' of dry tree. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 28, 2015, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6m-maryland-home-burned-up-by-electrical-fault-and-15-of-dry-tree/711155 "2015-01-28T22:15:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 10
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6m-maryland-home-burned-up-by-electrical-fault-and-15-of-dry-tree/711155/10 "2015-01-29T07:41:58Z")
> [@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](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=741801). There, we learned: > [@Can Christmas tree lights burn down a room this quickly?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-christmas-tree-lights-burn-down-a-room-this-quickly/705585/17): > > There are many youtube videos showing flashover. [Here’s one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3arLA3kt84k) 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. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6m-maryland-home-burned-up-by-electrical-fault-and-15-of-dry-tree/711155)._