Modern homes burn up to 8 times faster than holder homes, according to a new study from Underwriter Laboratories. This means you have only 3 minutes to escape.

"For us, where our time periods were you know, they used to back in the day talk about 20 minutes, it's more like in the 5 to 6 minue range (now)," says Kinny Tasker, South Metro Fire Training Lieutenant.

Petroleum-based synthetics in modern furniture and other products around the house burn much more quickly. Underwriter Laboratories' study found homes built after 1970 burn up to 8 times faster than homes built before that year.

"You still see the same amount of deaths that you saw in the 70's but with half as many fires as in the 70's," Tasker said. "That could be contributed to the flame spread and the smoke."

See the demonstration South Metro Fire performed for Denver7, in which flames were sucked in as quickly as possible, turning just 3 pieces of furniture into an inferno, HERE.

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