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What caused the drop in fire related deaths between the 1960s and 1990s?

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A "flash over" is what kind of fire?

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What makes newly constructed buildings more fire safe?

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FIRE RESEARCH MANAGEMENT

The number of annual deaths from house and other home-unit dwelling fires has dropped from approximately 12,000 in the late 1960s and early 1970s to about 4,000 deaths per year since the early 1990s. That figure has held steady for nearly 10 years.

NSF-funded research and further research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have played a large role in developing new materials and construction standards that have contributed to the reduction in fire deaths.

Specifically, this research has led tonew materials standards in drapery and constructionthat have been put into place in newly constructed and more recently refurbished buildings.

NSF's work included defining a motel/hotel room so that "flash overs" would not happen, or their occurrence could be greatly reduced. space"Flash overs" are fast-action incidentsalong the lines of what happened at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas in the late 1980s. In that incident, many people were killed in a flash fire that firefighters could not get to and could not control quickly.

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