Death in a flash.

Flashovers happen fast and with only a little warning.

There is a time line of fire. Starting from ignition (insipient stage) to the fires decay and extinguishment. A flashover is at the highest risk when air is let in from a firefighters entry.

There are a few things that you can look for in a flashover. First is every thing in the room will start to off gas.

The second thing to look at is the smoke. There will be strands of fire in the smoke.

There is a short amount of time to escape a flashover. 7 to 10 seconds is the amount of time to escape a flashover.

Here is a link to a video showing a flash over in action. Flash over video.