The house next door to me caught fire. By the time I saw the flames from my window and ran out the door, the fire truck was already preparing to douse the flames. Yes, I am lucky to live in an area with fast responses; no, not everyone is so lucky, yadda yadda yadda. But safes help. So do fire extinguishers. Get one for every floor in your house.
30-60 minutes is a very long time, do fire departments normally take that long to start dumping water on the house? Some site says "NFPA Standard 1710 establishes a 320 second or 5 minutes and 20 seconds 'response time' goal for not less than 90% of these type incidents."