Ten minutes is indeed awfully long. The one time I was in a house fire I and my friend were straight out the door and on the pavement in under ten seconds. The idea of collecting belongings simply never occurred to us, it was a case of "A fire! Run!"

If there really was ten minutes (and I believed there was and didn't just leg it out the door anyway) I reckon I could get most of my valued stuff out of the house in that time. Sod the arsonist - if there's ten minutes they can get themselves out (or burn for all I care). Even if they're mentally ill, ten minutes is enough time for the fire brigade to arrive, and they can get them out.