Taken from
http://www.bosee.com/aviation/videos...-list/crm.html
quote
When a toilet fire started in an Air Canada DC9 at 33,000 feet, the captain assumed that it was minor and decided to continue the flight.
The on board fire went on to become so severe that the flight attendants had to relocate passengers away from thick black smoke at the rear of the aircraft, yet the decision to finally divert the aircraft was not made until 18 minutes after the first indication of the problem.
The aircraft eventually landed 13 minutes after declaring a full emergency, and the crew began to evacuate the passengers. However, 60 seconds after the evacuation started, a severe flash fire erupted, claiming the lives of 23 passengers.
unquote
CBC archives (
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-1125...r_canada/clip6) have a clip where the captain and 1st officer are interviewed.
Lastly, this from NTSB
quote
About 1903, eastern daylight time, while en route at flight level 330 (about 33,000 feet m.s.l), the cabin crew discovered smoke in the left aft lavatory. After attempting to extinguish the hidden fire and then contacting air traffic control (ATC) and declaring an emergency, the crew made an emergency descent and ATC vectored flight 797 to the Greater Cincinnati International Airport, Covington, Kentucky.
At 1920:09, eastern daylight time, Flight 797 landed on runway 27L at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport.
unquote
So. It would seem like 17 minutes from FL330 to landing. Unless the Bosee site is talking about a different aircraft, NOT the 31 minutes they imply.