Recently, the Safety Committee of the State Council issued a circular deploying a nationwide campaign to investigate and rectify major fire hazards in high-rise buildings. This campaign focuses on high-rise civil buildings with residents and activities (including residential buildings and public buildings such as offices, medical facilities, and commercial centers). Special attention is being paid to high-rise civil buildings currently undergoing exterior wall reconstruction or partial interior renovation. The goal is to comprehensively strengthen fire safety management in high-rise buildings and genuinely protect people’s lives and property.
In recent years, the growing number of high-rise residential buildings in cities has brought convenience but also concealed fire risks. High-rise buildings often have complex functions and dense occupancy. Once a fire breaks out, the flames can rapidly spread due to the “chimney effect,” coupled with difficult rescue operations and long evacuation times, easily leading to severe casualties. So, when caught in a high-rise fire, should one immediately evacuate or wait in place? How should one correctly save themselves in different scenarios? This life-saving knowledge is essential.
Difficult to fight: Considering factors like aerial access, operation area, and weather conditions, if internal fire suppression systems fail, fighting the fire from outside is extremely difficult.
Many hidden dangers: High-rise buildings house various types of venues and complex businesses, which can easily delay the optimal time for calling for help and rescue.
Slow evacuation: High-rise buildings have many floors, many occupants, and long vertical distances, making evacuation time-consuming and challenging.
Rapid spread: High-rise buildings have a high fire load and numerous pipe shafts. Actual fire investigation results show that smoke can fill an entire space in about 3 minutes.
In a high-rise fire, dense smoke, high temperature, toxic gases, and wind are the four fatal “killers.” They work together to drastically compress the escape window and threaten lives.
Dense Smoke: The main culprit for obstructed vision and asphyxiation.
Chimney Effect: This refers to the upward or downward movement of air within an enclosed vertical space, creating enhanced convection. In a high-rise fire, smoke spreads vertically through stairwells, pipe shafts, and gaps in glass curtain walls at speeds of 3-4 m/s, which can quickly engulf the entire building.
High Temperature: Direct threat from thermal radiation and flames. In high-rise fires, flames and hot smoke release a large amount of thermal radiation, causing the surrounding temperature to rise rapidly. Temperatures at a fire scene can reach hundreds or even over a thousand degrees Celsius, which the human body cannot withstand. High temperatures can also cause combustible materials to spontaneously ignite, escalating the fire and exposing escapees to the direct threat of flames.
Toxic Gases: The invisible killer. Dense smoke contains toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and cyanide. Inhalation leads to poisoning and suffocation. Statistics show that the number of deaths due to smoke inhalation in fires accounts for over 80%.
Wind-Aided Spread: Since wind speed increases with height, a fire often intensifies with the aid of wind, making it burn fiercer and fiercer.
Residential or public buildings with a height greater than 100m must have a fire refuge floor. If escape is blocked, people can evacuate to the nearest refuge floor. The purpose of a refuge floor is to provide a place for people to hide from the fire, prevent smoke ingress that could cause injury, and await firefighter rescue.
Current domestic operational requirements for 50m aerial ladder fire trucks stipulate that the height between the ground floor and the first refuge floor should not exceed 50m to allow for rescue using ladder trucks. Fire refuge floors cannot be used for dwelling, must not be occupied by clutter, and are equipped with fire facilities such as fire hydrants, dedicated fire telephones, ventilation systems, automatic sprinkler systems, and public address systems.
This is the least dangerous situation. The fire is above you, and you are below, with the floor slab blocking the flames and dense smoke. You should simply take the stairs down. Do not use the elevator.
In this case, you must decide whether to escape or not based on the smoke condition. You can open a slight crack in the door. If there is no dense smoke outside the door, quickly go downstairs. If there is smoke, return inside, close your entrance door tightly, block the door gap to prevent smoke, and wait for rescue.
If you discover a fire in your room, and the flames have not yet blocked the route to your entrance door, you should immediately crouch low to avoid smoke continuously settling from the ceiling, and escape through the entrance door. If the flames have blocked the route to the entrance door, find a bathroom or room with an exterior window, close the door, block the gap to prevent smoke, and wait for rescue.
This situation is extremely dangerous, and many people have tragically died by blindly escaping in this scenario. The decision to escape or not depends primarily on checking for smoke at the door:
Open a slight crack in the door: If a large amount of dense smoke rushes in, it means the corridor and stairwell are filled with smoke. At this point, you should retreat back into your unit, close the door to prevent smoke, and wait for rescue.
If you open the door and there is no smoke in the corridor, but there is smoke in the stairwell, you should still retreat back into your unit, close the door, and wait for rescue.
If you open the door and there is no smoke in both the corridor and the stairwell, you can quickly evacuate.
Fire is in your own home: Go out the door and run down.
Fire is in someone else’s home:
If the fire is on a floor above yours, run down.
If the fire is on a floor below yours, and there is no smoke or very little smoke in the stairwell, run down. If there is heavy smoke in the stairwell, immediately return home, block the door, and wait for rescue.
Escape quickly if there is no smoke: Before opening the door, touch the doorknob. If the temperature is not high and there is no smoke in the stairwell, quickly go down the stairs. As you pass through the stairwell, remember to close the fire door behind you.
Stay calm if there is smoke: If your building has two stairwells, quickly use the other smoke-free stairwell to escape downwards. If your building has access to a roof platform or an exterior connecting corridor, provided the exit is clear and there is no dense smoke, you can use these areas to escape via the evacuation stairwell of an adjacent unit. During the escape, wear a smoke mask or cover your mouth and nose with a wet towel.
Retreat and wait for rescue in dense smoke: If the doorknob is very hot or there is dense smoke upon opening the door, you must retreat and wait for rescue. Use clothing, sheets, etc., to block the door gap, and pour water to cool and prevent smoke. At the same time, call “119” to report your floor and room number, and signal for help from near a window by flashing a flashlight or waving a piece of clothing.
Among the many factors that cause high-rise building fires and explosions, gas leaks are a significant cause. So, how can gas leaks be prevented in daily life?
Never leave the kitchen when using a gas stove to prevent liquids from boiling over or wind from extinguishing the flame.
Regularly apply soapy water to pipe joints to check for bubbling, which indicates a gas leak.
If you smell a gas odor (similar to rotten eggs), immediately open windows for ventilation, turn off the main valve, and call the gas company from outside.
Install a household gas alarm: Chicheng Electric’s household gas alarm can monitor combustible gas leak concentration 24/7 in real-time. When the concentration reaches or exceeds the preset value, the device immediately emits an audible and visual alarm, adding a “smart shield” to home safety.
The investigation and rectification campaign deployed by the Safety Committee of the State Council is a comprehensive “health check” for high-rise safety. Let us take this opportunity to collectively build a strong safety line for high-rise buildings, making every tall building a “safety fortress” that guards lives.
