Just happened to see this on the breaking news. I know there are quite a few firemen on this site, so could you please explain how you would fight a fire of this type. Or do you just stand by and wait for it to burn itself out?

http://www.breakingnews.com/item/ahZ...l-in-chechnya-

 

Eeeeeeeek !!!

Another reason I will never live in a hi rise.

Cheers,
PISTOL

 

Get a large bag of StaPufts and a reaaaaaaaaalllllllllllly long stick and sit back.

 

I am the fire warden for the floor I work on in downtown Calgary. It is my job to give people direction etc during fire alarms. Whenever we have a fire alarm and people are dawdling, I get really angry. Remember that during 9/11 no one above the impact sites got out of the buildings. I realize that was an extreme situation but I work on the 27th floor. It takes about 30 mins to get to ground level during a full evacuation. If everyone behaves well our floor should be evacuated in about 2 mins. When I am on my third pass around the floor and people still won't leave, I get very clear in my information delivery, I write down their names (for later reporting to our safety committee) and I leave. I am not going to die in a high rise building fire because you want to finish your emails.

 

Mexstan- not much for code enforcement in checyen, same build fault as the twin towers, ventilation shaft syndrome where architects toss all the mechical needs through the same connective avenue. firefighting offense is to seperate the feed, gain distance on exposures.

Sean (TG), you can move a lot of people by yelling free pizza. (kidding)
those annoying sports 5 ounce air horns get the message across to announce the second wave of get out now, then turn the lights off.

after working on a farm, then military or emergency service:
I am convinced people act like cows.
(clueless and careless in the face of danger) REALLY liked the zap sticks!

 

JWBM - our Human Resources dept told me that I am not allowed to use Zap sticks (cattle prods) on employees or contractors, even during fire emergencies - I ASKED!!!

I should mention for Chaikwa's benefit that I changed the batteries in the fire/CO detector a few weeks ago when we went to daylights saving time.

 

Thats crazy, looks like Towering Inferno.
Don't most high rise have million gallon water storage tanks on the roof, build a deluge system into all floors and flood the fire. Evacuate the building quicker with inflatable escape tubes around the building like on airplanes or like a long pair of pantyhose with the toe cut off, you could push the people in on top and they would pop out on the ground floor at the toe.

Jim

 

Was it under construction or open for business? The fire spread pattern indicates no fire break between hallway and rooms on th c-d side, doors open, stairwell and elevator shafts open etc. Heidi brings up a good point as well. In the US there would be redundant fire pums, sprinkler feeds, automatic fire doors, and hvac controls that would isolate and ventilate. In a perfect world all this would work together to keep any fire in check until suppression crews arrived at the fire floor(s). However things fail and tend to do so when you need them most.

 

It is in Russia, in the winter. That tells ya a few things.
1. Construction poorly organized, so doors etc not delivered and installed timely for fire suppression. Probably not even thought of as a possible problem. Thus, firestorm draft.
2. Winter, and construction project still open to the weather, so even if the water works were installed, it couldn't be charged.
3. Russian workers, probably had fires in a 55 gallon drums to keep warm.

And 1960's fire equipment to deal with the resulting fire.

 

Building fully occupied and not under construction. The govt says the fire only affected the outside of the building not the inside. Other news sources reported the building gutted and a total loss. Further news source claim possible arson due to an on going religious power struggle. Definitely not winter.

Who really knows and who really cares?