High Rise Fires - Continued

Click above for a brief item on a high rise fire in a 23 story building in Taiwan. I saw a snippet of video on TV. The report indicates 4 dead with more rescued by helicopter from the roof. So the problem presists. This one was above the reach of outside hose streams, so it just burned toward the roof. I'll see if further reports add more detail, but the standard curtain wall around a central core office building does seem quite vulnerable to fire. And there is no easy way of winning the battle against the fire, once it has taken hold. So the first line of defense needs to be those people in the immediate vicinity (the fire militiamen) doing their best to knock it down until the fire department arrives. A stitch in time saves nine. Meanwhile, the rest of the building above the level of the fire is evacuated. That way no one will be in the zone of potential fire growth, should the fire department have difficulty gaining control.

There was a brief note in the Wall Street Journal yesterday "Kudos to the man in Pompano Beach, Fla., who climbed into a burning house Tuesday, rescued two dogs and fought the fire with a garden hose before driving away. The Sun-Sentinel Web site says he never told passersby his name and said only that he was rushing off to get his children to school on time." Spoken like a true Militiaman!