Fire doors in stairwells must be closed tightly

A unit on the 20th floor of the Bojing Times Building near Fuzhou Railway Station caught fire, and more than a hundred residents escaped from the siege of smoke (please refer to the A31 page of this newspaper, October 24, 2013). Yesterday morning, Jin’an Fire Brigade announced the cause of the fire, which was caused by a computer power cord failure in the unit.

On the day of the incident, fire officers and soldiers arrived at the scene in less than 10 minutes. Thick smoke spread from the fire on the 20th floor to the 5th floor of the building, endangering the lives of nearly 100 people. The direct cause of this serious accident was that most of the fire doors in the stairwells of the building were left open, which led to the wanton spread of dense smoke in the building.

The Fuzhou Fire Department reminds citizens that in high-rise buildings, stairwells are the most important passage for life. Keeping each fire door airtight can effectively prevent smoke from entering the corridor and give people time to escape the fire.

Residents recalled: Opening the door was full of smoke and panicking. Mr. Fu, who lived in Room 1714 of the Platinum Times Building, returned for help. The fired room and his residence were on the 20th floor. "When I knew about the fire, it was too late. When I opened the door, the corridor was full of smoke. I couldn't find the fire exit when I panicked." After the incident, Mr. Fu blocked the crack of the door with a wet towel and hid away from the door. The farthest window, calling for help outside. In the end, the firefighters broke the door one by one to search and rescue, and Mr. Fu was saved. During the emergency evacuation, Mr. Fu found that there was smoke from the 20th floor to the 5th floor of the building. There are more than a hundred trapped households who have the same experience as Mr. Fu. According to several firefighters and soldiers of the Xindian Fire Squadron who participated in the rescue, it was confirmed that the fire was not big, but it ignited a lot of smoke-producing materials. The reason why the dense smoke spreads in a large area inside the building is precisely because the fire doors of the stairwell used for evacuation are almost all open, providing space for the flow of smoke. Random investigation: most people fall into a misunderstanding. Fire doors are often open. With more and more high-rise buildings in Fuzhou, the hidden dangers of high-rise buildings are also concerned by more citizens. However, yesterday reporters visited many high-rise residential and office buildings one after another and found that the safety management of fire doors in stairwells was easily overlooked. Yesterday afternoon, the reporter came to Pushang Avenue Swan Bay and other communities to conduct random inspections. In Building No. 9, from the 1st floor to the 15th floor, the fire doors in the stairwells of each floor are almost open. The reporter wanted to close a door, but found that the door had been artificially fixed. Mr. Chen, the owner who lives on the 15th floor, said that the fire door in the stairwell was almost never closed. Mr. Lin, the owner of Building No. 10, also said: “The fire doors in the stairwell are rarely closed, and it is easy to escape in case of fire.” The Sanshan Building at Qixunkou is a mixed commercial and residential building. Yesterday afternoon, the reporter saw on multiple floors of the north and south buildings of the building that although the isolation doors installed in the stairwell could rebound automatically, the doors were artificially opened with wooden sticks and bricks. A security guard’s answer was also surprising: "This is a fire escape. If there is a fire, people have to escape from here, so they must be opened!" The director of the property office, Mr. Shi, also has the Bojing Times Building where the fire has just occurred. “Residents often use the stairwell to enter and exit the balcony to dry their clothes. The fire doors are usually open, and they have been doing this for a long time.” He even asked the reporter: “Don’t the fire doors in the stairwells have to be open? "The fire department reminded: the chimney effect in the stairwell is very important to close the fire door. "In high-rise buildings, the most important escape route is the stairwell equipped with fire doors. The platinum era building fire caused hundreds of residents to be trapped. The key problem is The fire door in the stairwell was not normally closed, which caused heavy smoke to spread quickly on all floors!" said Chen Yin, head of the Jin'an Fire Brigade. According to a person from the Fuzhou Fire Brigade, in a confined space, the horizontal diffusion speed of dense smoke is 0.5-0.8 m/s, and the vertical diffusion speed is 3-6 times faster than that. Dense smoke will spread first in vertical space. In high-rise buildings, elevator shafts, line pipes or stairwells are just like vertical chimneys. In case of fire, the impact of the fire will inevitably increase. The higher the building, the more obvious the "chimney effect". Captain Chen also stated that fire doors are mainly used to isolate fires. Once a fire breaks out in a building, it can effectively isolate smoke, fire, and heat in a limited space to protect people from escape. Therefore, most fire doors are normally closed, and the stairwell or roof roof door should be closed at ordinary times. In fact, keeping the fire doors closed in the stairwells is just a matter of the citizens. The Fuzhou Fire Department also suggested that in the investigation of hidden fire hazards in high-rise buildings, whether it is the owner or the management staff of the property department, it is the responsibility to ensure that the fire door of the stairwell is always closed. This detail should not be ignored.