Unit 16 Fire

Fire cases

　　Some 179 people died and more than 300 were injured at a fire in a 25-storey office building in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 1, 1974.
　　The fire was caused by a air-conditioner on the 12th floor. Yet, without alarm and extinguishing systems, the fire spread quickly through power lines exposed on the wall.
　　Since only one safety-exit was reserved on each floor, smoke filled the open stairs immediately, making it hard for people to get out.
　　The fire was finally put out after the efforts of one and a half hours when it climbed to the top floor. Only 30 were saved on the platform on the top by helicopters, and most of the rest died on the 12th storey.
　　On September 15, 1999, a fire caused by an air conditioner on the 16th floor of a teaching building resulted in losses of 130,000 yuan ($15,700) in Donghua University, Shanghai.
　　More than 10 students fled via the stairs and the fire caused no deaths or injuries.
　　Some 14 people died including six Chinese students in a fire in a 16-storey dormitory in Moscow University, Russia on December 19, 1999.
　　The fire started on the second storey at midnight. Many students woke up in the smoke and hurried to escape. When some students tried to take the lift to reach the ground, the lift was blocked on the second floor, and many died in the enclosed elevator.
　　Zhao Lintao, a Chinese student who survived the fire, said he ran down the safety exit with his friend in the choking smoke. When they got to the third floor, they found the exit was blocked by a wall. It was their cries that drew the attention of firefighters, who helped them escape the fire.
　　A fire on December 26, 1999 before dawn devoured 20 lives in Hawaii Hotel in Changchun in Northeast China's Jilin Province.
After celebrating Christmas, some 30 staff members went to the underground bath centre for a bath. All of a sudden, the power box of the centre caught fire, which quickly led to a power failure of the whole hotel. Soon, the fire led to gas leaking after breaking its gas valve. Some 180 guests were trapped on high floors in the hotel.
　　Further investigation found that the fire was caused by a stub thrown by a guard of the hotel. On August 27, 2000, the 540-metre high TV tower in Moscow caught fire. Three firefighters and an elevator operator were trapped in an elevator and died when it plummeted to the ground.
　　The fire started at the height of 460 metres, and spread up to 480 metres and down to 144 metres. Twelve TV stations were forced to go off the air. The fire was not put out until the second day. Because of the height of the fire, firefighters could hardly do anything. It was found that the fire resulted from overloaded cables.
　　A fire was put out at a height of 130 metres of a building still under construction on the Bund, Shanghai last Sunday. It was caused by plastic materials that caught fire during welding. Twenty firefighters ascended the building in two groups and put out the fire within two minutes.

The Great Fire of London

　　The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of 2nd September 1666. In four days it destroyed more than three-quarters of the old city, where most of the houses were wooden and close together. One hundred thousand people became homeless, but only a few lost their lives.
　　The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King's baker in Pudding Lane. The baker, with his wife and family, was able to get out through a window in the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.
　　By eight o' clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometre of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire destroyed many well-known buildings, old St Paul's and the Guildhall among them.
　　Samuel Peyps, the famous writer wrote about the fire: People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their house's until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the heat.
　　The fire stopped only when the king finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.
After the fire Christopher Wren, the architect, wanted a city with wider streets and fine new houses of stone. In fact, the streets are still narrow, but he did build more than fifty churches, among them the new St Paul's.
　　The fire caused great pain and loss, but after it London was a better place: a city for the future and not just of the past.