Fire! Fire! the school's on fire!

[Rincewind]

Yesterday afternoon, my school caught fire. I have to say the fire safety here is negligible and verging on negligence.

The building is a modern high rise (28 stories) and we are on the 16th floor. At about half past two I noticed great clouds of dense black smoke outside the class room window. The other students and teachers didn't pay it any attention. I looked out the window and could see that the building was on fire about 10 stories below us. Still nobody moved. I went out the class to look out the other side of the building, all the people on that side were putting on their coats and leaving. Returning to my class, I told them all to leave. I then went to the neighbouring class and told the teacher there to leave. She told me not to worry, her classroom has a sprinkler system so it won't catch fire. None the less she told the students to pack up their things and leave. Which they did. They were going round shutting down computers and packing their bags as if it was home time. No sense of urgency

There was no fire alarm in the building. There are no signs showing the nearest fire exit. No procedure was in place for evacuating the building. People were lacksidasical about the risks. All the fire doors I past on the way out were wedged open (using the fire extinguishers for door stops). The fire extinguishers where a quarter the size of the ones I would have seen back home in the UK.

On the plus side, the fire brigade were very prompt. The were in attendance before I had got down the stairs. The fire was apparently in the machinery that runs the air conditioning. This is next to the canteen and also next to the balcony where people go for a sly cigarette.

[self-taught-mba]

That's China.

[roddy]

Similar thing in Harbin once - I was escorting my students down the stairs, to be met by another teacher and class coming up - the head had met them at the bottom and told them not to be so silly.

[InChinaTeach]

I can only hope my school catches fire..!!! Of course empty..

Brian

[Guest yangbin]

ahah Happened two months ago in one of the building of Fudan!

Apparently the cause was due to an unextinguished cigarette

[LaVandez]

I would have a difficult time respecting this. By this I mean the lack of code and the lack of a sense of urgency. Huge problem no telling how many people couldve possibly died.

[Rincewind]

I double checked the spec on the sprinkler system. Apparently they don't actuate until the ceiling air temperature is over 150 Centigrade. That's the same as my oven! They will not save your life. You'll be dead before the sprinkler kicks in.

Also, it's the smoke that is the big killer, not the fire itself. A building can fill with smoke quite quickly even with just a small fire. People don't seem to understand that.

I'm going to give the teachers a pep talk on fire this weekend. Does anyone know any good videos or web sites that deal with this topic. Especially looking for ones in Chinese.