- Remember these things! They can save your life in critical moments!
(Part 1) In the company
Most of you work in places similar to mine. Regardless of whether it's a downtown tower or whether it has a river view, most offices are located on floors above the tenth. So, if you work on the 27th floor of a 33-story building and a fire breaks out in this building, what would you do?
1. What should you do?
First, quickly find the fire escape and run downstairs (the elevator will definitely be out of service). If smoke is already spreading, you should lower your body position and move quickly. Under no circumstances should you move upstairs because 95% of the rooftops of towers in Shanghai are locked, so don't expect to be rescued on the rooftop.
2. If you descend to the 10th floor and discover that the fire is on the 9th floor, what would you do?
First, don't attempt to break through the fire point because the temperature at the center of the fire can reach over 1000 degrees Celsius, which means going in is a one-way trip. Also, don't stay on nearby floors as the temperature there could also be several hundred degrees Celsius. (In addition, without a wet towel, you can only last about 3 minutes in thick smoke; with such a towel, you might last an additional 1.5 minutes.) You should quickly turn around and go up to the 12th or 13th floor or higher and find a suitable room.
3. What kind of room is suitable?
It’s not the restroom, because most people in fires die from suffocation rather than burns, and most restrooms in buildings are located in the middle of each floor without windows. Therefore, you must find a room closest to the main corridor (so you'll be among the first to be rescued by firefighters), and this room must have a window without a burglar-proof net (I learned for the first time that in all fires, due to the heavy workload of firefighters who need to rescue as many people as possible within a short period, those trapped inside burglar-proof nets are always the last to be rescued). After you and your colleagues enter this room, the first action is to close the door, the second action is to use the most common tape to seal all visible air conditioning outlets, and the third action is to break the window of this room. Of course, if there are many people, these actions can be done simultaneously.
If you're worried that the building's windows are made of tempered glass, then tell your strong male colleagues not to hit the center of the glass but the four corners, which are the weakest parts of the tempered glass, and sharp objects can easily break them.
Also, unless you're on the third floor or below, don't choose "jumping from the building" as a means of escape—countless deaths have proven that none of us are Spider-Man or Superman.
4. What should you do while staying in the room?
1) First of all, don't shout "Help" or "Save me," because you will consume more oxygen and inhale too much carbon monoxide and nitrogen, making you meet God sooner than your colleagues.
2) Second, if it's daytime, look for brightly colored clothes or cloth strips and wave them vigorously outside the window to attract attention. If it's night, use a flashlight to attract attention, but in a fire scene, if you don't have a flashlight, lighters are absolutely not a good choice because they aren't noticeable and can cause explosions of flammable gases.
3) Third, in any fire scene, a wet towel is always useful. Covering your eyes and nose with it will help you hold on longer, giving firefighters more time to rescue you.
4) Learn how to use a fire extinguisher—"pick it up, pull the pin, aim, spray." Note the difference between dry powder and CO2 fire extinguishers. When your colleague or family member catches fire, you can only use a dry powder extinguisher to spray their body; otherwise, the -70°C CO2 from a CO2 extinguisher will cause their burning muscles to explode.
(Part 2) At home
The reasons why a fire may occur at home are more complex than in the office, but they generally fall into two categories: kitchen and household appliances.
1. Kitchen
1) If the oil in your pan catches fire while cooking (which is quite common in Chinese cuisine and even becomes some chefs' cooking method), what should you do? You must act very quickly, take the lid from the front direction, slide it along the edge of the pan to cover it, and turn off the heat. The speed must be fast enough to prevent the fire from igniting your beautiful European or Chinese range hood. If the range hood catches fire, leave the scene immediately and call the fire department, as the grease accumulated inside makes the fire uncontrollable.
2) If your clothing or body catches fire due to splashing oil, you should:
Quickly remove the burning clothing and warn all your family members not to use water, not to put out the fire on your clothes and body with water. There was a young husband who, in this situation, poured a basin of water on his beloved wife, causing the fire to spread along the water-oil mixture on her body. Originally, she might have only suffered skin burns on her hands, but due to her husband's actions—she lost her life.
If your clothes are removed but still ineffective, and your real leather skin starts burning (even if it's not caused by oil splashes), please warn yourself and your family not to use water, not to put out the fire on your body with water, because every fat molecule in your real leather skin is like a drop of oil, and pouring water on it will make your muscles and real leather burst.
Please don't use your hands either. There was another young husband who, in panic, used his hands to pat out the flames on his wife's body. Each slap was accompanied by her screams, and each time he lifted his hand, blood and flesh stuck to it. This wife was a teacher at a middle school in Hongkou District. Her husband, in this fire caused by household appliances, tried patting, rolling her on the ground, and using a quilt, but couldn’t stop her from suffering third-degree burns all over her body—doctors saved her life with high medical skills but announced that her body would require RMB 3500 per square centimeter for treatment—a fate worse than death.
At this moment, unless you have a dry powder extinguisher or a pile of sand—two things least likely to be found at home—the most reliable method is to use a thick cotton quilt—not the nine-hole or seven-hole quilts sold in supermarkets but quilts made by mothers or grandmothers using cotton—to cover the entire person and extinguish the fire by cutting off the air supply. Additionally, don't use rice, salt, or anything that looks similar to sand, as they will explode on your loved one's wounds.
Moreover, if your burn wound sticks to the quilt—please tell your family members who are rushing you to the hospital while you're unconscious—that you must be sent to the hospital together with the quilt that cannot be separated from you. Otherwise, every part of your body stuck to the quilt will become a huge wound.
3) If you smell gas leaking in your home, what should you do?
First, open the windows—not to let the gas escape but to prevent you from fainting due to lack of oxygen in the gas. Second, turn off the main gas valve. Third, take your phone downstairs to call the emergency services. If this happens during a dry winter, please walk steadily, slowly, and step out of your home, or the static electricity on your sweater could become the ignition point for an explosion.
4) Gas has a smell, but natural gas does not, so relying on smell is unreliable. Therefore, you must install a gas leak alarm—it must buzz loudly enough to wake you and your family.
In Kangwu Village, Baoshan District, Shanghai, one of the earlier intelligent communities in Shanghai equipped with relatively complete fire-fighting and gas leakage alarm devices, an incident occurred in 2003 that remains unreported. A gas pipeline under a building leaked and backflowed through the sewer into a building in the community. Residents were asleep when this happened, and after that night, only two families in the building survived—the other 35 residents died quietly in their sleep. The two surviving families were the only ones who had connected the power to their gas leakage alarms, which woke them up, allowing them to leave their homes and report the emergency.
5) Whether at night or just after you return home from work, if you hear the alarm buzzer, never perform the habitual action—turning on the lights—it could kill you in an explosion!
2. Electrical Appliances
1) Completely turn off your TV and computer.
Last night, in a family in Xuhui District, the owner habitually turned off the TV with the remote control before sleeping. Since their TV had been excessively fatigued from long standby periods, it ignited a fire. This habitual action cost the owner his only son and his own right hand. All electrical appliances in your home, except for refrigerators designed to work all night, should not and must not work all night while you sleep—especially chargers and TVs.
2) Do not plug more than three appliances into one power strip.
I believe that students working in Lujiazui admired the massive smoke rolling out from the top floor of the World Financial Center last month. We finally know the cause today. Three workers plugged three cutters into the same power strip, and a huge fireball instantly swallowed them. The most severely injured lost a leg, resulting in this spectacular fire in Lujiazui's financial district—please forgive my inability to hide my hatred for Japanese architecture amidst disasters.
If you notice yellowing or blackening marks on any of your power strips at home, or if sparks fly when you plug or unplug an appliance, small-scale short circuits have already occurred—please replace the power strip immediately.
3) Do not leave your mobile phone charger plugged into the socket overnight, and do not charge anything while you sleep.
It's said that Moto and Nokia chargers and batteries exploded during a recent quality inspection, and it's also said that the battery pass rate doesn't exceed 20%. However, one thing is certain—never charge your phone on your pillow while sleeping. Last year in Shanghai, three fires/explosions occurred due to phone charging. A woman lost her right face in her sleep.
(Part 3) About Fire Extinguishers
Use of dry powder fire extinguishers: (1) Pick it up, holding the handle to lift the extinguisher; (2) Pull the pin; (3) Aim, stand more than 1.5 meters away (if it's an electrical fire, stand further away) from the side rear and aim at the fire source; (4) Press the nozzle and spray towards the fire source, moving horizontally to surround and cover the fire source with dry powder. For safety, continue spraying for a longer duration. After using the fire extinguisher once, the pressure will disappear entirely within 30 minutes, and next time, it needs to be repressurized and refilled.
Precautions for using fire extinguishers: Aluminum can dry powder fire extinguishers have a service life of 30 years and need to be refilled every three years (must refill immediately after use); Iron cans have a service life of five years and need to be refilled annually. Especially note that when using iron cans, don't hold the bottom, but hold the sides, because in humid conditions, the iron can easily rust and the dry powder can clump. Once clumped, the dry powder cannot be sprayed out, and the high pressure will instead release from the welded bottom (especially where it's rusted), leading to fingers being blown off if held at the bottom.
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