A serious fire in a high-rise apartment housing many families, 18 fire trucks were dispatched for rescue. Phone number: 18671079399

At 7:20 PM on February 16, a fire broke out on the 12th floor of Building 6, Anyuan, Anhuibeili, Chaoyang District, Beijing. Eighteen fire trucks rushed to the scene to fight the fire. The burning house was a rental property, originally a three-bedroom apartment that had been divided into five rooms by the intermediary and rented out to five families, with a total of nine people living there. Fortunately, the accident did not result in any casualties, and the cause of the fire was suspected to be high-power electrical appliances igniting the wires.

The residential building became a "waterfall"

Building 6 of the Anyuan Anhuibeili complex has 24 floors, and the fire started in Room 1201. At 8:00 PM on February 16, more than ten fire trucks were still spraying water onto the fire scene. The entire unit of the complex turned into a "waterfall," with property management staff using brooms and large buckets to clean up the sewage. The site had a strong smell of smoke.

The windows of Room 1201 were shattered, and the walls were pitch black. The items inside were charred, and the structure of the house was no longer distinguishable. There were over a dozen pairs of shoes placed outside the door, cleared out by the police who were evacuating the crowd, sealing off the area, and investigating the scene.

Since the burning building was close to the road, the fire trucks were parked on the main road, resulting in temporary traffic control on Datun Road until 9:00 AM on February 16, causing congestion in both directions.

Firefighting efforts utilized aerial ladders

It was reported that the burning house was a rental property, with five rooms housing nine people. A young couple living in one of the rooms said that around 7:20 PM last night, they smelled smoke coming from the neighboring room as soon as they got home from work. Initially, they didn't pay much attention, but then black smoke began to emerge. "We realized it was on fire, but we couldn't get in because we didn't have the key, so we had to escape. At that time, thick smoke was rolling out, and flames were leaping with crackling sounds, so I called the emergency services."

After the incident, eighteen fire trucks arrived at the scene. Firefighters set up aerial ladders, broke through the windows, and entered the fire scene to extinguish the fire. About half an hour later, the fire was put out. Fortunately, there were no casualties in the accident.

Intermediary's violation nearly caused a major disaster

At 9:30 PM on February 16, the fire department gathered the nine tenants, the landlord, the intermediary, the property management, and the street office personnel to understand the situation.

According to the landlord, the house was entrusted two years ago to a small, unknown intermediary for renting out. It was originally a three-bedroom apartment covering 139 square meters, but the intermediary had divided it into five rooms at some point, housing nine people. "We suspect that the use of high-power electrical appliances ignited the wires, which requires further investigation by the fire department."

On the evening of February 16, the gas company conducted an inspection and ruled out the possibility of a gas leak causing the fire. Currently, the fire department is conducting further investigations into the specific losses and the cause of the fire. The property management stated that the 13th floor of the affected building was a utility floor, unoccupied, otherwise the water used to extinguish the fire would have caused even greater damage.

>> Lawyer's opinion

The intermediary's partitioning was illegal

Zhao Zhengbin, a lawyer from Beijing Haowei Law Firm, stated that according to the new regulations introduced in 2011 under the "Beijing Rental Housing Management Regulations," intermediaries are not allowed to alter the structure of houses, divide them into sections, and rent them out to tenants. The living room of the burning house was partitioned, changing the load-bearing structure of the house, which poses fire safety hazards and constitutes illegal behavior.