What should we learn about the London fire?

After major fires, the review and analysis will find that the main cause is the "man-made disaster." What causes this accident is what we should ponder.

After the London fire, as usual, the major media reported the relevant news. Experts and scholars competed to submit professionally-viewed opinions. But these reports and opinions can really bring us more security protection in the face of similar fires. ?

Let’s talk about a few surviving cases first

London Fire escapes on the 22nd floor, Taiwanese sisters are lucky to escape

The woman threw a child from the 10th floor and was picked up by the crowd

Witnesses flood the apartment to save the family

The filial son in the fire throws his mother down 24 floors in the London fire

In the news headline above, we have seen good results, but I would like to ask these wonderful results.

Taiwan Miss Naomi and roommate (not cousins) from the 22nd floor to escape, filial mother back at 24th floor, 10th floor Why can not the mother carrying a child at the 10th floor, has chosen to throw a child? Why can't Wisdom flee and must stay flooded in an apartment?

This is the first thing we have to learn: ask questions, find answers

When a woman throws a child and the child is successfully rescued, we should further discuss why the woman is faced with such a plight.

It is reasonable to conclude that the woman should find out that the fire is too late. She does not review the solution to the problem of why the woman found out that the fire is too late. She only pays attention to this case of child throwing success. It will make people think that throwing a child during a fire or jumping is a The options taken, but this option is definitely not appropriate.

Of course, according to reports from the media, it is not clear whether the woman who throws the child in the end is alive. If she survives, it is even more proof that the act of throwing children is debatable.

Is it the same key that the wit is flooded? My answer: Flooding is not the key to life and death. Staying inside the house is the main reason for survival.

If the tap water can protect them from surviving, then the powerful water column of the fire brigade should be able to protect everyone's lives better. In the event of a fire, the water pipes in the house will usually blow out. At this time, the amount of water flowing out must be greater than the tap. The taps are useful, and fire should not cause death.

I personally think that the miracle surviving family was closed because of the door, blocking the smoke and heat outside the house, but also protecting the house from the fire. Perhaps there may be a bit of heat inside the house because of the surrounding fire, but the heat is not enough to kill people.

Therefore, the flooding was helpful in the situation at that time (remember that at the time, not every situation was helpful) because at that time, the temperature in the house was not high, and the flooding might make them feel a little cool, but don’t exaggerate it. The essential.

Because the emphasis on opening the tap is the key to survival, some people mistakenly believe that when the fire is opened, the faucet can be opened to stop the fire from killing one's life. It is not thought that if the surrounding fire becomes large, it may cause the temperature of the water to rise. When it is found that the surrounding water is not cooling but is warming, it is impossible to drain the water and it is possible to expose itself to a more dangerous environment.

Because high temperatures cause water vaporization, an environment full of vaporized water vapor is definitely more likely to cause death than water vapor-free environments.

Of course , the dutiful son who had his mother under the 24th floor should also pay attention to the results? The last two fled the fire and were taken to the hospital.

Naomi told me that they live on the 23rd floor (Taiwan will speak on the 24th floor, because the United Kingdom is counting from the 0th floor) and stayed in the house until 3 o’clock before escaping from the fire. Her mother was in a coma in the process of escape, and immediately sent to the doctor. Daddy was found everywhere and later unconscious. He woke up three days later and Dad could not find it.

The most special is that Taiwan's Naomi and their roommate, stayed at the scene more than two hours, but also successfully fled the scene, they went into hiding, also escaped, almost unharmed live.

From the above case, someone escaped from the stairs - lived, someone stayed in the house - lived, someone escaped - died, and many people stayed in the house - dead, and Naomi started to hide, then escaped, then Is it time to escape in the fire? Or should you hide?

This is the second thing we have to learn: learn to judge, develop resilience

I often come across someone who asked me: I live in a place with no windows. There is only one door. There is smoke outside the door. How do you escape and survive?

My answer is: You give too little information, I do not know the height of the smoke at that time? visibility? Do not know what material between the room? The material of the door? Is there any other relative safety space to take refuge? Do not know how far away from the security gate? Too many do not know, it is impossible to answer.

And what I would like to ask more is why wait until there is smoke to know if there is a fire, whether or not to install warning equipment beforehand, and whether to do a family escape plan first. Many places have a high degree of risk. They should not rely solely on the strains of fire when they occur, but should also be prepared before the fire.

This is what I say judgment and resilience.

Fires will change, they will not change, so there is no standard answer. Unwilling to take the time to understand the fire, just want to memorize the answer to the fire response standard, it will appear in the face of a real fire, "a misunderstanding, dangerous" crisis.

Usually the pen goes this way. Someone still insists on knowing what to do when a fire breaks out. Or should you hide? It will make me feel speechless. Because these people completely ignored the point that I talked about, that is, fire can not just want to memorize the simple standard answer. This is also the case that I have to thoroughly study the fire situation before we come up with appropriate countermeasures.

Is there any basic judgment principle? Have.

Like this time the Grenfell building has some fire response guidelines:

When you find a fire, you go with the fire, immediately use the nearest stairs to escape, and close all the passing doors.

In other places, there is a fire. Your place is relatively safe. Stay in place and close the windows and doors.

If you are in a business area and learn of a fire, escape immediately.

I think these principles are correct. Remember that this is a principle, because the principle talks about the "direction", and to be able to live and leave must also be accompanied by "methods."

Like this fire, when a fire is found on a high floor, when a fire is found on a low floor, the same treatment may result in completely different results.

After the fire, some people's criticism afterwards suggested that it was wrong to stay in the house because many people who stayed in the house were dead and should be reviewed.

I feel that it is not desirable to take this out of context. Just as this fire broke out, someone asked me: What should I do in the face of this situation? My answer is to have more information before I have a way to answer. .

Because the normal residential building does not appear such a phenomenon of combustion .

A similar case in my mind was the 2010 Shanghai teacher's apartment fire in the mainland , but it was only burning outside, and there was no fire inside the building;

There was also a fire in the CCTV building in 2009 , which was also caused by external combustion;

Hong Kong Garley Building fire in 1996 , but that is a commercial building;

In Taiwan , a similar case took place in 2001. This was to stop the East China Sea fire. The fire was burned from the 16th floor to the 26th floor. The entire rescue took more than 40 hours, but it caused the prolonged burning of so many floors because of the destruction of internal fire zones. And that's the office building. Most of them are all connected, so the fire will burn everywhere.

In the fire in London, no fire zone was destroyed because of the flammable insulation. In addition to the summer season, many households opened the window and caused the fire to spread quickly into the house. However, these fires spread quickly and they would really cause death. ? At the beginning, I did not know how to explain until I personally visited Taiwan’s Naomi , who was lucky to survive in the fire . I got an important conclusion that the “time” is very important. When the fire is fired , I must be right and do the right thing. Only chance to survive.

To judge the situation and grasp the timing, there are too many variables that need to be learned. If only the principles will make you misjudge the situation, it is important to keep in mind that the focus of disaster response is “change”, the time is changing, and the situation is also In the change, everything is changing.

Just like the fire in London, people began to pay attention to the lives and deaths of the residents of the fire. Then they began to discuss the reasons for the rapid spread of fire. Now the focus is to criticize the government for failing to respond. This is the process that often occurs after a disaster. It will eventually go up. Emotional accusations, complaints from tears and tears, the government is responsible, the building construction unit is responsible, and it begins to review why there are no alarm equipment, sprinkler equipment, etc., all sorts of strange arguments are rushed out, and in the noise of these reviews, I almost I have not seen anyone review the responsibilities of the tenants themselves.

This is the third thing we have to learn: safety or not, responsibility lies with me

If a person cannot be responsible for his own safety, he will always think that the disaster is caused by others and that they are harmed by others. In such a state of mind, he will not be able to minimize disaster damage.

Just like the fire in London, just as the above-mentioned high-level fires were discovered, the same treatment might be completely different when a fire was found on a low floor.

11:52 "Firemen took us out from the 7th floor"

Turafat Yilma , who lives on the 7th floor, recalls how she was saved: A neighbor on the 17th called to let her escape, but the corridor was full of smoke. She and her husband could only wait for firefighters to save. A firefighter came to the door and knocked at the door. All of us followed him." "When we got outside, we realized that the fire was so big." She said, "After this (catastrophe), we only have to live. All the property is not important."

10:46 "My mother had to cross the body and go downstairs."

Rishan Elcock said that his mother and five-year-old sister waited five hours in the apartment on the tenth floor . "The firefighters let them wait. My mother panicked. She said she had to cross a body after opening the door. Going out, she was sent to the hospital after she came out."

From the above reports, the first one we can find is that the corridors are full of smoke, and they have not escaped waiting for rescue and are successfully rescued.

Only after he was rescued did he know that the fire was large. This shows that many people think that the fire has occurred and that the idea of ​​not being burned to death is wrong. The second one waits 5 hours after the mother opens the door and has to cross. A corpse came out and represented the victim who had chosen to escape before the mother opened the door. The result was “escape” and “birth”. The survivors lived on the 10th floor. It was reasonable to estimate that their place of residence should not be When the fire burns, they can wait for 5 hours to be rescued.

Naomi , who survived in Taiwan , also began to wait. Later in the escape process, it spanned many people’s bodies. Perhaps some people saw the fire and they feared that they would not be burned if they did not run, but I must say that when the fire was found to be thick and smoke was running, usually It will die faster, and there will be more chances to survive without running. We can't just discuss whether or not the contingency is right or wrong. We should choose a more secure strategy from whether we will die sooner or later.

How to determine how to choose the fire depends on how much safety concept is usually involved and how much effort is needed to ensure safety.

Just like the escape from the 22nd floor of the London fire , Naomi and his roommate who were lucky enough to escape , I think they are not fortunate and calm. Calmness comes from a sense of crisis that always pays attention to its own safety and accidents occur at any time. Before the disaster, it has prepared for its own safety. Miss Naomi is the most typical case. She had thought about knowing the condition of the building in case she needed it, so she had been to the top floor before she knew she had locked the top floor before she could face the fire and did not follow the crowd.

Miss Namoi Share article: "playing with so much detail because I want to emphasize that we have to be on top of the hour and a half, but the whole escape from the 22nd floor to the first floor takes less than five minutes, because we really have to keep Extremely calm."

Why can she be certain that she does not need 5 minutes from the 22nd to the 1st floor ? Because the building elevator she was living in was broken, she decided to use this opportunity to learn about the status of the safety ladder. From the 1st floor to the 22nd floor, it took 5 minutes. This was an important reference for later decision to escape. Because Naomi thinks that it takes only 5 minutes to go up and it must not be more than 5 minutes. If she does not personally walk through the safety ladder, she will have to fear and hesitate to reach out to the missing ladder, and she will not be allowed to leave the fire in time. This is not fortunate. It is the calm brought about by the preparation in advance. This is also the most sweet result of the establishment of safety.

Just as the residents of this building complained about the problem of fire fighting, they had already discovered the hidden dangers of fire. However, after the reaction, the government did not do anything related to it, resulting in such a tragedy. This is a fact, but what I would like to ask more is: Do we know that there is a problem with the building's warnings, we must wait for others to improve, and we cannot install residential fire alarms for ourselves? What's more, the main cause of casualties in the fire in London is not because the sirens are unable to move, but because fires are not correct. If disasters do not occur after the disaster, people always think that others should check their own safety, but do not reflect on their responsibilities for their own safety, reasonable?

It has been two years since the Eight Immortals Incident in Taiwan took place. The majority of people's answers to how to deal with the Eight Immortals are wrong. Why can't the people learn the essentials of self-protection from the lessons of history?

This is because many people have always focused their attention on the responsibility of others in the face of a disaster review. It is always a matter of finding someone to take responsibility, not a comprehensive review and every mistake.

In the event of the Eight Immortals, the contractor must bear the greatest responsibility, but the people do not have the correct concept. If the people run around and cause disasters to spread, causing heavy casualties, wouldn’t they have no responsibility?

Also in the London fire, there was a problem with building management and there was a problem with fire management. The most important part was the attitude of the public. When everyone has always believed that the government should be responsible and the builders should be responsible, when others should check for my safety, it will lead to people’s indifference before disasters occur, disasters do not know what to do, and the situation after the disaster resentment.

I would like to stress that the primary goal of all disaster management is to "protect human lives." Like the "man-made disasters" that I mentioned at the outset of the article, the people do not protect themselves and do not have the correct knowledge and attitudes, except for those who cause disasters. Did we make wrong judgments and choices during the disaster? Isn't this one of the main causes of the heavy casualties in this fire?

Therefore, to make similar tragedies unnecessary, I think from today, the first lesson of disaster prevention education is to educate everyone to “safety is their responsibility”, not “knowing” and “doing it”. There must be a sense of crisis that will happen to oneself at any time. No crisis is the biggest crisis. “Thinking of danger in times of peace” is not a slogan. It is an attitude. Just like many people drive a car, they buckle their seat belts, they ride a tour bus but they do not buckle, and there is no crisis awareness. Typical situation, because the buckle seat belt is not for their own safety, but afraid of the fine. If this mentality does not change, no matter how much hardware is improved, it will not protect everyone's safety.

We usually need to absorb relevant knowledge and see some accidents. Then imagine how to do it if you are on the spot and equip yourself before the disaster. Only by doing so can you maximize your safety in the event of a disaster.

This is the fourth thing we have to learn:

How to properly equip yourself before the disaster strikes requires you to see the core issues. This is called "original clearing."

The fire in London really shocked the whole world. Someone asked me if such a fire would happen in Taiwan. I think it should not be. Because it is currently known that the fire will spread rapidly on the external walls, it is filled with foam inside the aluminum cladding of the external walls and a 3 cm air layer is reserved . This is usually designed for thermal insulation and energy saving. Taiwan in subtropical areas does not require this in principle. Because of the design, the chance of this kind of fire taking place in Taiwan is minimal. We do not need to face the enemy, but we cannot wait to see it.

Because everyone still has the opportunity to travel to these countries for business trips, in the event of such a fire should be aware of how to respond, we must absolutely know. In addition, although Taiwan will not experience the same kind of fire, many problems with this fire, such as only one escape staircase, fire prevention management, and the public’s lack of awareness of fire conditions, are also everywhere in Taiwan. We should also remember the lesson of London. , to reflect on how to improve Taiwan.

Many people are talking about the disaster response strategy. The first thing that comes to mind is to improve the hardware. For example, the most discussed in the London fire is the external wall, the alarm system, and the sprinkler system. This is the hardware. These hardware improvements are very important, but the diagrams and methods are not enough. To make these hardware functions, the key is people, people's attitudes, people's management, and people's use. This is software, so that when the disaster comes, the damage will be reduced. At the lowest level, we must "use both hard and soft."

Chinese characters are very interesting. Usually the more precious, more critical, and important elements are placed in front of them. For example, egg fried rice, eggs are more precious and placed on the front, water and milk are blended, water is more importantly put in front, and both inside and outside are self-cultivation. The inner quality is absolutely more important than the outside. In terms of performance, so software and hardware, the importance of software must be greater than the hardware, just as Taiwan has spent a lot of budget "regulating the water", they are reluctant to spend the budget "governance", so many people still grab fruits and vegetables, climbing upstream in heavy rain, Caused the tragedy to be repeated repeatedly, this is because the software is not done well.

To make software well is the hardest, a construction project may be completed in a year, and the cultivation of an attitude may require irrigation for decades.

After the blaze in London, what are some of the software parts that we urgently need to immediately work on?

Actively promote the correct and in line with the trend of the times:

In the event of a fire, escape can mean that there is no fume on the escape route. If you choose to escape, run to the ground floor.

Do not choose damp towels to escape when you encounter smoke

It's more important to leave to live than to save property

First learn the fire field to survive, then learn fire rescue

Learn to understand the fire first, then learn to extinguish

The establishment of science-based fire prevention management can no longer allow fire drills to be merely on paper

Some people may say that Miss Naomi ’s experience does prove that the fire must run down and cannot run upwards, but it seems to have overturned the claim that smoke must be left in the house, and that the towel can't get wet.

This statement seems to be reasonable, but it is a semi-sensical inference.

Because Miss Naomi 's article did not elaborate on all the details she encountered, as if they had no heat from the beginning to the end of the smoke. When she smelled the smoke, she immediately called 999 to report the phone. Naomi was told to stay at the time. In the house, because each door of the building is a fire door, it will automatically shut down. Theoretically, it will not burn everywhere. Therefore, the fire brigade advises them to stay in the house.

Naomi only smelled the smell of smoke at the beginning, and did not feel the heat. He also believed that the professional advice of the fire brigade would choose refuge. However, in an article shared by Naomi , he said: After spending an hour and a half, there was fresh air from the beginning, and I could still hold a conversation with Mr. Kelly in Kuala Lumpur. After that, only one window had meager air. I and he When the situation is not good, we start to see the fire come up. We may have to rush downstairs.

Why did you start to have fresh air? Later, I found it was unpleasant. I really couldn't understand it. I was eager to understand the changes in the smoke and heat at that time. After the inquiry, I learned that at the beginning, the doors were closed and the rooms were free of smoke and heat. I also said that the fire brigade had recommended correcting asylum at the beginning. However, many people are panic-stricken at an uncertain disaster site. After an hour or so, tenants living in the same house as Naomi try to escape and open the door to allow the smoke to enter the room. This led to more and more smoke running into the house. This was the result of the door-opening behavior that caused the smoke to invade. In other words, in the past, I advocated that “closed doors” could block smoke, and this scene was also verified. Naomi also told me they had a neighbor downstairs and closed the door until 0330 firefighting team knocked on the door and there was no smoke in the room.

Perhaps some people will say at this time that if they do not open their doors, they will not be able to know in time that the fire has deteriorated and that they will not have time to escape. However, Naomi told me that when they hadn’t opened the door yet, they saw smoke drifting out of the window, and finally saw the fire burned from the outside wall. This meant that if the fire didn’t open the door could tell that the fire was getting worse, and Naomi called again. The fire brigade and the fire brigade said that the fire has been expanded and escaping quickly. Plus, some people opened the door and caused the smoke to invade, forcing Naomi to immediately choose to escape.

After going out of the house, according to Naomi 's narrative: “Poison is the biggest obstacle. Wet towels really help us to go all the way to the end.” This is the part of Naomi’s article that caused the most discussion. Is wet towel useful?

Naomi especially emphasized to me that the wet towel is not the point she wants to express because she knows that the fire has changed. She also said that after all, so many people who have died on the stairwell also get wet towels, but they still cannot escape.

However, I think we have doubts or we must discuss clearly. This is my biggest reflection in this case.

Because I thought at first that Naomi had encountered no smoke, but the general public could not really distinguish between “smoky” and “dense smoke”. This would cause someone to choose to escape and quickly make things difficult when they were heavy smoke. There was a misconception that there was "smoke," and that delay in escape caused martyrdom.

Although I often emphasize that people who encounter “smoke” and “difficult smoke” are different, many people often confuse “smoky” and “dark smoke”. I also mentioned “having cigarettes” in my book “Living away 2 ”. Using a wet towel is reasonable and feasible, but "dense smoke" is not acceptable.

“Dark smoke” can be judged from the smoke height and visibility, and the environment with dense smoke will deteriorate rapidly and the smoke heat will grow rapidly. However, in this situation, there is no phenomenon that the smoke heat grows rapidly. Is it counted as smoke? According to my standards , the smoke that Naomi faced at the time was only "smoke," not "smoke." However, how to teach church people to accurately separate the differences between "smoke" and "smoke" is definitely a fire prevention initiative in the future. And education.

To really achieve this goal, I would like to be able to set up a venue to allow people to witness the changes in the smoke, in addition to the verbal or written explanations for smoke. Before I even had the opportunity to build a venue, I reminded everyone that judging from the “height,” “visibility,” and “warmness,” the smoke must also consider “changes,” the most critical being “hot changes.” If the temperature is getting higher and higher, then it must be "dark smoke". If the visibility is low, the smoke does not get thicker, and there is no temperature in the smoke, then the situation to face should be considered as " smoke".

However, this is a principle. I still want to remind “fire changes” and learn to judge the changes in the fire in order to respond to the changes in the fire.

Through the above explanation, everyone should be able to understand that Miss Naomi has done nothing wrong. She said that it is not wrong for her wet towel to save her life because she has more wet towels and allows her to breathe more smoothly in a smokey environment. But everyone also It is important to remember that wet towels run into the real smoke environment and are definitely faster than the dead in the room.

The London fire was a tragedy, a fire tragedy that we never thought of. This is the nature of disasters. There will always be unexpected disasters.

I used to say that most of the accidents occurred. That's why the degree of harm has been doomed. If the prevention isn't done well, we can't do anything until it happens. But the fire is not the same. What happened to the fire?x All of the damage was undefined. We still have time to change, we are right and wrong, we will decide whether we will survive or not. The results will be different. All of life and death will be carried out by me.

All unexpected results are beyond our ability to bear, but only the result of fire can be changed.

If you want to change the results, you must first change yourself and start working hard to learn fire prevention knowledge. Prepare yourself before the disaster. “Don’t beat the enemy and you're waiting for it.” Remember, safety is absolutely Responsibility.

Lin Jinhong, author of this article.