Huge fire at World Trade Center?

[JAherbert]

Hong Kong is IT hub, but no phones and no internet today on 15/F RTHK reports

https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/compone...9-20211216.htm

[JAherbert]

I once met friends for a meal in Chungking Mansions. There was a long queue for the elevator going up and after the meal we decided to walk down the stairs to avoid waiting for the lift. The passage down the staircase revealed shoddy, exposed electrical work and boxes/junk blocking doors and obstructing walk ways. I don't even want to think about what it would be like to get out of that place if there were a fire.

unfortunately there are countless buildings with broken fire doors, fire doors failing apart, or fire doors wedged open, and combustible materials left in the escape route. this will allow smoke to spread quickly up the building rendering the fire escape staircase completely useless. expect a massive tragedy.

[aw451]

unfortunately there are countless buildings with broken fire doors, fire doors failing apart, or fire doors wedged open, and combustible materials left in the escape route. this will allow smoke to spread quickly up the building rendering the fire escape staircase completely useless. expect a massive tragedy.

There are also many buildings which appear dangerously close to collapsing. If you visit some older districts like Sham Shui Po or Tin Hau you can look up and see concrete which has completely spalled out with all of the rebar exposed. There's next to no strength left.

It seems that if there is no owner's corporation, there's pretty much no motivation to proactively fix anything.

[shri]

In Japan ... arson kills 27 people in Osaka.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-died-in-blaze

[Pauljoecoe]

INteresting rread.

Fire but NO FIRE ALARM in the building, because the contractor who was renovating (which resulted in the fire ) switched off the fire alarms.....and management says, stay put....yeah, right..

There is a precedent for what happens when people are told to stay put.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289

[Sage]

There is a precedent for what happens when people are told to stay put.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289

There are many, many, many, many precedents.

Anyone who thinks tower blocks offer suitable refuge from fire - I mean fuck, "utterly clueless at risk assessment" would be nowhere near harsh enough.

[Trebor]

In Japan ... arson kills 27 people in Osaka.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-died-in-blaze

These kind of incidents are not that isolated in Japan, attacks on buildings that look after handicapped or mentally unstable people. Wasn't there another one a few years ago?

Found it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagamihara_stabbings

[JAherbert]

Fire but NO FIRE ALARM in the building, because the contractor who was renovating (which resulted in the fire ) switched off the fire alarms.....and management says, stay put....yeah, right..

the reality is far worse, in commercial buildings there is an automatic link to fire brigade (autodial telephone link) when the fire alarm is activated it is legal requirement.

BUT because the fire brigade charge HKD 3,000 (or something like that) for each false alarm, the building managers often disconnect the autodial link, so they can manually check if it is a real fire alarm before calling the fire brigade. that delay could be the difference between life and death

[chuckster007]

Guess who is getting a BIG fine $$$

Contractor at fault for shutting off fire service installations at World Trade Centre

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/break...d-Trade-Centre

[Jillypots]

They are careful not to note who the contractor is.