首页 新闻 体育 娱乐 游戏 邮箱 搜索 短信 聊天 天气 答疑 导航


新浪首页 > 新浪教育 > Extinguishing fire traps

Extinguishing fire traps
http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/11/17 13:28  上海英文星报

  By Xing Bao

  LILONG are a unique remnant of Shanghai's culture and history but the old wooden and crowded housing can also become fire traps.

  Fires in residential quarters make up 50 per cent of outbreaks in the city, many occurring in lilong because of ageing electric wiring and their wooden structures.

  Take Huangpu District for example - in the decade between 1991 and 2001, fires took a total of 57 lives with 48 being burned to death in lilongs.

  On the night of November 27, 1996, a fire in a lilong killed 36 residents, the worst death toll from fire since the early 1980s.

  Early this year, a fire in an old building killed one and injured another four.

  To find a solution to the problem, local authorities last year started a pilot scheme and installed some fire-fighting equipment in old residential quarters including sprinklers and fire escapes.

  "This year, the work has been listed as a major project by the municipal government," said Shen Linlong, an official from the municipal government. "A total of 90,000 old houses will be installed with the equipment this year."

  By November 9, China's 10th and the city's 13th Fire-fighting Day, the project was completed across the city.

  Over the weekend, a drill was held at Huaihai Fang, an old lilong with a total of 2,059 households and 5,076 residents along busy Huaihai Road.

  As scheduled, a fire was started in a room, a sprinkler in the ceiling detected the rise of temperature and sent a shower of water onto the fire, putting it out before it could spread.

  Meanwhile, more than 10 residents were able to flee the smoke-filled building from the second and third floors down fire escapes.

  "We started to inform the residents of the project this January," said Xia Landi, a middle-aged woman from the neighbourhood committee. "The project did not start until June because of SARS and was completed in September."

  Although it was a municipal project and free of charge to residents, Xia and her colleges received a cold shoulder at first.

  "Some residents said that they had lived here all their lives and fires had never happened, so they considered it was of no use to get fire sprinklers and fire escapes," she said.

  Some others were reluctant to remove household goods piled in the corridors. However, an unblocked passage is crucial when escaping from a fire.

  To Xia's great satisfaction, she and her fellow workers won residents' understanding eventually.

  Hu Yunmei, a resident in her 70s, was among the crowd watching the drill.

  "The project is really important and especially great for us old people," she said. "There was a fire not far away in a lilong. How could we elders escape quickly? The sprinklers are a big help."

  The sprinkler systems have already proved their worth with the number of fires in 9s in the first half of this year dropping by 18.1 per cent.

  From January to September some 4,588 fires were reported, claiming 31 lives and leaving 76 injured. Of the fires, 1,533 happened in residential quarters, resulting in 24 deaths.

  Another great feature is that fires in high-rises have jumped more than 50 per cent over last year.

  "We have found that some property management companies just turned off the water pump, and the hydrants were unable to get water in time," said Chen Jiahua, a senior officer from the bureau. "However, the key to fire-fighting work is prevention."




英语学习论坛】【评论】【 】【打印】【关闭
Annotation

新闻查询帮助



文化教育意见反馈留言板电话:010-62630930-5178 欢迎批评指正

新浪简介 | About Sina | 广告服务 | 招聘信息 | 网站律师 | SINA English | 会员注册 | 产品答疑

Copyright © 1996 - 2003 SINA Inc. All Rights Reserved

版权所有 新浪网
北京市通信公司提供网络带宽