Mailing List Archive

On Fri, Sep 16, 2022 at 8:29 AM Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:
> The China Telecom office tower fire in Hunan is reportedly out, after
> completely burning the entire 200m tower (42-floors).

That's quite something:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/16/fire-engulfs-skyscraper-china-no-deaths-reported/


--
For hire. https://bill.herrin.us/resume/

Statement from China Telecom (translation by Google Translate)

"This afternoon, the fa?ade of the Changsha Second Communication Building
caught fire, and the fire was extinguished. In order to prevent danger,
some equipment in the building has been powered off. At present,
fixed-line communication and mobile Internet services can be used
normally. The voice function of some users' mobile phones has been
affected and is being handled urgently. Please understand!"

I think “the whole building burned” is a bit hyperbolic. Building was covered in the now known to be spectacularly flammable exterior foam insulation panels. Those panels are now largely banned because of several fires.

It had intact windows and fire sprinklers when the cladding ignited on one side at the lower floors pedestal (A/C equipment on pedestal roof? Unknown). It burned up one side and marginally around its corners. Most windows eventually failed in the fire but sprinklers held and internal damage was only moderate. Building occupants safety measures held reasonably from what I have heard, evacuated safely.

It’s going to take a lot of repair but wasn’t that catastrophic. No sign that it’s going to need to be demolished or anything crazy.

Should not have happend… but life safety systems worked.


-george

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