Carbon black building videos
China: Fire eats its way through high-rise
09/16/2022, 9:44 p.m
There is nothing left of the facade of a once-pink skyscraper in China. A coal-black building skeleton is exposed. No one has been found injured or dead, according to the fire brigade, who say they were able to extinguish the fire.
A major fire in a skyscraper on Friday kept the fire brigade in the Chinese metropolis of Changsha in suspense. The fire department finally announced that the fire in the 42-storey office building had been extinguished. No injuries or deaths have been found so far. According to state media, the fire, which apparently broke out on an outer wall of the high-rise building, raged on dozens of floors of the high-rise building.
In the meantime, the major fire “was extinguished and we didn’t find any victims,” said the fire brigade in online networks. A preliminary investigation has shown that the fire first occurred “on an outer wall of the building”.
Huge flames erupted, as shown in images published on online networks. After the fire was extinguished, the charred facade of the building was further cooled with water.
Debris falls down
Offices of the state telecommunications company China Telecom are housed in the 218 meter high skyscraper. The company stated that, according to the preliminary information, there were no victims in the fire and that telecommunications were not affected either. Information on the possible cause of the fire has not yet been given.
The state broadcaster CCTV initially reported that a thick cloud of smoke was rising above the skyscraper, and several dozen floors were on fire. In a video published on online networks, dozens of people were seen fleeing the building and flaming debris falling from the upper floors. The authenticity of the video could not initially be verified.
According to CCTV, the office building had been completed in 2000. It is therefore close to a major ring road. Changsha is the capital of Hunan Province and is located in the southeast of the People’s Republic. It has about ten million inhabitants.
Fires not uncommon
Fatal fires are not uncommon in China due to lax enforcement of safety regulations and an increasing number of unauthorized constructions. In July last year, at least 15 people died and 25 others were injured in a warehouse fire in the northeastern province of Jilin.
In June 2021, a fire at a martial arts center in Henan Province killed 18 people, mostly children. After that, calls for better fire protection standards in China had become louder. In 2010, 58 people died in a fire in a 28-story apartment block in Shanghai.