Apartment and High-rise Fire Safety

Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility. Every resident should plan to be fire safe. Two or three story wood frame buildings have either enclosed stairwells, or external fire escapes. Enclosed stairwells have fire doors which must be kept closed at all times!

An apartment or high-rise fire is no cause for panic. If you plan ahead and practice fire drills, your chances of survival are greatly increased. Check with your landlord or building manager to ensure Fire Safety Plans including floor plans and evacuation procedures are posted and visible. Please take time to review and learn them.

What Causes Most Apartment Fires?

·        Cooking / Kitchen Fires

·        Heating equipment such as heaters, stoves or space heaters.

·        Smoking is still a major cause of fatal apartment fires.

How important is prevention?

Prevention is Vital; it is the best insurance against fire! Take these simple tips to prevent fires from starting.

·        Be careful with smoking materials, check furniture and cushions for dropped matches and cigarettes. Never smoke in bed, especially when under the influence of alcohol or medications.

·        Keep matches and lighters out of the reach of children.

·        Never leave cooking unattended.

·        Keep space heaters at least 1 meter (3 ft.) from combustibles.

·        Replace worn or damaged electrical cords.

·        Do not store flammable liquids or compressed gases in your home, car or storage locker.

·        Do not use balconies for storage, this can block a means of escape, as well as become a target for arsonists.

How will you know if there is a fire?

·        Your building should be equipped with smoke alarms and other fire detection components.

·        Learn to recognize the sound of the fire alarm, and leave the building immediately.

·        Leave the building every time you hear the alarm, as fire may be present in any part of the building. Do not ignore the alarm.

·        It is recommended that every dwelling has a smoke alarm outside each sleeping area and one on every level of the home. For maximum protection consider installing a smoke alarm in every bedroom.

What’s The Plan For My Building?

·        Floor plans and evacuation procedures should be posted on every floor. Take time to learn them.

·        Develop and practice your fire safety plan. Know the two quickest and safest ways out of your building.

·        Training and implementing a fire warden on each level of the building is recommended to ensure safe evacuation and ongoing safety programs.

·        Have a fire drill at least once a year but practice your escape plans regularly. Coordinate practice drills with neighbors, fellow workers, the floor wardens, and building manager.

·        Assign someone to assist people with disabilities who may need assistance to evacuate safely.

·        Ensure everyone knows what to do when the sounds.

·        After exiting the building, go to a prearranged meeting place. Do not go back into the building for any reason.

How Do I Escape From The Fire?

·        Check doors before opening them. If the door is hot leave it closed and use an alternate escape route.

·        If unable to leave your apartment, protect yourself by placing towels, sheets or clothes around the door and vents to keep smoke out. Call 911 and notify them of your location in the building. If you can, open a window and signal for help by waving a bright towel, sheet or flashlight.

·        Never use the elevator in a fire! Use the exit stairways and close all doors behind you to slow the spread of fire.

·        If your building has a public address system, listen carefully and follow the directions.

·        If your escape route becomes smoky crawl low under the smoke. The air will be clearer and easier to breath.

·        If your escape route becomes impassable due to smoke, heat or fire, return to your suite or use an alternate escape route. Never go to the roof as you may become trapped with no means of escape or protection.

·        Get out and stay out! Go to your meeting place and stay there. Call 911 from a safe place.

Famous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Newspaper Article

Leap for Life, Leap of Death

275 girls started to collect their belongings as they were leaving work at 4:45 PM on Saturday. Within twenty minutes some of girls' charred bodies were lined up along the East Side of Greene Street. Those girls who flung themselves from the ninth floor were merely covered with tarpaulins where they hit the concrete. The Bellevue morgue was overrun with bodies and a makeshift morgue was set up on the adjoining pier on the East River. Hundred's of parents and family members came to identify their lost loved ones. 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were dead the night of March 25, 1911. The horror of their deaths led to numerous changes in occupational safety standards that currently ensure the safety of workers today.

At the time of the fire the only safety measures available for the workers were 27 buckets of water and a fire escape that would collapse when people tried to use them. Most of the doors were locked and those that were not locked only opened inwards and were effectively held shut by the onrush of workers escaping the fire. As the clothing materials feed the fire workers tried to escape anyway they could. 25 passengers flung themselves down the elevator shaft trying to escape the fire. Their bodies rained blood and coins down onto the employees who made it into the elevator cars. Engine Company 72 and 33 were the first on the scene. To add to the already bleak situation the water streams from their hoses could only reach the 7th floor. Their ladders could only reach between the 6th and 7th floor. 19 bodies were found charred against the locked doors. 25 bodies were found huddled in a cloakroom. These deaths, although horrible, was not what changed the feelings toward government regulation. Upon finding that they could not use the doors to escape and the fire burning at their clothes and hair, the girls of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, aged mostly between 13 and 23 years of age, jumped 9 stories to their death. One after another the girls jumped to their deaths on the concrete over one hundred feet below. Sometimes the girls jumped three and four at a time. On lookers watched in horror as body after body fell to the earth. "Thud -- dead; thud -- dead; thud -- dead; thud -- dead. Sixty-two thud -- deads. I call them that, because the sound and the thought of death came to me each time, at the same instant," said United Press reporter William Shephard. The bodies of teenage girls lined the street below. Blankets that would-be rescuers used ripped at the weight and the speed the bodies were falling. Fire Department blankets were ripped when multiple girls tried to jump into the same blanket. Some girls tried to jump to the ladders that could not reach the ninth floor. None reached the ladders. The fire escape in the rear of the building collapsed and trapped the employees even more.