What are the self-rescue methods for high-rise building fires

As economic conditions become better and better, high-rise buildings are now standing in almost every city. In recent years, the number of high-rise buildings has been increasing, and because of this, many dangers are also increasing. Behind the tall buildings are more lines and more traffic, and the incidence of house fires is also increasing. So let me share with you some tips on how to save yourself from fires in high-rise buildings:

(1) Make full use of the facilities in the building.

Using existing facilities in a building to escape is an important way to gain escape time and increase the escape rate.

1. Use indoor smoke-proof stairs, ordinary stairs, and enclosed stairs to escape.

2. Use the building's balconies, corridors, refuge floors, indoor descenders, life-saving bags, safety ropes, etc. to escape.

3. Use the downspout on the wall to escape.

4. Use the sightseeing stairs for escape.

5. Use fire elevators for evacuation, but do not take ordinary elevators when there is a fire.

6. Use bed sheets and other items in the room to connect and escape.

(2) Escape methods for people in different locations and under different conditions.

1. When a part of a floor catches fire and the fire has begun to develop, you should pay attention to the broadcast notification. The broadcast will tell you which floor is on fire, as well as the routes and methods for safe evacuation. Don't panic and act blindly when you hear a fire alarm.

2. When a fire breaks out in a room and the door is blocked by fire, making it impossible for people inside to evacuate smoothly, find other passages. For example, you can move to an adjacent room where the fire has not started through a balcony or corridor, and then use the passage in this room to evacuate.

3. If you hear the alarm at night, you should first touch the door with the back of your hand to see if it has become hot. If it is hot, the door cannot be opened, otherwise smoke and fire will rush into the bedroom. If the door is not hot, the fire may not be big, and it is possible to escape from the room through normal means. After leaving the room, be sure to close the door behind you to prevent the fire from spreading. If you encounter thick smoke in the stairwell or hallway, stop immediately. Never try to rush out of the smoke and fire, and do not hide in the attic or closet. Choose a place where others can easily find you and ask firefighters for help.

4. When a unit in a building catches fire and the fire on the floor has blocked the stairwell, making it impossible for people on the floors above the fire to evacuate downwards through the stairwell, the trapped people can first evacuate to the roof and then evacuate to the ground from the adjacent stairwell that is not on fire.

5. When the corridors and stairs on the fire floor are blocked by smoke and fire, the trapped people should try to get close to the windows or balconies where they can be easily seen, and send out distress signals to the rescuers, such as calling, throwing some small objects downstairs, shining a flashlight down, etc., so that the rescuers can find them in time and take rescue measures.

6. In smoke-filled rooms and corridors, since smoke and heat rise, there is relatively less smoke near the floor. When escaping, the trapped person should bend down with his head as close to the floor as possible, and crawl forward if necessary.

7. If you are on a lower floor (below the 3rd floor), when the fire is life-threatening and there is no other way to save yourself, you can throw soft objects such as mattresses and quilts to the bottom of the building and jump out of the window onto the soft objects to escape.

(3) Self-rescue and mutual rescue escape.

1. Using fire-fighting equipment on each floor, such as dry powder, foam fire extinguisher or water gun to extinguish the initial fire is an active way of escape.

2. Help each other and escape together. Guide the evacuation and help the elderly, weak, sick, disabled, pregnant women, children and those who are unfamiliar with the environment to escape.

3. Self-rescue and escape. When a fire occurs, you must take positive action and not sit and wait for death. Make full use of various things around you that can help you escape, such as tying sheets, curtains, blankets, etc. into ropes and sliding down to save yourself, or using water from the bathroom to wet the walls and doors to prevent the fire from spreading.

(IV) Things to note when escaping from a fire.

1. Don’t forget to call the police because of panic. After entering a high-rise building, you should pay attention to the passages, alarms, and the location of fire extinguishers. If a fire occurs, press the alarm or make a phone call immediately. Delaying reporting the incident is extremely dangerous.

2. Do not run downstairs as soon as you see a fire on the ground floor. If a fire occurs on the ground floor and people on the upper floors run downstairs, it will make rescue more difficult. The right thing to do is to go to the next level.

3. You cannot escape by taking an ordinary elevator. When escaping from a fire, you must act quickly, the faster the better, but never take an ordinary elevator lightly. It is easy for power outages to occur after a fire in a high-rise building. At this time, taking an ordinary elevator may cause it to "get stuck", making the evacuation ineffective and putting people in a more dangerous situation, which increases the difficulty of rescue work. In addition, the elevator entrance leads directly to each floor of the building, and the smoke from the fire scene rushing into the elevator shaft can easily form a "chimney effect", and people in the elevator may be choked by the thick smoke and toxic gases at any time.

4. Stairs can be used in emergencies. When escaping, you should try to use the smoke-proof stairwells, enclosed stairwells, corridors with external windows, refuge floors, and indoor equipment's descenders, life bags, safety ropes and other facilities within the building.

Stairs and other safe passages are equipped with emergency indicator lights for marking. When a fire occurs, people can follow the indicator lights to escape. For high-rise buildings with special refuge floors, if you cannot escape from the building, you can temporarily stay on the refuge floor and wait for help.

5. Do not drill under the bed, in the closet, or in the attic

Remember not to hide under the bed, in the closet, or in the attic to avoid flames or smoke. Because these are the most dangerous places at the fire scene, and they are not easy to be found by firefighters, making it difficult to get timely rescue.

6. Don’t jump off a building blindly

If you cannot get timely rescue and are living in a high-rise building, you must not jump off the building blindly. You can tear the bed sheets, quilts, curtains and other fabrics in the room into weight-bearing strips of cloth, tie them into ropes, tie them to the windows or balcony components and slide downstairs. You can also use doors, windows, balconies, drain pipes, etc. to escape and save yourself.

7. Learn to use distress signals

In addition to calling on the phone, you can also send out a distress signal from the balcony or street-facing window, such as throwing soft signal objects such as sofa cushions, pillows and clothes downstairs. At night, you can use flashlights, emergency lights, etc. to send out distress signals to help rescuers find the exact target.

(V) What to do in a high-rise fire

1. How to pass through the flame zone

Before escaping, it is best to wet your clothes with water, wrap your whole body with a wet blanket, or cover your head and other exposed parts with wet clothes. In this way, when you pass through a fire area, your clothes will not easily catch fire, and exposed parts of your body will not be burned. If your clothes catch fire, you can roll on the ground to extinguish the flames. It is not advisable to run with fire to avoid accelerating the relative flow of air.

2. If the fire is not on your floor, where should you escape?

If the fire is on the floor above your location, you should flee downstairs until you reach a safe place; if the fire is on the floor below your location and the fire and smoke have blocked the downward escape route, you should escape upstairs as soon as possible. The rooftop platform is a relatively safe place; if there is a water tank on the roof, you can wet your clothes with water to resist the high temperature of the flames; if you find yourself being chased by fire and smoke and the way up is blocked during your escape to the rooftop platform, you should decisively change to a horizontal escape route, escape from the corridor on another floor, or retreat to a room on that floor that is convenient for escape, and seek other self-rescue methods.

3. What to do if all safety channels are cut off

The only option at this time is to retreat to the relatively safe bathroom for temporary shelter. After the trapped person enters the bathroom, the doors and windows should be closed tightly, the gaps should be sealed, and all the faucets should be turned on to drain the water. In particular, water should be continuously added to the bathtub to keep the water level high at all times. On the one hand, it is convenient to take water and pour it on the doors and windows to cool down. On the other hand, when the fire spreads to the bathroom, people can lie in the bathtub to take temporary shelter.

Everyone must understand clearly what are the self-rescue methods for high-rise building fires. Because although you may not encounter these situations in your life, if you do, these are good measures to protect your health. So everyone must not underestimate it. Understanding it clearly will also help you gain some common sense and keep your life smooth.