Massive GZ High-Rise Fire

[Guest ExChinaExpat]

Just a few days ago there was a massive fire near my home in Guangzhou. It's not clear as to the cause or why it took so long to put out. Thankfully, there were no reported injuries.

 

http://acidcow.com/pics/54153-high-rise-building-fire-in-guangzhou-china-12.html

 

 

 

[Randy W]

Cause of Guangzhou highrise fire pinpointed

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-12/20/c_132984860.htm

 

Sunday's fire in a highrise building in the southern city of Guangzhou was caused by an electrical short circuit, the provincial emergency response office said on Friday.

 

Preliminary investigation shows Jin, a wireman, did not follow the correct procedure when installing the power supply. An inspection of the building has concluded that a total collapse is unlikely. The local public security bureau has identified eight people who may be responsible for the accident.

 

The fire broke out at about 6:50 p.m. on Dec. 15 in downtown Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province and took over 11 hours for a total of 58 fire engines and 350 firefighters to put out the blaze.

Construction of the 25 storey Jianye Mansion was suspended more than 10 years ago and it was being used as a warehouse for shoes and wooden boards, according to Liang Xinyuan, a local resident.

 

[warpedbored]

After seeing some of the wiring done on homes in China I'm not surprised. I pretty much assumed they have no electrical building codes there.

[danb]

It is a good thing that no one was seriously hurt. I wonder if that was at a business building where no apartments were ? We had some problems at our home the other day. A circuit breaker caught fire in the panel and took out 4 of the 5 breakers in the panel. It wasn't a fast spectacle burn but rather a slow one. The Lao Po had the sense to turn the main switch ( an old knife switch type) outside our apartment. She also went downstairs and alerted the compound's guards and they came up to help. Me, I didn't even know we had a switch. I do now. We had no power that night. We had someone come in the next morning. Two hundred yuan and two hours later we had all our power back. I think if we had to pay for something like that in the states it would have been about a 6 or 8 hundred dollars job. I do think that our breakers was not UL listed. There is something to be said for all that government regulations. Sometimes it is not a bad thing. Danb

[Randy W]

It is a good thing that no one was seriously hurt. I wonder if that was at a business building where no apartments were ? We had some problems at our home the other day. A circuit breaker caught fire in the panel and took out 4 of the 5 breakers in the panel. It wasn't a fast spectacle burn but rather a slow one. The Lao Po had the sense to turn the main switch ( an old knife switch type) outside our apartment. She also went downstairs and alerted the compound's guards and they came up to help. Me, I didn't even know we had a switch. I do now. We had no power that night. We had someone come in the next morning. Two hundred yuan and two hours later we had all our power back. I think if we had to pay for something like that in the states it would have been about a 6 or 8 hundred dollars job. I do think that our breakers was not UL listed. There is something to be said for all that government regulations. Sometimes it is not a bad thing. Danb

 

Yulin was one of the more recent additions to the power grid - less than 20 years ago. There's still a downtown hotel that's named after it's prominent feature - the Electric Power Hotel.

 

Some of the 'breakers' are simply short lengths of wire that are calibrated (hopefully) to fry at the appropriate load

 

They do have an advantage, though, at 220 volts, their wiring carries half the current that ours (in the U.S.) does