Fire rescue in tall buildings is recognized as a worldwide problem, and the Department of Emergency Management shares experience and practices

The Ministry of Emergency Management held a press conference at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at the Xijiao Hotel (No. 18 Wangzhuang Road, Haidian District). Shen Zhanli, spokesperson of the Ministry of Emergency Management and director of the Department of Press and Publicity, presided over and released, Wei Handong, deputy director of the Fire and Rescue Bureau, and Su Jie, director of the Department of Safety Coordination, attended the press conference to report on the situation of national safety production and natural disasters in 2021, released the top ten typical cases of national emergency rescue and production safety accidents in 2021, and answered questions from reporters. China.com live broadcast, the following is part of the transcript:

Guangming Daily: Fire rescue in high-rise buildings has always been a worldwide problem. In the case just reported, the fire fighting of Kaixuan International Building in Dalian, Liaoning Province, was a relatively successful rescue. For high-rise building fire rescue, have you summarized some good experience practices?

Wei Handong: As you said, fire fighting in high-rise buildings is a recognized worldwide problem. High-rise buildings have the characteristics of large volume, high height, complex structure and function, dense personnel, large fire load, etc. Once the fire spreads quickly, high temperature smoke gathers, it is easy to form three-dimensional combustion, personnel evacuation is difficult, fire fighting and rescue is difficult, and social attention is high. The mainland is the country with the largest number of high-rise buildings in the world, with a total of 755,000 high-rise buildings, the number of super high-rise buildings ranks first in the world, and a total of 9,719 super-high-rise buildings, and high-rise building fire fighting and rescue are facing great challenges.

For a long time, the fire rescue team has always regarded fire fighting in high-rise buildings as a major topic, strengthened technical and tactical research, strengthened professional training and training, organized field familiarity and actual combat exercises, improved fire fighting and rescue plans and disposal procedures, optimized equipment allocation, and continuously improved the actual combat ability to deal with fire fighting in high-rise buildings. The main practices are as follows: First, strengthen the construction of professional forces. Each fire rescue corps and detachment has set up a professional team or fire fighting formation for high-rise building fire fighting and rescue, equipped with high-rise water supply fire trucks, lifting fire trucks, as well as advanced and practical vehicle equipment such as reconnaissance, lifesaving, demolition, communication, fire extinguishing drones, and firefighter positioning systems in high-rise buildings. The second is to extensively carry out on-the-spot familiarization exercises. Local fire rescue teams strengthen the field familiarity and research of high-rise buildings in the jurisdiction, formulate and improve fire fighting and rescue plans, and organize rescue drills at different levels of the headquarters, detachments and fire rescue stations, and continuously improve the ability to command and win battles. The third is to organize targeted training. According to the characteristics of high-rise building fires, focus on special training such as high-rise building ascent to save people, water supply and fire extinguishing, and façade fire control, strengthen the equipment testing and application training of high-rise fire extinguishing vehicles, and strengthen the application of fixed fire fighting facilities such as fire control rooms, indoor fire hydrants, water pump connectors, smoke exhaust and air supply, and fire elevators in high-rise buildings. The fourth is to formulate and improve disposal procedures. All localities have strengthened research on fire fighting and rescue techniques and tactics, held training courses on fire fighting and rescue technology in high-rise buildings, organized special research on fire fighting and rescue problems in high-rise buildings, formulated and improved fire fighting procedures for high-rise buildings and key points for organizing and commanding, and normalized the evaluation and summary of fire fighting battles in high-rise buildings, reviewing combat examples and deducing desktops. Fifth, strengthen dispatch and command. Once a fire breaks out in a high-rise building, we will upgrade the dispatch level, dispatch sufficient professional forces to the scene in a timely manner, commanders at all levels rush to the scene for command at the first time, and command centers at all levels strengthen tracking tips, and coordinate with departments such as housing construction, public security, water supply, and power supply and other departments and relevant experts. In fire fighting and rescue, we always put saving people first, and make every effort to rescue and evacuate trapped people to minimize casualties.