Recently, the State Council Safety Committee organized 22 comprehensive inspection teams to carry out open and covert inspections of production safety in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The 18th group of the comprehensive inspection team of the State Council Safety Committee randomly inspected the World Trade Building in Haikou City (formerly the Free Trade Times Square) during the open and secret visit in Hainan, and found a number of potential safety hazards, for example, the two most critical elements of the building's fire protection system: water and electricity do not meet the basic safety requirements, and there are hundreds of fault points in the main engine of the fire control room that lead to the failure of the linkage function, and the evacuation area of the refuge floor is occupied by obstacles...... This 100-meter-high skyscraper in Haikou City is "running with illness".
Why has the "life-killing passage" of the 200-meter-high cable shaft not been blocked? Why has the most dangerous area become a blind spot for monitoring? Where are people fleeing if the escape passage on the refuge floor is blocked? Failure to carry out construction according to the drawings, unauthorized reduction of construction quality, and prior use without inspection...... In view of a series of problems, the comprehensive inspection team analyzed the deep-seated causes through a "sparrow-like" analysis, urged the construction units and relevant departments to draw inferences from one case and strictly implement various measures for responsibility for safe production.
This is just a microcosm of the comprehensive inspection team's "consultation, prescription, and treatment" of Hainan Province's safety production work.
On March 22, the comprehensive inspection team of the State Council Safety Committee made an open and secret visit to the World Trade Center Building in Haikou City. China Youth Daily and China Youth Network trainee reporter Zhao Limei/photo
Why was the more than 200-meter-high "life-killing passage" not blocked?
At first, the World Trade Center was designed according to the landmark building of the tallest building in Haikou City, but after the capital chain was broken, it once became the "unfinished building" in the mouth of the people. Later, new buildings gradually surpassed it in height. In order to rectify the hidden dangers of major accidents in this building and solve the problems left over from history, through the efforts of relevant local departments, new enterprises were introduced to inject funds, and the input of "new blood" barely "revitalized" it.
At the end of October last year, the building completed the partial fire acceptance of floors 6-39.
However, the "foundation" of fire safety has not been laid. On March 22, the comprehensive inspection team found that the vertical cable shaft of more than 200 meters high in the World Trade Building was not horizontally fire-blocked layer by layer, and was basically in a state of "wide open and open".
The person in charge of the World Trade Center project explained that the 40th floor of the building is a hotel, and electricity is currently being supplied to the top of the building, so the cable well has not been blocked.
"The main way for fires in high-rise buildings, especially toxic smoke, to spread is in vertical spaces such as cable shafts. The National Fire and Rescue Bureau's policy and regulation department commander Si Ge pointed out that the building fire acceptance qualified, vertical fire blocking has not been formed, even if the upper floor to be constructed, must also take temporary blocking measures, "at present, there is no acceptance at all, put into use conditions." ”
He Wenjing, a member of the comprehensive inspection team, said that once a fire breaks out in a super high-rise building, the fire spreads quickly and the rescue is difficult, especially under the blessing of the "chimney effect", stairwells, pipe shafts, and glass curtain wall gaps may become channels for the rapid spread of flames or toxic smoke, and the high-temperature smoke spreads vertically to the entire building at a speed of 3-4 m/s. In this case, these channels can even be called "lethal channels" to a certain extent. The cable shaft itself is a high-risk area prone to fire, "it must be tightly sealed and plugged with fireproof materials, and separated layer by layer to avoid these shafts from penetrating up and down, which will exacerbate the rapid spread of fire." ”
Looking at the history of high-rise building fires, it is not uncommon for the "chimney effect" to cause fires to spread rapidly, exacerbating fire hazards.
In May last year, a fire broke out in the cable in the cable well on the 8th floor of the cable well in Building 1 (building height of 98 meters, 32 floors above ground, 1 floor underground) in the Huanhe Huayuan Community, Linxian County, Shanxi Province, and the fire spread upward through the cable well to form a three-dimensional combustion space, and a large amount of smoke quickly spread to the public area of the building through the partially opened cable well door and the normally closed fire door, resulting in a total of 5 people on the 17th and 27th floors who died of poisoning by inhaling carbon monoxide and other toxic gases.
At the same time, a similar "life-killing passage" also exists in the glass curtain wall of the World Trade Center in Haikou City.
Yang Juntao, a member of the comprehensive inspection team and director of the Fifth Research Office of the Shanghai Fire Research Institute, paid attention to the fact that the gaps between the glass curtain wall of the building and the floor slabs and partition walls on each floor were not sealed with fireproof sealing materials, and the "chimney effect" was also prone to occur when a fire broke out.
Why are the most dangerous areas becoming blind spots?
Super high-rise buildings should be prevented before they occur, not only in the fire safety "foundation" of the building itself, but also in the "perception" ability of its fire alarm system. However, the building's fire alarm control system was also in a state of "failure" to a certain extent.
On March 22, a fire alarm controller in the fire control room of the World Trade Center showed 354 faults and another 224 faults.
Yang Juntao pointed out that if these fault points are not handled, some fire-fighting equipment cannot be started, resulting in linkage failures and more monitoring blind spots.
In this regard, the fire control room duty staff said that some floors of the building are being renovated, the smoke and dust are large, which is easy to lead to false alarms of fire detectors, and the construction will occasionally accidentally touch the concealed wiring of the fire alarm system.
Si Ge said that this is a problem of construction organization and management, and the problem is simple and crude, in fact, it can provide relevant drawings to workers to guide their safe construction.
"The detector is like a 'sensory nerve' in a building, and if it is broken, it may not be able to detect the fire. He Wenjing said that the construction area itself is a very dangerous place, during the construction process, it is inevitable to use electrical welding, etc., which is easy to cause fire, in order to avoid false alarms, directly shield the signal, the most dangerous area has become a blind spot for monitoring.
After a fire, water and electricity are the most basic guarantees for fire fighting and rescue in super high-rise buildings. However, the skyscraper's fire-fighting water and electricity did not meet the basic standards for passing the fire protection acceptance.
The fire water supply was not constructed according to the drawings, and the construction standards were lowered without authorization. According to the design, the World Trade Center Building should be connected to two water inlet pipes with a diameter of 200 mm from the municipal water supply pipes, but the actual diameter of the two pipes connected to the building was changed to 150 mm, which did not meet the design water requirements. In addition, the fire pump cannot be started remotely.
In terms of power supply, at present, there is an independent 35,000-volt mains power supply in the entire building that has not yet been connected. The comprehensive inspection team also spot-checked the fire pump room, which is an important fire-fighting equipment room, and found that only one power supply was connected to the dual-power terminal switching device in this part.
The escape passage on the refuge floor is blocked, where do people flee?
At present, fire fighting and rescue of super high-rise buildings is still a worldwide problem. The early escape of trapped people relies more on self-rescue, so the refuge layer is particularly critical for personnel evacuation.
The World Trade Center has a total of 59 floors, with 56 floors above ground and 3 floors underground, of which the refuge floors are 11, 25 and 40 respectively.
"The refuge level is so important for escape and rescue. During the inspection, He Wenjing found that many places on the refuge floor were not constructed according to the drawings.
The comprehensive inspection team randomly inspected 25 floors and found that there were two steel ladders across the escape passage on this floor, one of which was half dismantled and still "floating" in the air, occupying the evacuation space. There are no safety signs or evacuation routes in the escape routes, and in the event of an accident, people do not know where to flee.
The toxic gases in fire smoke are one of the most important factors causing casualties, and after a fire, fire doors are very important as an important barrier to block fire. Currently, there are no fire doors installed in the stairwell antechamber on the 25th floor of the building.
At the same time, the refuge floor is not equipped with smoke-proof facilities in accordance with national standards. The evacuation floor is different from the ordinary floor, and in the event of a fire, the evacuation floor is used as a safe area to prevent smoke from entering. In addition, He Wenjing also paid attention to the fact that multiple shutters are used on one wall of the refuge floor of the building to directly connect with the outdoor space, "assuming that the 24th floor is on fire, the smoke will spread upwards and enter the refuge floor through the shutters."
Similar shutters are used in many parts of the refuge floor, rather than the openable fire windows on the design drawings. When the members of the comprehensive inspection team asked the reason, the project leader immediately asked the other people in charge next to him: "What's the matter with the blinds, did you ask the design institute?" The comprehensive inspection team did not wait for a reply, but found that the floor was not designed with shutters and the building was not constructed according to the design.
Before the first use, why does the construction unit repeatedly violate the rules?
As the first person responsible for safety production, the main responsibility of the construction unit is not implemented, which is the direct cause of the "sick operation" of this skyscraper.
The construction time of this building is long, the investment is large, the construction unit does not hesitate to violate the rules to rush the construction period, reduce the construction quality without authorization, in order to complete the acceptance in advance, falsify the data, and in the case of the project does not pass the acceptance, it is rented out without authorization.
On July 28, 2022, the building was under unauthorized construction during the shutdown, and a fall from height accident occurred on the 57th floor, resulting in one death. At that time, the company had not yet obtained permission to resume construction.
Last year, the World Trade Center was also reported for renting out without acceptance. On April 7, 2023, after receiving the report clues, the local relevant departments went to the scene for verification, confirmed that there were indeed enterprises on multiple floors of the building, and ordered them to make corrections. However, there was no review.
In this spot check, the relevant local departments told the comprehensive inspection team that due to the complexity of the case, there are disputes over the subject of punishment, and it has not yet been resolved.
At present, the building has the problem of construction before the renovation project is reviewed and used before inspection. On March 22, the comprehensive inspection team walked into the 9th floor of the World Trade Building, and many personnel were already working in the renovated area. It is reported that the floor is about 2,000 square meters. When a member of the comprehensive inspection team asked whether the floor decoration had been approved and recorded, the project leader said: "It doesn't seem to have been reported, I have to find out." ”
The staff of the local relevant departments called on the spot to inquire, and the reply was: "The design drawings of this decoration project have not yet been declared for review. ”
Through spot checks and discussions, the comprehensive inspection team found that there was "laxity and weakness" in the process of performing regulatory duties by relevant local departments, which led to major safety hazards left in Haikou World Trade Building, constituting major fire hazards. The comprehensive inspection team pointed out that safety work is related to the safety of people's lives and property, and if the safety supervision department only blindly pursues the so-called "pass rate" and "praise rate", it will inevitably cause risks and hidden dangers to accumulate and break out in a concentrated manner, and evolve into systemic risks.
At present, the comprehensive inspection team of the State Council Safety Committee has handed over the problems and hidden dangers found to the local industry authorities, requiring serious handling in accordance with laws and regulations, drawing inferences from the problems and hidden dangers that have been discovered, and sparing no effort to promote rectification and eliminate potential safety hazards in a timely manner. In addition, the comprehensive inspection team suggested that relevant departments should establish and improve communication and coordination and information exchange mechanisms, and form a closed-loop supervision mechanism of "whole chain and whole process" for law enforcement.
Source: CCTV