231 Killed: Learning from the Deadly Fire in Brazil

Yesterday 231 people were killed in Brazil,
victims of a fire that turned a nightclub into a death trap. The
incident is similar to the República Cromañón fire that killed 194
people in 2004 in Argentina or “The Station” fire in USA in 2003, where
100 people died. We’re talking about hundreds of people dead at a time.
All three cases took place in nightclubs during concerts, and in all
three cases fireworks and special effects used by the band started the
fire. In less than a minute, these nightclubs become true deathtraps.

It is not the first time this topic has been covered in this blog. Here’s a previous post called “Surviving a Fire”,
in which these recommendations where given.  The first two tips would
also help during a mass shooting when you want to leave a building ASAP.

Tips on what to do:

1)Always know two ways out of any room you enter. The obvious one is
the one you entered through, get used to quickly picking up a second
one, and keeping in mind which one is closest to you. In the case of
“The Station” nightclub, people headed to the main entrance in spite of
having emergency exits closer.

2) Be quick about it. Don’t be worried about looking silly or
overreacting. Better to look dumb than dead. What if its nothing? Then
there’s no problem, but at least you’ve exercised yourself into
reacting, and whenever something does happen you will be moving instead
of freezing up and losing valuable seconds.

3)Its almost impossible to avoid stomping and people causing human
avalanches. Avoid them as much as you can. Remember the post on safety
footware? This would be another example in which tough footware can
protect you from people stepping on you, maybe injuring you or causing
you to fall. When you fall, people will stomp you or fall over you
forming a human plug in bottlenecks where several victims will be
crushed to death. Safety footware is also rated to tolerate high
temperatures better. That may be a key advantage when things heat up and
you’re still looking for a way out.

4)Your hair can catch fire, soak it up if you can while hurrying away
from danger, even with your drink if its not alcohol! A wet cloth,
bandana or t-shirt can be used to protect your face and at least try to
breathe better. Many times people die of suffocation in fires rather
than burn alive.

Watch the video of “The Station” Nightclub fire in USA to see how in
just a matter of seconds , 40 seconds to be precise, all hell just
breaks lose.

FerFAL

2013-03-12 13:08:42

Source: http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2013/01/231-killed-learning-from-deadly-fire-in_28.html