By staff reporter Yu Dawei

From Caijing Online

Skyscrapers can defeat gravity, but they can’t necessarily beat fire.

That fact was clear when a devastating blaze gutted a 30-story tower at the China Central Television complex in Beijing on February 9.

But the CCTV fire also focused attention on the fact that flames in a high-rise can be doused with the kinds of special firefighting equipment, such as far-reaching aerial ladder trucks, available in Shanghai but not in Beijing.

At present, the Beijing fire department’s aerial ladder apparatus can reach up to 50 meters. A high-pressure hose increases the reach, but cannot extend beyond 200 meters. For higher flames, firefighters have to physically enter a skyscraper and use fire extinguishing gear mounted inside the building.

Six hours passed before firefighters brought the blaze under control. Firefighters blamed the long burn on the department’s inability to pump water higher than 60 meters outside the building, and because no firefighting gear had been installed inside the unfinished building.

The blaze brought back memories of an August 14, 2007, fire at an unfinished Shanghai skyscraper – the 101-story, 492-meter Shanghai World Financial Center, the highest building on the mainland. But in that incident, the fire was extinguished after a little more than an hour, with no injuries.

That no one was hurt in the SWFC fire can be attributed to a fire drill a few months earlier during which a new, German-made fire truck practiced spraying water to a maximum 360 meters. The drill set a new record for firefighting in Shanghai.

Additionally, the real fire was fought with extinguishing gear installed throughout SWFC. Firefighters tapped the water system on the 99th, 18th, 26th, 50th, 52nd and 83rd floors. As a result, the flames were out in less than two hours.

A source at the Shanghai fire department who asked to remain anonymous told Caijing that, in his view, fire code violations at the CCTV tower led to the tragedy.

Full article in Chinese: http://www.caijing.com.cn/2009-02-11/110055162.html