Fire lessons

We are saddened by the deaths of more than 50 residents in a fire that engulfed a 28-storey building in Shanghai on Monday. Lessons, including fire prevention in high-rise residential buildings, should be learned from the tragedy.

The residential building was being renovated and was surrounded by scaffolding when it caught fire. Preliminary investigations suggest that unlicensed welders, several of whom were among the eight people put in custody yesterday, failed to follow safety procedures and caused sparks to set fire to the plastic sheets on the scaffolds. It is reported that most of the materials on the scaffolding were inflammable.

However, the fire would not have spread that fast and to the entire building had it not been for a strong wind. The disaster could also have been avoided had the welders or their leaders had enough awareness that sparks from welding would very likely cause a fire on such a windy day.