High-pressure water cannot reach the top, so people cannot live above the 30th floor? How to put out fire and escape from high-rise buildings?

Fire, this word sounds far away from us, but it is actually very close to us, so the common sense of fire escape is a life skill that everyone should master.

I have a friend who lives on the 11th floor. Because he can see electric bicycles parked illegally and charged by wires everywhere in the corridor, he is deeply worried about fire. So he prepared a fire escape kit and practiced it with his wife and children four times a year, rappelling down from the 11th floor. The scene is comparable to an action movie. With such a big move, is there no one to stop it? If there really is someone to stop it, how can there be so many electric bicycles parked illegally and charged by wires in the corridor?

For most people, they certainly don’t have the same spirit as my friend, and they won’t spend money to prepare an escape suit, but there is no need to worry too much, because the beloved firefighters will always be our most solid guarantee. As we all know, firefighters mainly use high-pressure water guns to put out fires, so how high can high-pressure water guns spray?

Most high-pressure water guns can only reach a height of sixty to seventy meters, and at most no more than one hundred meters. 100 meters is 30 floors, which means that high-pressure water guns cannot spray above the 30th floor.

In this case, isn't it dangerous to live above the 30th floor? Is it possible to live above the 30th floor? Many people may not worry about this issue, because the floor height of most civil communities does not reach 30 floors, but we can't always stay at home, we still have to work, and there are too many commercial buildings over 100 meters. According to statistics, in 2019, there were 1,000 buildings over 200 meters in my country. So if you happen to work in such a skyscraper, how should you save yourself in the event of a fire? Don't panic, although high-pressure water guns cannot spray to a height of more than 100 meters, in addition to external rescue, high-rise buildings are also equipped with internal rescue facilities, and these facilities are the three magic weapons in the event of a high-rise fire: sprinkler heads, refuge floors, and fire elevators.

The sprinkler head is the fire-fighting facility we are most familiar with. It is a facility installed on the roof that can automatically spray water to extinguish the fire when a fire occurs. So how does the sprinkler head work?

The principle of this device that can automatically sprinkle water to extinguish fires is actually not complicated. The top of the sprinkler head is connected to a water pipe, and there is a plug at the water outlet. What is holding the plug is a glass tube. The glass tube contains a special liquid that expands when heated. When a fire occurs, the temperature gradually rises, and the liquid in the glass tube also expands. When the temperature reaches a certain height, the expanded liquid will burst the glass tube, and the water in the water pipe will spray out.

When you are on vacation or staying in a hotel on a business trip, have you ever worried that the water in these sprinkler heads will spray out because of some of your actions, thus soaking you like a drowned chicken? Don't worry, it is not difficult to know at what temperature these sprinkler heads will break. You can move a chair and stand on it to have a look.

The liquid in the glass tube of the sprinkler head is colored. Liquids of different colors expand at different rates when heated. Red liquid is the most sensitive and is the most commonly used in places where people gather, such as office buildings. Its heat-resistant temperature is between 55 degrees Celsius and 77 degrees Celsius. In addition to red, there are also green, yellow and black. Their heat-resistant temperatures increase in sequence. The glass tube with the highest heat resistance can withstand high temperatures of about 300 degrees Celsius.

Sprinklers are a powerful tool for extinguishing fires in high-rise buildings. In most cases, they can extinguish sudden fires. But if the fire is too fierce and the sprinkler cannot quickly extinguish or control it, what should we do? At this time, we have to use the second facility for self-rescue, which is the refuge floor. According to regulations, high-rise buildings must have a refuge floor every 50 meters. Compared with ordinary floors, the refuge floor is higher and has no extra facilities, which is convenient for isolating the fire and can accommodate more people for refuge.

Therefore, when working in a high-rise building, you must check the refuge floor in advance so that you can take shelter in time when a fire occurs. There are stairwells on the refuge floor that lead directly to the first floor. If the building does not collapse, the refugees can escape to the first floor through this staircase.

So what if you are trapped on a floor and cannot escape? Don't worry, there are fire elevators. High-pressure water guns cannot spray more than 100 meters, so when a fire occurs on a high floor, our beloved firefighters can only enter the building to search and rescue the trapped people. At this time, they will take the fire elevator directly to the floor waiting for rescue. You can't take the elevator when there is a fire, but the fire elevator is an exception. Unlike ordinary elevators, the fire elevator has enhanced fire protection measures and a closed system that can help firefighters quickly reach the fire floor. So when you are trapped by the flames, don't panic, don't feel that you are thousands of meters away from the ground, you have to believe that our firefighters will arrive soon.

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