CODES

[trashcanman]

That horrible mess in Brazil is why we have codes. Idiots who allow places of assembly with just 1 exit and NO auto sprinklers should be hanged. When will they stop allowing fireworks inside without adequate protection? I am disgusted.

 

[Sdpaddler50]

Agree on all counts. But we need to look in our back yard as well. We allow plastic insulation to be applied in commercial applications that meet an archaic ASTM fire spread test that is based on a horizontal burning configuration. The UL and FM vertical orientation test are much more representative of how plastic (oil in sold form) burns in a fire. We also allow this material to exist without sprinklers = RI fire 10 years ago in a night club. We are light years beyond the rest of the world in regards to fire protection and lifesafety, and sites like this where people come to meet and exchange ideas is just one small example.

 

[stookeyfpe]

This fire occurred in a country that will be hosting the Olympics in 2016. I suspect all the major venues and host hotels will be constructed to some US or EU standards of construction that will mandate adequate egress designs, interior finish and the appropriate degree of active and passive fire protection. So if you can afford to go to the Olympics, you'll stay in a fire safe community. The little neighborhood dance clubs will also have a stream of business as the Brazilians will be flocking to Rio and probably only be able to afford being packed into a bar with a single means of egress that will offer a cover charge, making the security strict. The little bar will probably have EPS foam attached to the walls and ceiling because bars are noisy and the owner doesn't want to wake the neighbors. You can hypothesize this scenario is not going to be good in an unsprinklered bar in a slum.

Speaking of Brazilian slums, I've attached a paper that was published in the Journal of Fire Protection Engineering last year on fire risk assessments of slums in Brazil. Based on the data in Table 1, the death of a hundred people in a slum fire appears to be fairly common. So while 200 deaths in a nightclub is sad, it appears that the socity tolerates these consequences for the residents in these areas.