HIGH RISE FIREFIGHTING
High-Rise Firefighting Keeping the Firefighting Options Open
Jerry Herbst Elkhart Brass
ASIA PACIFIC FIRE
High-rise buildings can take a considerable length of time to evacuate in the event of a fire and can be extremely dangerous environments for occupants and firefighters alike. So firefighting at height needs to be quick, effective and – above all – as safe as possible if lives are not to be put at unnecessary risk.
A
high rise building is defined in NFPA 101: 2012 (Life Safety Code) as a building more than 23 metres high. Having first really started to make an appearance on cityscapes a little over hundred or so years ago in the late 19th century when, as steel-framed structures, they started to punctuate the skylines of such cities as Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and St. Louis, high rise buildings are today commonplace across the globe. Indeed, China currently holds the record for the country with the greatest number of high rise buildings, and the world’s tallest structure is the 828-metre high Burj Khalifa building in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The
new One World Trade Centre “Freedom Tower” in New York City is the fourth-tallest skyscraper in the world and the tallest building in the western hemisphere, reaching 541 metres into the sky. Australia’s tallest building is the 323-metre Q1 (short for Queensland Number One) building on the Gold Coast in Queensland, the fifth-tallest residential building in the world. Architecturally they can be imposing and often visually very impressive. But, for the firefighter they can be extremely challenging high-risk environments – as has been confirmed by operational reports from all over the world – that demand specialist firefighting equipment and techniques. 21