Fire in your in your building, what would you do?

The blaze at the luxury Strand Condominium on W. 43rd St. broke out on the 20th floor around 11 a.m., said Assistant Fire Chief John Sudhik.

Sudhik said residents should have remained inside their units. "Unfortunately, in this fire, it appears that the victims may had been originally inside in their apartments safe and exited the apartments and become the victims in the stairwells themselves," he said.

"It's very important that you stay in your apt in a fire-proof, high-rise building,” he said. But that was tough advice for residents to follow.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/critically-injured-massive-fire-midtown-manhattan-high-rise-article-1.1566819#

Sorry to hear that one of the victim died.

Not sure what I would have done, especially when I do not know the cause of the fire. Either way, good reminder to find where ALL the stairwells are located.

We have fire drills at work every few months. The idea is, you stay put unless you're right over the fire, where flames out a broken window below can break your window. Here, the two or three apartments directly above the source burned out for that reason.

Here're videos from a guy maybe ten floors above: http://www.youtube.com/user/steveshack/videos

In a semi-fireproof building, i.e. six or fewer floors, then get out.

"Sudhik said residents should have remained inside their units. "Unfortunately, in this fire, it appears that the victims may had been originally inside in their apartments safe and exited the apartments and become the victims in the stairwells themselves," he said."

With all due respect to the assistant fire chief, but anyone who watched the twin towers collapse -- THOSE unfortunate victims also told to "stay put" in their "fireproof" building -- would be an absolute idiot to follow that advice today.

Yes, I realize there was much more at play on 9/11 than a simple fire, but still -- no fucking way am I "staying put" inside a building that's on fire.

BTDT. I left when there was a fire in my building. I live on a low floor two floors above the apartment that had the fire. The stairwell I used to escape was not near the fire. Best advice for everyone is to learn the different stairwells in your building. The one closest to you may not be the best one to take in case of a fire. Also, have a flashlight ready at all times. I keep a LED disk flashlight by the front door which I grabbed on the way out. Our apartment building was lucky--the fire was contained to one apartment and it did not rage out of control. Thank you again FDNY.

>Yes, I realize there was much more at play on 9/11 than a simple fire, but still -- no fucking way am I "staying put" inside a building that's on fire.

Where do you live NYCMatt?

I do think it is important to hear what the Fire Department has to say; they certainly know more about this sort of thing than most of us. The one fatality was someone who decided to climb down 40 floors. Does that say something . . . or not?

I would follow the advice of the fire chief in this case. The toxic smoke can overwhelm you in seconds, but I agree it would be hard to sit tight.This may sound paranoid, but perhaps a breathing apparatus to get you through the smoke if you can confirm the location of the actual fire.

Keith Burkhardt
TBG

Does anyone know what types of safety systems this building had? Sprinklers in units, or perhaps just in common areas? Centralized fire alarm system? PA system for the lobby to make announcements during the incident?

How did this fire start?

About 3 months ago my building (co-op) sent all residents the required fire safety notices (did you know they're supposed to be posted in the apartment?). Wonder how many people have ever seen the notices that tell them what to do in their type of building? How many received a copy at closing or when they signed the lease? How many have them posted?

One of the articles mentioned it was started by christmas lights/cheap wiring. I don't know if this is conclusive.

Here's the requirements from the CNYC:
http://www.cnyc.com/code/newsletters/2000/2000-spr-fire.htm

and the notice for a non-combustible building:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/pdf/rcny/rcny_form_fire_safety_notice_non_combustible.pdf

If you haven't read it, you should. If you're on a co-op or condo board, you should ask when this info was last provided to your tenants.

Looks like the FDNY has pretty much concluded it's fault of that idiot tenant who overloaded power strips.

This is my greatest fear of living in an apartment building, sharing a roof with other people: the sheer stupidity of so many people in regards to electricity. Most people don't realize you should NEVER plug an extension cord into a power strip to multiply the number of outlets (or worse, using the six outlets on a power strip to plug in six additional power strips! Yes, I've seen that!).

And you should NEVER plug any heat-producing appliance (meaning an appliance that's primary purpose is to produce heat) anywhere but directly into a wall outlet. EVER.

Yes, I understand the challenge we all face, particularly in prewar buildings, living in the 21st Century, in which the number of things we need to plug in seem to multiply with every passing year. Even after my renovation, I find it difficult to accommodate an entire wall of audio/visual/electrical devices with just ONE electrical outlet: TV ... cable box ... modem ... DVD player ... VCR ... amplifier ... tuner ... CD player ... tape deck ... turntable ... typewriter ... Apple AirPort.. and lamp. Luckily, the TV plugs into the cable box, and my tape deck, CD player, tuner, and turntable all plug into the amplifier. Still, that's seven things to plug in, carefully distributed between two power strips.

It's perfectly safe -- especially since MOST of the time, most everything on that wall is off (or as "off" as modern electronics these days are), and never is *everything* on at the same time.

But the straw that could break the camel's back would be me plugging a space heater into one of those outlets. Or an electric blanket. Or a hair dryer.

It frightens me to think that most people really don't consider the wattage when they load up their power strips.

Today's paper says the FD also says that 20D tenant came home, found the fire, then left the door open.