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xxxsur t1_ja32cig wrote

I don't see anything wrong. I'm from Hong Kong, and we are taught that if you do not have enough confidence, staying home and seal the door with wet towel is a valid way.

Most apartment buildings here have >1k people, taller than 40 stories. Having that many people running down the stairs is going to cause some problem, not to mention running down 40 floors do really need some stamina...

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TheIllustrativeMan t1_ja5b8p7 wrote

In the US, high-rise fire stairs are sized based on occupancy, and rated for 2 hours of fire protection. They're also pressurized so that smoke doesn't get into them.

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xxxsur t1_ja5cjde wrote

Curious: Is the apartment doors rated for fire too?

Our(and I believe rest of the world too) fire stairs are protected, but honestly I am not running down so many floors if that's not a big fire... Our buildings are just too stupidly tall

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TheIllustrativeMan t1_ja5layj wrote

Other doors and walls are not rated, though the construction of most walls isn't terribly different from a rated wall - a gyp studwall. Where you lose the rating is penetrations aren't protected, so it's easy for fire to bypass the assembly.

It's not that you run down the stairs so much as a controlled shuffle. The whole point of the fire rating is to give people time, so no need to rush and potentially hurt yourself.

Yeah, it can be a pain when the fire alarm goes off at 3am and you're 40 stories up, but ultimately all of this stuff exists because people died. Take advantage of all the things that make modern buildings safer.

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LovelyBeats t1_ja3g163 wrote

But you could burn to death

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xxxsur t1_ja3icr7 wrote

Or get stuck in the middle of 40 floors.

At least the door can withstand the fire for sometime and hopefully the fireman can save me on time

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