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Remember these things! It can save your life at a critical moment! I) At the company, I assume most people work in places similar to mine – whether it’s in the Down Town Tower or an apartment with a view of the river, they’re usually in buildings that are 10 floors or higher. So, if you, like me, work on the 27th floor of a 33-story building, and a fire breaks out in that building, what would happen to you? 1. What should be done? First, quickly locate the fire exit and run downstairs (the elevator is certainly not available anymore). If smoke is already spreading, one should keep low to the ground and move swiftly. Under no circumstances should you move upstairs, as 95% of the rooftops in Shanghai are locked, so don’t expect to be able to find safety on those rooftops. 2. What would you do if, when you go down to the 10th floor, you find that the fire started on the 9th floor? First of all, don’t imagine that it’s possible to break through the heat zone, as the temperature at the center of a fire can exceed 1000 degrees; once there, there’s no way back. Also, don’t stay on adjacent floors, as the temperature there is also in the hundreds of degrees. (Furthermore, if you don’t have a wet towel, you can only hold out in the thick smoke for about 3 minutes; if you do have such a towel, you can hold out an additional 1.5 minutes.) You should quickly move to floors 12 or higher and find a suitable room there. 3. What kind of room is suitable? First of all, it’s not the restrooms, because in fires most people don’t die from burns but from suffocation, and the restrooms in the building are usually located in the middle of each floor without windows. Therefore, you must find a room located as close as possible to the main road (so that you will be among the first people rescued by the firefighters). This room must have windows, and no security bars on them (I learned for the first time that in all fires, due to the extreme busyness of the firefighters who are trying to save as many people as possible in a short time, those trapped behind security bars are always the last to be rescued). Once you and your colleagues enter this room, the first thing to do is to close the door, the second thing is to use the tape at hand to seal off all the air conditioner vents that are visible, and the third thing is to break the windows in the room. Of course, if there are multiple people, these actions can be carried out simultaneously. If you’re worried that the windows in the building are made of tempered glass, then tell those male colleagues who are strong not to hit the center of the glass. The four corners of tempered glass are its weakest points, and sharp objects can easily break them. Moreover, whether you are at home or in the office, as long as you are on the third floor or above, do not casually choose to \"escape by jumping\"; the countless people who have lost their lives because of this show that none of us are heroes or Supermen. 4. What should one do while staying in the room? 1) First and foremost, it’s important not to shout “Help” or “Save me,” as this will cause you to consume more oxygen and inhale excessive amounts of carbon monoxide and nitrogen, resulting in you reaching God first than your colleagues ； 2) Second, if it is during the day, one should find brightly colored clothes or strips of cloth and wave them vigorously outside the window to attract attention ； If it is at night, a flashlight should be used to attract attention; however, in a fire scene, if there is no flashlight, a lighter is by no means a good option, as it is not visible in a fire environment and can cause explosions of flammable gases. 3) Thirdly, in any fire, a wet towel is a useful item; covering your eyes and nose will help you hold on longer, thereby giving firefighters more time to save you. 4) Learn how to use a fire extinguisher: \"lift it, pull the pin, aim it, and spray.\" Be sure to distinguish between dry powder fire extinguishers and dry ice fire extinguishers. When your colleagues or family members are on fire, only a dry powder fire extinguisher should be used to spray on their bodies; otherwise, the dry ice at -70 degrees Celsius emitted by a dry ice fire extinguisher can cause the muscles in their burning body to explode. (II) At home: Although the reasons for fires at home are more complex than those in offices, they mainly come down to two sources: the kitchen and household appliances. 1. Kitchen: 1) What should you do if a fire starts in the pan while you are cooking? (This is very common when preparing Chinese dishes, and it is even used as a cooking technique by some master chefs.) You must act quickly, very quickly: pick up the lid from the direction in front of you, place it over the pot smoothly, and turn off the heat. The speed is crucial – before the fire catches your beautiful European or Chinese-style range hood, if it does catch fire, you must leave the area immediately and call the police. Since such a hood is full of dirt and oil, the fire will be beyond your control. 2) If your clothes or body catch fire due to splashed oil, you should: quickly remove the burning clothes, and tell all your family members not to use water to put out the fire on your clothes or body. There was once a young husband who, in such a situation, poured a basin of water on his beloved wife. The fire spread across her body as it touched the mixture of water and oil; originally, she might have only suffered burns to the skin of her hands, but due to her husband’s actions, she lost her life. If your clothes are removed but it’s still ineffective and the living skin on your body starts to burn – even if the fire isn’t caused by oil – remind yourself and your family not to use water to put out the fire on your body. This is because every fat molecule in your living skin is like an drop of oil, and water applied to it will cause your muscles and skin to burst. Please also avoid using your hands. There was once another young husband who, in a moment of panic, tried to slap the flames on his wife’s body with his hands. With each slap, his wife let out a painful cry, and every time he raised his hand, blood and flesh would stick to it from his wife’s body. The wife is a teacher at a middle school in Hongkou District. In the fire caused by household appliances, her husband tried to stop the flames by slapping them and dragging his wife across the ground, and even using quilts, but none of these efforts were able to prevent her from suffering severe third-degree burns all over her body. Doctors managed to save her life through their skilled medical skills, but they also said that repairing her body would require medical expenses of 3,500 RMB per square centimeter. Perhaps this is what it means to live a life worse than death. At this point, unless you have a dry powder fire extinguisher or a large amount of sand—two things that are highly unlikely to be available at home—the most reliable solution is to use a thick cotton quilt. By \"cotton quilt,\" I mean one made of cotton by your mother or grandmother, rather than those synthetic quilts with 9 or 7 pockets sold in supermarkets; use such a quilt to cover your entire body in order to cut off the air supply and thus put out the fire. Those synthetic quilts aren’t thick enough to achieve this effect. Furthermore, don’t imagine using things like rice or salt, which may seem similar to yellow sand; they will all explode inside your loved one’s wounds. Furthermore, if your burn wound has stuck to these blankets—please tell the family members who carried you to the hospital while you were unconscious—that you must be taken to the hospital along with those blankets, so that doctors can separate them. Otherwise, every part of your body that comes into contact with the blanket will become a huge wound. 3) If you smell a leak of gas in your home, what should you do? First of all, you need to open the windows—opening the windows is not to allow the gas to escape, but so that you, who are inside the gas, won’t faint due to lack of oxygen ； Secondly, you need to turn off the main gas valve ； Third, you need to take your phone and go downstairs to call the police. If such a thing happens during a dry winter, exit your home at a steady, slow pace; otherwise, the static electricity on your sweater could become the trigger for an explosion. 4) Gas has an odor, whereas natural gas does not; therefore, smell is a very unreliable indicator. That’s why gas leak detectors must be installed – their loud beeping noise must be strong enough to wake you and your family. Gongkang No. 5 Village in Baoshan District, Shanghai, is one of the earlier intelligent residential communities in the city, equipped with relatively comprehensive fire suppression and gas leak detection systems. Yet in 2003, an incident occurred in this community that to this day has not been reported in the newspapers. A gas main beneath one of the buildings in the complex leaked, and the gas flowed back into one of the buildings through the sewer system. The residents in that building were all asleep; after that night, only two families in that building survived—while the 35 residents of the other families all died peacefully while sleeping. The two families that survived were the only two to have their gas leak alarm systems turned on; they were awakened by the alarms, left their homes, and called the police. 5) Whether it’s at night or right after you get home from work, if you hear a buzzer, please avoid doing what you usually do – turning on the lights – as that could cost you your life in an explosion! 2. Electrical appliances: 1) Turn off your TV and computer completely. Last night, in a family’s home in Xuhui District, the household head habitually turned off the TV using the remote control before going to bed. Since the TV had been in standby mode for a long time and was thus overworked, it generated sparks; this habitual action cost the household head his only son as well as his right hand. All electrical appliances in the house, except for those designed to operate around the clock such as refrigerators, cannot and should not run all night while you are sleeping—chargers and televisions are particularly the case. 2) Do not use more than three appliances on one power strip. I believe those who work in Lujiazui saw, just last month, the massive amounts of smoke coming from the top of the World Financial Center – today we finally learned what caused it: three workers plugged three cutting machines into the same power strip, and a huge ball of fire instantly consumed them; the most seriously injured of them lost a leg – and this led to that spectacular fire in the Lujiazui financial district. Please forgive my deep hatred for Japanese-style buildings, a hatred that I still can’t hide even in the face of such disasters. If you notice yellowing or blackening on a power strip in your home, or if sparks appear when plugging in or unplugging an appliance, it indicates that a minor short circuit has occurred—please replace the power strip immediately. 3) Do not leave your phone’s charger plugged in overnight, and do not charge it while you are sleeping. It is said that the chargers and batteries produced by Moto and Nokia exploded during recent quality tests, and it is also claimed that the pass rate for their phone batteries is no more than 20%. One thing is certain, however: never charge your phone beside your pillow while you are sleeping. In Shanghai, three fires/explosions caused by phone charging occurred last year, one of which resulted in a woman losing her right face while she was asleep. (III) Regarding fire extinguishers: Use of dry powder fire extinguishers: (I) Lift it – hold the handle and lift the fire extinguisher ； (II) Pull out, remove the insurance ； (III) Aim at the point of origin from a side rear position at a distance of more than 1.5 meters from it (even farther if it is an electrical fire) ； (IV) Press and hold the spraying device, aim it at the point of fire, and move it horizontally to surround the fire area with dry powder; for safety reasons, keep spraying for an extended period. After using the fire extinguisher once, the pressure is completely lost within 30 minutes, and fresh powder must be loaded before use again. 13. Precautions for using fire extinguishers: Aluminum can dry powder fire extinguishers have a service life of 30 years, and the powder needs to be replaced every three years (it should be replaced immediately after use) ； The iron can has a service life of five years, and the powder needs to be replaced once a year. It is particularly important to note that when using an iron container, one should not support it from the bottom; instead, the sides should be used for support. This is because when exposed to moisture, the iron container tends to rust, and the dry powder can clump together. Once it clumps, the powder cannot be ejected through the nozzle, and the resulting high pressure is released instead at the welded areas at the bottom (especially in areas where rust has formed). Supporting the container from the bottom will inevitably result in fingers being blown off