For a generation who sat glued to the blockbuster “Towering Inferno”, the world has fallen in love with skyscrapers. The developing world is full of them and globally there are now over a thousand buildings with more than 40 floors. Dubai alone has over 170 buildings in excess of 150 metres high!
Skyscrapers in Dubai are once again on the agenda following the dreadful fire at the 60 story Address in Dubai on New Year’s Eve. Despite the blaze, it has proved difficult to detect any note of anxiety anywhere in the media on skyscraper safety. The big issue in Dubai is said to be inflammable cladding on the outside of the building. A scary thought, when once remembers The Torch Apartment building, Dubai, which also caught fire less than a year ago.
Hotel Fire at The Address Downtown
Fortunately, no fatalities were reported. Anxiety and spectacle sells papers and bandwidth, but interestingly, the media did not play this card. We were even reminded that modern skyscrapers are a masterpiece of engineering. They achieve incredible earthquake resistance in those areas of the world so afflicted, are strong enough to stay standing over many years, cope with fire and withstand anything the weather can throw at them.
Do engineers see things differently? Only to the extent that they have total faith in good engineering and have wobbles when people cut corners. Any product is only as good as its design, quality of the materials and standard of maintenance. Western consultancies, architects and civil engineers have carved out a big slice of global design and build on tall buildings. Naturally, we all hope that standards are as high abroad as they are at home, but is that really the case? With no evidence to the contrary, the media seem happy to continue the sky scraper love affair.
The Torch Dubai Fire
Other than terrorist attack, fire is possibly the biggest nightmare in any building once you get above a few floors. Go to 60 floors and you cannot leave too much to chance. Sarum is a great fan of clever technologies and for us, high fog misting systems for fire suppression are a winner. It is a brilliant idea. Instead of a deluge of water, simply fill your fire zone with an intense fog of water vapour which kills combustion by robbing it of oxygen. A high pressure water ring main, clever fog nozzles and accumulators to hold modest volumes of water save the colossal water usage of traditional systems. Water damage is massively reduced as well.
Big players are Fogtec on http://fogtec-international.com/ Even better is that Micropac test pumps are the tool of choice for high fog installers and maintainers throughout the world.
Sarum loves the big time, but 2 floors are enough for us. See what we do at www.sarum-hydraulics.co.uk
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