Why you can't smoke in public places
is it because everybody doesn't want to smoke secondhand smoke
in a closed environment?
That would be wrong
Smoking must use fire
The presence of spark may cause a fire
And when the fire really came
Evacuation and rescue in unfamiliar environment
would be a big problem
Especially the design of some places
is totally unexpected
An underground station fire in London in 1987 said it all
Platform 9¾ at King's Cross Station
it awakens reminiscences of your youth, right?
I think it's because of Harry Potter that you know this station, right?
Actually in real life,
King's Cross station is the oldest, one of the busiest railway stations in London
Beautiful majestic Victorian style is already a landscape.
Later, it was sought after by magic fans
King's Cross station is famous overseas
It has become a must-see famous point in London
Unfortunately few people know that
there was a serious fire here
November 18, 1987
King's Cross was crowded with commuters rushing home
Plus the shopping season was coming
The station was quite busy
Throughput of at least 250,000 passengers per day
So the escalator was naturally overloaded
So that it needed maintenance every two days
And most of the escalators at that time
all made of wooden slats and rubber handrails
After tinkering,
there's probably another 20 coats of paint
No one remembers what the background color of the board is
but it's doesn't matter
Two weeks before the accident,
there were obvious gaps between steps and sides of escalator
Although it is not big
it has to be repaired in time
Due to the end of the year
there's significantly fewer maintenance workers at London Station
Therefore, the repair work of the gap has been delayed.
Given lessons from other accidents
London stations are non-smoking
But since there are no mandatory measures
when commuters generally leave the ticket hall
they couldn't bear it when standing on the escalator
so smoking on the escalator had become the norm
Around 7:30 p.m.
a commuter reminded a conductor, Phillip Brickell
There's a piece of paper on fire at the bottom of the escalator
Philip immediately put down his work
Sure enough, he found a burning tissue
So quickly put it out
In the end, he went straight back to his post.
The station is non-smoking
Philip didn't even think about where the fire came from
He didn't tell the other colleagues
He didn't even report to the leadership
It seems that this piece of paper
was the last warning before the fire.
Too bad people didn't notice
and the flames breed quietly in a corner of the station
Commuters kept reporting that
seeing a plume of smoke while riding the escalator
At this time, the security inspector
Christopher Hayes went to check out
He found the fire was under the escalator
and cannot be extinguished with a fire extinguisher
So he tried to check the sprinkler system
But the system belongs to another department
he doesn't know how to do it
but even so
He still didn't call the firemen
as the smoke grew
Christopher just realized the seriousness of the problem
So he ran first to stop the train from stopping
to evacuate all personnel
Luckily one cop managed to get to the ground
and called the fire department
Soon the firefighters went down to check the situation
Due to the location of the fire is in a blind spot
Firefighters only saw flames about the size of a cardboard box
It is determined that the fire is not large
don't panic
Actually at this time
The entire bottom of the escalator is on fire.
As the passing trains past
Fresh air kept blowing into the tunnel
The train just acts as a piston
And the whole subway station is more like a huge bellows
It's filled with superheated gas all at once
At this time, thick smoke billowed in the ticket hall
The smell of heated rubber is very bad
It's a nightmare for passengers who just got off the bus
This station is full of smoke
and they can't even see the exit
But it's too late
The train behind has left
They can only bite the bullet and squeeze in the chaos
to try to escape
To evacuate passengers
there were staff directing them
to take another escape elevator
and go to the ticket hall on the upper level
Unexpectedly, this actually pushed the passengers into the abyss
At approximately 7:45 pm
Another train crashed into the station,
brought a lot of fresh oxygen
Everyone thought the fire was under control
but this rush let the already dying flames burn again
Billowing smoke straight up,
sparked a raging fire
and devoured everything around
Especially the passengers who escaped upwards
All fell to the ground by this sudden fireball attack
plus black smoke
Many people can't even stand up
According to the statistics
About 700 passengers were still trapped underground at this time.
As the escalator connecting to the ground had been surrounded by fire
some people even ran onto the train tracks in desperation,
trying to escape this horrible hell
The ticket hall was already packed with commuters during the evening rush hour
In the chaos, the crowd blocked the exit again,
hampered rescue efforts
the enormous heat generated in the fire
made the cement of the ceiling expand after the structure loses water
caused extensive shedding
slammed on commuter causing serious injuries
The entire station had been turned into a high-temperature furnace
at least 600 degrees Celsius
Firefighters had to spray each other with water guns to cool down
Firefighting and search and rescue operations lasted all night
until 6 hours later
That is, at 1:45 in the morning of the next day
The fire was completely extinguished
the reason why rescue work was so difficult is that
the ferocious fire and
the firefighters didn't get the plans for the station.
It is said it's locked in an office
And no one knows who holds the key
it's seriously affected the progress of the rescue work
The fire killed 31 people
100 injured
that's a heavily lost
A station policeman named Colin Townsley disappeared
after going underground with the firefighters
Rescuers later found that
his body lying next to a badly burned passenger
It turned out that Colin was helping the passenger
Unexpectedly, he was also shrouded in smoke
just can't breathe anymore
After the rescue
Investigation began immediately
Everyone was wondering about one question
How come in just tens of seconds
the flames suddenly climbed up the escalator
to form a jet fireball?
According to eyewitnesses and firefighters
earlier, fire on escalator was completely under the control
And there were already several firefighters on the scene
Everyone had no sense of crisis
People's cognition of the flame on the inclined surface is limited
So they can't find the reason why the fire spread fast
Some even began to suspect that this was a terrorist attack
Finally, the combustion power expert showed up
They built the escalator model of King's Cross station
The fire scene was simulated using a supercomputer
after the escalator caught fire
originally upward flame
suddenly parallel advance along the escalator
and spread rapidly
Turns out it's a combination of the Coanda effect and the chimney effect
Experts call this phenomenon the "trench effect".
Let's take a look
The Coanda effect is also known as the wall attachment effect
it refers to the direction in which the fluid moves away from the original direction of flow
and changes to the tendency to flow with protruding surfaces
The most common example is when we pour water
The water will flow out along the wall of the container
And after the superheated gas at the fire site encountered the escalator
changes the original vertical upward movement path
straight up the slope
As the heat continues to climb
There's a new train coming in
infusing fresh oxygen again and again
This creates a chimney effect
This is better to understand
When a fire breaks out in a high-rise building, it often occurs
When hot air rises
it draws outside air in to fill
so there's excellent combustion effect
Under the combination of these two phenomena
Trench effect arises from this
the fire is burning greater
and becomes unstoppable
Presumably, the fire started because someone lit a cigarette
unextinguished match fell through the gap in the escalator steps
which ignited a large amount of dust, bits and paint
that has accumulated in the escalator running track
nobody knows who caused that
After all, a group of people were smoking on the escalator
littering cigarette butts and matches had become commonplace
It is understood that a few years before the fire
The Director of Station Operations once proposed
accumulated paint can pose a fire hazard
But that's beyond his remit.
So there is no more text
Do you think the subway staff seem to be a bit incompetent
like when it first started
after conductor Philip being called out to dispose of burning tissues
he immediately returned to his post
he did not delve into it
It seem like it's not a matter of his job
so he automatically blocked it
Indeed, an insider later revealed
because the station staff were warned
that do not contact the fire department casually
Otherwise it will cause unnecessary panic
It's just incredible to us now
there is a large part of the reason that
these seemingly indifferent behaviors far from duty
comes from a set of unwritten operating rules of the London Underground
Each employee only needed to do their own specific work
and don't need to ask anything else
Simply put, don't meddle
Of course, there were pros and cons to this approach.
For example, the conductor only cared about handling tickets
they can maximize efficiency
So Philip didn't tell anyone about the tissues
maybe it's also because
this thing in itself has gone above and beyond his duty.
he didn't want any more trouble
And not only employees do not exceed their authority
Even the various departments will not interfere with each other
For example, the underground system is divided into 4 departments
signal engineering
electrical engineering
Civil and Mechanical Engineering
Each department has its own hierarchical network,
responsible for its own jurisdiction
In short, each department worked independently
Although this seems to be in order
in practice, there were many disadvantages
they lack of communication among employees
They will not actively share information with each other
not to mention "extraordinary" things
Most importantly, they lack of safety training
Christopher, as a safety inspector,
can't even control the sprinkler system
let alone other staff
And all of this is because of the upper
Staff were not trained in such a big station
no exaggeration, it's just a matter of time
And what's even more shocking is that
after the accident
many managements at Kings Cross station all resigned
Except of course the irresponsible upper management
The escalator itself existed years of litter and dirt
plus heavy paint
and the missing station plan
These are all details before the disaster
No one cares
Even noticed, they'll be like
"oh", "it's not my business" and "forget it"
A little leak will sink a great ship
When all the little bugs collide
they can also cause devastating disasters
After the accident
All wooden escalators at the station were replaced
Fire extinguishers and alarms were also installed
besides,
automatic sprinkler system,
the fire detection system is also fully installed in place
Many slogans also appeared at King's Cross Station
like prohibiting random littering
No smoking
The disaster also sounded the alarm to the whole world
Trench effect especially
It was also regarded as a classic fire protection case for science popularization,
leaving a profound lesson for future generations
I've also talked about many tragic accidents to this day.
Did you find out
sometimes the cause of a catastrophe is very small
but always due to a series of errors
they led to a fatal disaster
Through these accidents, we can also feel that
the cost of ignoring risk is simply too high
More importantly, no matter what industry
Departments need to break down information islands,
so everyone will complete the goal together
In short, any little thing can't be taken lightly
Even if it's just a little spark
Well, that's the end of this video.
What do you think of this disaster?
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I'm Zheng Zheng
See you the next video