Recent history has shown that human-created events and extreme acts of nature can lead to tremendous distress within a building, threatening ever-larger numbers of people, as they overcome the various preventing and mitigating barriers. Hence, affording assurance of fast and robust tenant evacuation as well as responder access remains a high and critical priority.
Mar March 2015 – Fire tears through Harlem high-rise in NY – "Firefighters were going up as tenants were going down through a smoke filled stairwell. Older people who had canes and walkers were struggling".
May 2014 Fire in a South Korea Hospital left 21 dead. Most of the patients who died at the hospital were in their seventies and eighties. Bedridden patients were trapped by "choking fumes".
January 2014 - One Dead, One Injured in NYC High-Rise Fire. Victims were overcome by smoke and flames in the stairwell.
ch 2015 – Fire tears through Harlem high-rise in NY – "Firefighters were going up as tenants were going down through a smoke filled stairwell. Older people who had canes and walkers were struggling".
The 2010 fire that destroyed a 28-story high-rise apartment building in the city of Shanghai, China, killing at least 58 people and injuring more than 120 others.
The Beijing Television Cultural Center fire in 2009.
The Cornwall Court Fire fire incident in Hong Kong in 2008, taking the lives of four people, including two firefighters, and injuring a further 55 people.
The tower block in south-east London fire in which 6 people, including infants had died and others injured.
Fire in a Russian office building, in 2006, in which nine people died and many others were injured after jumping from the burning building.
The Windsor building fire in 2005, which destroyed the emblematic 28-story tower in the heart of Madrid's business district.
Fire at the 45-story LaSalle Bank building in Chicago, which injured 37 people, including 22 firefighters in 2004.
Fire at the 35-story Cook County Administration Building in Chicago, which killed six office workers and injured eight others in 2003.