4 Girls Fall To Death To Escape Dorm Fire

by Fauna on Sunday, November 16, 2008 31 comments

Four Shanghai Business School girls fell to their deaths after trying to escape from a fire in their sixth-floor dorm room. They were 19 to 21-years-old and were all studying economics.

When the news first happened, many BBS forums began talking about this incident. Many Chinese netizens expressed their condolences and many others argued about what happened. Here are some of the BBS discussions and comments:

From KDS, “Shanghai Business School fire dorm pictures and video, they had a chance“:

From the video and pictures, it can be seen clearly that climbing along the side to the dorm room next door was definitely not something that was not possible. I do not know if we should say these few girls were brave or not for their judgment. If there was someone next door to help rescue, by lending a hand, maybe it [the result] would have been much better.

The dorm in the video: http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-11-14/102516653912.shtml

This is easy to climb. My home was like this too. When I did not bring my keys. I would just climb in.

It does not matter if it i easy or not to climb over, they must install firefighting system in the dorms in the future.

Right now it looks easy to climb…
But 1. The dorm room next door did not have anyone to help.
2. Maybe just looking down and seeing how high it was, they did not dare climb over.
3. The intensity of the fire was big, so they could not be so calm.

May God bless them, amen!

“there is no accident”
It was all a result of negligence.
A building problem.
A management problem.
A thinking/mindset problem.
A society problem.

No one will probably dare to live in this dorm room ever again.

Fuck! They deserved to die! Such a short distance and they did not know to climb next door. This IQ, this consciousness is so poor it makes humanity disappointed.
Waste of life, Death’s [the Death God's] method’s were entirely correct.

No matter how you say it, the people in the next door dorm room ran off to protect themselves. If they were still there, they could have kicked down the door from the outside…and then ran.

It is probable that the fire was too big at the time, and the heat forced them to run towards the balcony, and then they did not know about the situation next door. We can see from the pictures very clearly that they could have climbed, but from their position on the balcony maybe all they saw was a wall. In addition to being extremely scared, and the fire being overwhelming, so the result was that the girls jumped!

It was just an ordinary fire, there were not even a lot of combustibles that were ignited, so in theory it could not have spread on a large-scale.
What I do not understand is how the people next door did nothing to help rescue them, no matter if it was just standing next door and yelling, running a rope, or extending a hand, any of that could have saved 4 lives.
The picture is too ridiculous, on one side four people have died, on another side there are clothes hung out to dry safe and sound. To reflect from another angle, this is society’s sadness. Everyone only looks after themselves.

From KDS, “Regarding Shanghai Business School’s dormitory fire, come see this“:

A friend happened to be living nearby took this picture, said this was the state of the fire right they jumped.
Pretty big…

Comments:

Such a big fire, I bet if it was me, I would also jump.

Jumping was the only option.

There were only a few seconds for escape, once the time has passed, the only road left is death.
When meeting disaster, remaining calm is the most important.

This picture says it all, you have no choice but to jump!

Indeed one could only jump, burning to death would be even more painful.

With the fire already so big, there would not have been anyone to go help them.
This is because the boys and girls dorms are too far from each other.

What the hell were they studying? What the hell was in their brains?
Why not try to climb sideways, it would have been the most effective, I do not believe that all four of them would have died if they had tried climbing sideways.

It is said that the electric water kettle had not been unplugged the night before. When the electricity came on in the morning [the electricity for Chinese university dorms are often turned off at night], it burned until it exploded~
If you say jump, at least jump out towards the door, why go towards the balcony to jump…but the fire was indeed pretty big, and when the fire has gotten this big, the only option left really is to jump!

The poorest/most pitiful are the four girls’ parents.

In the past, my dorm room was on the sixth floor too, and I would sometimes forget to bring my keys, so I would climb in from the balcony next door. The girls should have climbed, jumping down was the worst plan, very regrettable, but when Death has come, you cannot escape.

What a shame!
The problem is that those who jumped after should have see what happened to those who jumped first! And they still chose to jump, I bet it is because they had no choice! Truly pitiful!
Actually, the only exit should be the floor below, but maybe the floor below already evacuated!
Can everyone consider just how desperate the people there were? They could have climbed to the lower floor, but there was no one to support them!
Truly what a shame!

I bet if it was the boys dormitory, there would not be many who would simply jump down.
If there really was no way out on the balcony, they should have found a way out, whether it was going towards the side or going down a level…
You guys watched all those American disaster movies for nothing.

From KDS: “Heart aches after seeing one of Shanghai Business School’s student’s Xiaonei profile“:

Journal, signature, and comments, sigh.

Comments:

Their family members must be heart-broken.

A moment of silence…may they rest in peace.

This kind of stuff I cannot stand the most…suddenly I feel terrible…

It seems people are still human and have feelings after all… [this person is impressed that people have left comments expressing concern]

The truth must be said, if the electrical heating rod was her’s…

Now the clicks are in the tens of thousands…comments are still waiting for the first thousand. [This person is disappointed that many people have read the news but did not leave a reply]

What a shame, what a shame.

Honestly, the most pretty is her, she is pretty good-looking.

Hope they can be happy in heaven!

Comments from NetEase:

Everyday there are people dying, I have become numb!

China has too many people, a few dying…I have truly become numb.

Sigh.
These things always happening…
…is truly sad.

This kind of thing really should not happen…
The higher authorities and school administration were not in place, causing today’s tragedy, hopefully the higher authorities will diligently take care of this.

This is not just one case, the reports are always this little, perhaps there are still more that were not reported!

“Value life highly” is not a joke, it is a lesson.

A moment of silence for the four female students, presents flowers.

More Reading (Chinese):

KDS: 早上中山西路商校出事了
NetEase: 上海商学院4女生为避火跳楼摔死
Sina: 上海商学院失火 4名女生跳楼逃生身亡
KDS: 【上海商学院火灾4女生跳楼】多图
KDS: 说商学院事件为什么不爬到隔壁的，请看这张图。
KDS: 商学院最新室内图片
KDS: 【哀悼】逝者安息，生者团结

More Reading (English):

Shanghai Daily: 4 students die trying to escape campus fire in city
Shanghai Daily: 4 students die in bid to escape fire
Shanghaiist: Four students at Shanghai Business School jump to death to escape from burning dorm room

See more posts about universities, students, and death:

31 Comments

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Palmyra

Sunday, November 16, 2008 at 10:52 pm

was there a water sprinkler in the room?

Reply
Peteryang

Sunday, November 16, 2008 at 11:18 pm

from the look of it, jumping WAS the only option.

Reply
BeWay

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 12:14 am

That’s life. All is fated. We sympathize the sad loss of another human beings. God bless them.

Reply
Gnah

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 12:19 am

They could have climbed sideways to their right.

Or jumped to the balcony on their left.

Or (easiest) let themselves drop down and catch the balcony 2 meters below theirs.

I don’t get it.

Reply
Kai

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 12:56 am

The Shanghai Daily article says that one girl jumped aiming for the bushes but missed while the remaining three tried “clambering” to another room (I presume the one next to it) but failed and fell.

As long as that was indeed the case, there’s very little reason to criticize the girls aside from being careless with an appliance they shouldn’t have had in the first place (leaving the water boiler thing plugged in).

Judging by the topics and comments above, I think a good deal of people thought the girls panicked and too casually made the decision to jump rather than calm down and try to find an alternative that might have given them a better chance.

To be certain, it is hard to know what was going through the girls’ minds under those circumstances and from their perspective up there on the balcony, but it does seem reasonable for everyone else looking at the pictures to presume that climbing along the balcony’s railing/edge over to the balcony next to it would’ve been a far better option than trying to survive a six-story jump.

Unfortunately, it is hard to say whether they were clear-headed enough. Moreover, their odds of scaling the railing would still be bad. It is easy for rough and tumble monkey boys to say it is a piece of cake and they’ve done it before, but (without being unreasonably sexist) these are girls who may not be rough and tumble monkey girls who have done it before and think it is a piece of cake.

Looking at the pictures, there seems to be two options for climbing over:

1. Get on top of the concrete railing, steady yourself on the separating wall, hook a leg over to the other side, straddle the separating wall, then bring the rest of you over. Problem with this is the heat and smoke of the fire might be in your face.

2. Climb over the railing, drop down while free-hanging by your fingertips, and shift hand over hand over along the railing towards the balcony next door. Since heat and smoke travels upwards and you’re behind the concrete wall, the heat and smoke will be less of a problem. Unfortunately, this requires upper body strength. Easy for rock-climbers, but maybe not so easy for dainty university schoolgirls.

While adrenaline can do some amazing things, I wouldn’t give the girls too hard of a time.

Anyway, as far as reflecting on the incident goes, it does make more sense to evaluate the building’s fire safety as well as both the students’ and school official’s response to a fire emergency.

Reply
Kai

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 1:04 am

As Gnah said…

3. Climb over the railing, hang off the floor of the balcony, drop and try to hook onto the railing of the balcony below. Might result in a few sprains or broken bones/fingers but you’ll live. Better yet, hang off, then try to swing your body and use the momentum of your body swinging inward towards the building to increase your chances of falling diagonally into the bottom balcony, thereby avoiding having to time an arm hook or hand grab as you fall straight down vertically.

Again, all things you might not think of when panicking…but hey, for anyone reading this that might find themselves in a similar situation in the future…

Reply
bob

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 1:49 am

@Kai

How ’bout I light a fire up your ass and see how successful you’ll be?

Reply
TahwYOJ

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 1:51 am

Condolences to the families.

But yeah, I always try to think up ways to escape in these apt. buildings. That’s just something I enjoy thinking about it when smoking outside, hehe. I always try to imagine how to ‘cat burglar’ myself out of the balcony. 6 story building and this particular configuration doesn’t seem hard. But on say a 20 story building? Not so easy then.

And from experience I know one MUST REMAIN CALM and not panic.

And if you were in this situation which one would you pick? Going side-ways or going down?

The down route is probably better to grab the rail, and swing your body into the balcony below, since you may not have good gripe grabbing on the balcony floor.

Crossing sideways has it’s own issues, like Kai said. The biggest problem I see is with the wall extrusion. It’s hard to get a grip with that. So the only way is to hang over that edge, by griping your hands onto the lateral balcony walls on both sides (I assume you can get a pretty decent grip) but you do need the upper body strength.

So I probably will choose down in this case.

If would be nice to keep a set of ropes just for these sort of situation. Emergency 1,2,3 get it up, lock the thing to the rail, viola you are down safely to the balcony below.

Reply
TahwYOJ

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 1:55 am

Yes, always prepared!!! We are tool using animals.. Live up to that NAME!!

@Bob,

Hmm, that’s why you HAVE TO be PREPARED for situations such as this. Prepartion is THE KEY. You have think about what you are going to do in such as situation. Hell, practice!

Then the only thing left is to NOT panic when the actual thing goes down.

All of the above will increase your chances of survival. There is no guarantee. But we’re talking about our own lives here so you want to increase that chance as much as possible.

Reply
Joe

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 6:46 am

With a blast of fire like that, I’m sure they had no time to think. It’s really sad to see them die like that. Pity there were no fire escape stairs.

I also wonder just what caused a fire that big. There are better materials to use so that fires cannot get that large so quickly, walls can have firebreaks inside them, and smoke alarms and sprinklers can help catch things before they get too large to stop.

But most people don’t think about those things until it’s too late. Even I didn’t have a fire extinguisher at home until recently. I wonder, how many people here even own a fire extinguisher? I only see them in businesses, never in people’s homes.

Reply
dth

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 9:02 am

speaking of chinese parasites

Two UK citizens of Chinese origin have been caught using high end spying technology to help Chinese candidates cheat UK immigration “Life in The United Kingdom” tests.

Steven Lee and Rong Yang have been jailed for eight months after having been found guilty of operating a scam which could have allowed dozens of other fellow Chinese citizens to pass the Knowledge of life test, which is essential for anyone who wish to become a British citizen.

Officers discovered laptops, radio transmitters and radio transmitters that were first though to have been used for cash machine scams but which the two crooks said were being used by them to watch Chinese television (in their BMW car).

The pair transmitted the answers to their “clients”, who each had to pay £1000, via an in-ear speaker and supervising the operation by using a button-hole camera.

Even candidates who did not know how to write or speak English could pass the exam provided they knew how a multiple choice question test works.

Reply
TahwYOJ

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 9:55 am

dth,

You are a genius!!!

Thanks for showing us that some *people parasites are criminals, that they find various way to scam people.

So, what does this have to do with the post topic?

*Chinese, Russian, Italian, American, Mexicans, and various asshole trolls.

Reply
fireworks

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 10:11 am

What a real tragedy. In an emergency, most people would panic in fear. Very few with act like MacGyver and use their brains to climb over to the next apartment. This is in reply to the 6th comment translated.

If they had better warning systems like smoke detectors or proper fire systems like sprinkler system or the fire extinguisher at the top floor it would have help.

Reply
Kai

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 11:08 am

@ bob:

A little mental exercise doesn’t hurt, especially when I actually argued for the girls probably being too panicked to have thought of everything so clearly as we can, you know, sitting as we are in the comfort of not having a fire up our asses.

Nonetheless, people panic and are liable to make bad decisions when they’re confronted with situations unfamiliar, unexpected, or never considered by them. I’d argue the mere act of discussing how one could escape such a situation just might help someone who is reading should they ever encounter a similar situation…even if it is just a little. In those situations, the slightest bit of familiarity or a memory of something useful could make a big difference.

Maybe you think I’m being insensitive for merely discussing the possibilities, despite my other statements. Oh well, you’re free to feel that way.

Reply
Joe

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 11:28 am

Well, I think it’s important to make it clear that we have sympathy for these victims, but yes, it is good to think about ways this could have been prevented. After all, if no one learns from this, their deaths will have been meaningless. So the least we can do for these poor girls is to give their deaths some meaning by looking for ways to improve things.

The first action in any dangerous situation like that should, in fact, be to sound an alarm. If the other girls were asleep (or they suspected that the other girls might be), they really ought to have shouted to wake them up. And water won’t cut it. You really need an extinguisher for that sort of thing. Fires grow quickly. I will say, though, that based on the limited damage (the whole building didn’t go up in flames), that the building must be pretty good, even if it doesn’t appear to have sprinklers (and the girls didn’t know where to find an extinguisher–there was once an extinguisher on the wall right outside my dorm room; and I remember that even though it was a decade ago).

Hopefully people will take this as an opportunity to think about what they would do in an emergency and how they could protect their family and friends. It’s always helpful to be prepared. After all, never having to use that knowledge is the best case scenario. If the worst happens, though, at least you’ll be ready.

Reply
Rick in China

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 12:16 pm

“They should have” grabbed some blankets and made a big parachute to base jump with then ninja’d off the edge with cool expressions, maybe freeze-framing somewhere mid-jump and pop up some advertisements like Do The Dew! or some random Japanese characters ending with an unrelated advertisement for dry noodles.

Wait, this is real? Shit like this happens all the time, people panic, people do stupid things, people die, not very interesting news. Unfortunate, but not shocking or thought provoking.

Reply
Peteryang

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 3:19 pm

all your arguments on what the two surviving students should have done are moot, in shituations like this, only trained specialists know what to do, for ordinary people, “run” was all there’s to it. this is live or die, not 学习雷锋.

those who failed to renew or at least warn about the outdated extinguishers and who made shoddy kitchenware need to be held responsible and punished by applicable law.

Reply
Kai

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 3:44 pm

LoL, “shituations.” Most apt.

Reply
fireworks

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 7:06 pm

Maybe compulsory military training for all girls is the solution. Teach them to flying fox down a rope to another building or rappeling down the building using clothes as the rope.

Reply
effezzhang

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 7:14 pm

Jeez,

Kinda feel sorry that 4 bright minds just got snuffed out just like that. But that’s why folks I keep a dry chemical fire extinguisher in my apartment and have it checked every six months. It’s not what people normally do in Australia as well, but having worked in insurance and having gone through fire warden training, it’s worth the small expense having a small safeguard at easy reach… especially when the other way out is a 30meter dive to the concrete floor…

RIP ladies….

Reply
Wurly

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 8:13 pm

@ Ai

In Australia, smoke alarms are required by law in all apartments/homes/dwellings. And sprinklers are required in apartment buildings like this.

Numerous studies have shown that smoke alarms reduce death and injury by a significant amount.

Reply
effezzhang

Monday, November 17, 2008 at 8:57 pm

@wurly

eek… you wouldn’t want the sprinklers to activate though… contrary to what the movies show you… the water in the spriklers can be kinda muddy or murky due to the period that it’s left stuck in the pipes….

though I have to admit spraying dry-chem around your kitchen isn’t much better.. but hey least its dry….

Reply
will

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 1:51 am

The universities must install fire alarms, especially in China since they often cram up to 8 people into a single room.

My uni dorm in the States……. had sprinklers and a fire alarm.

All the potheads however would cover up the fire alarms when they spark up, so the Resident Assistants wouldn’t know what was going on.

Also in the states, the most people I’ve heard of in a dorm room is 3 people.

I have lived in a dormitory suite with 8 people, theres 4 rooms + a communal area.

Reply
TahwYOJ

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 4:00 am

No, you got to be prepared, that means fire extinguishers. And believeeeee me those work.

Pot-heads are dumbasses (ha, cos they’re too damn stoned perhaps. I HATE POT HEADS! NO GOOD POT HEADS. Get a REAL BRAIN. GET A F*** JOB.). Just smoke in the shower.

Reply
Ron

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 9:12 am

SO sad, they need to install better fire warning devices.

Reply
jimmy depp

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 9:21 am

These peopel are pitiful.
Panicking like that, and they want to enter business?

and the idiot who called for the neighbors to kick down the door, man are they idiotic.

If you kick down the door, the flame would shoot out and kill that man also.

Reply
Kai

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 10:37 am

@ jimmy depp:

Dude, this was a dorm fire that was already sprouting out the window. This isn’t backdraft, where kicking down the door to a sealed smoldering oxygen-starved room would’ve resulted in a fresh breath of O2 for the fire to explode outward. Kicking down the door would’ve been entirely reasonable if you had gone to get water to put out the fire but came back realizing the door was locked and four of your roommates were still in the room…with the fire.

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Bender

Monday, January 12, 2009 at 3:58 pm

Okay, I want a piece of this one.

Here’s the deal:

If you look closely at the picture, the separation wall clearly extends past that of the railing. The “just throw the leg over” theory isn’t that simple. If you can’t see what it is that you’re trying to grab hold of, you can’t even begin to think about how to execute this manuever.

Also, these poor girls had no time to think clearly because fire moves at an incredibly high rate of speed. Not to mention the fact that a blaze of that size is HOT, HOT HOT! It also creates incredible air circulation.

No one, and I repeat no one could possibly face all elements and have the ability to calmly decide which is the best method to get away from those flames.

For all we know, they may just have thought the neighboring dorm was on fire as well. All they wanted to do was get away from the heat and find cooler air.

Imagine being 6 stories high, hanging on the railing, trying to lean back, peer around the wall and move over to the next dorm while the skin is melting off your hands.

Let’s see how calm and calculated your moves will be then.

Reply
Kai

Monday, January 12, 2009 at 4:45 pm

@ Bender:

The separating wall is not perfectly vertical. It protrudes a bit beyond the railing before angling back deeper into it. It is like a triangle. That said, I agree it is not actually “simple” to just casually throw a leg over given the situation (with a fire raging in your room), but it is not impossible and I do believe it is a physically reasonable option if you were cool-headed enough to identify it and then attempt it. I grant these girls and most people would be in a state of panic and probably wouldn’t have thought of it, but I’m not blaming them for it. I’m just hypothesizing with the benefit of hindsight for the sake of discussion.

No one, and I repeat no one could possibly face all elements and have the ability to calmly decide which is the best method to get away from those flames.

I disagree with this absolute statement. I believe there are plenty (not all, not most) of people who DO have the ability to remain calm in situations that most people would be panicking in. Again, I’m not blaming the girls, just saying I wish the outcome didn’t involve them hanging off the railing and jumping to their deaths.

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Sad61

Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8:38 am

H went to the other car and started yelling at the driver. ,

Reply

Continuing the Discussion

laura & tony » underlawyered