The last fire of the Łazienkowski Bridge can hardly be considered a successful fire brigade. They do it better today even in Dubai.
DubaiPhoto: Future-Image / ZUMAPRESS.com / Zuma Press
I was a few blocks away when one of the tallest buildings in Dubai and one of the tallest apartment buildings in the world caught fire on Saturday night . The building is called " Torch Tower " was built in 2011, has 87 floors and 676 apartments.
The fire started on the 51st floor and quickly reached floor 83. It looked really menacing, especially since a sandstorm was raging in Dubai at this time and the wind was blowing at over 80 kilometers per hour.
The guards arrived 9 minutes after the fire. Not only was the fire fought in the building itself, other nearby skyscrapers were protected, but the real challenge was to lead more than a thousand inhabitants out of the burning and smoke-filled building.
In the local press, the descriptions are full of delight not only for the professional action of firefighters , but above all for the protection of the building itself. In the clouds of pungent smoke, security guards walked from apartment to apartment checking if all residents had already left.
More than a thousand people awakened in the middle of the night were evacuated in less than an hour. Deliberate arson is excluded. It is suspected that the fire arose, either from a cigarette butt or from a very popular water pipe (the so-called sheeshy).
After two hours, the fire was under control and the action was over. In addition to the destroyed building, the balance of losses is only seven slightly smoky.
As the local press emphasizes, this is the result of fire protection professionally conducted in Dubai, but above all the regular exercises of the local fire brigade and security services. As a result, the number of fires in Dubai fell last year by 8.7 percent compared to 2013.
Reading all these descriptions and admiration for the efficiently carried out action, I began to compare it to what it looked like in our country, when the second largest bridge in the capital of the country being a member of the European Union caught fire.
Warsaw guards received the first call that something was burning under the Łazienkowski Bridge at 13:30.
Today firefighters say that it was a very small fire and in a different place than the later one - larger.
Why then did the firefighters not pay attention to the fact that it is forbidden to store flammable materials under the bridge, which are undoubtedly dry boards?
And when they caught fire at 17.30, one of the bridge security personnel escaped, the other for unknown reasons did not immediately inform the guard.
When I recently talked with the head of a medium-sized agency why security works so badly in our company, he honestly admitted that for 5 zlotys per hour clients should be glad that bodyguards come to work at all.
The price war ended us, 'he said. And that's why the quality of protection in Poland is very low
The fire under the bridge had to reach the height of a seven-story building for someone to finally call the guard.
Looking at how the firefighters extinguished the bridge, I think they should remember one of Murphy's laws forever: "If something can go wrong, it will definitely go."
And so it happened. The snakes from the guard carts that first arrived did not reach the burning structure of the bridge. Firefighters' boats proved to be too light and the Vistula's current was pushing them under the bridge as they tried to put out the fire. The situation was saved by "Chudy Wojtek" - MPWiK boat, which was quickly serviced, refueled and set off for help. Soon, however, it turned out that the water extinguishes the fire very badly and you need to use foam for effective action . The fire brigade knew this well last year when buying a modern foam extinguishing boat for 800,000. zlotys.
However, it turned out that the boat froze in the Żerań port. Well, "sorry, that's the climate."
Therefore, a similar boat had to be brought all the way from Płock. And she finally extinguished the fire. The whole action lasted over 12 hours. Twice as long as the one in 1975, when exactly the same technical bridge caught fire. At that time, however, the fire was not extinguished, only a few holes were drilled in the road and the fire was extinguished.
Drawing conclusions from this fire, a wooden technical bridge was laid with non-flammable asbestos. And so secured for 30 years has survived to this day. Recently, the city authorities decided to modernize this old security and replace the wooden asbestos bridge with an iron truss. A contractor was chosen, and he first removed asbestos from the boards, and began to store the boards just below the bridge. He hired two people for protection, whose task was to watch if something bad was happening at the construction site.
And what happened next is already known. However, the attitude of the Warsaw authorities amazes me the most in this whole history.
Why are the bridges not monitored and the rainbow on Plac Zbawiciela? (there should be a rainbow and bridges).
Why were there no exercises in the event of a bridge fire?
Why were there no regular City Guard patrols around bridges, where thieves often tan the stolen cables before returning them to a collection point?
Why didn't anyone control how the contractor stores and protects flammable materials?
Do the standards and fire protection apply only in ready facilities, and not in newly created and modernized ones?
I am afraid to think what it looks like in other cities, when one of the largest Polish bridges burned in front of everyone in the capital. I am very curious, what conclusions did the fire brigade and Warsaw authorities draw from this fire in the future? Because I haven't heard any yet.
I really like listening to the representatives of the capital's Town Hall who tell us that it might be better and that this bridge should be completely rebuilt.
First of all, it would have to be done over time, and secondly the new rebuilt bridge will have a bike path!
And this is to be enjoyed, not to complain about temporary traffic jams in the city. According to the City Hall, they will last only from a few to several months. The authorities respond to the urgent requests of residents to open the Śląsko-Dąbrowski bridge for cars around the clock - we will not open it, because it will become a traffic jam (!).
Or maybe it's worth seeing how it is done in Dubai?
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