Mr Mamadou Wague, who lived with his family in the third-floor duplex where the fire broke out, told The New York Post that in his haste, he forgot to close the apartment door behind him., clearing a path for smoke to begin filling the 19-storey tower.
Those benefits are why New York requires that apartment doors in any building with three or more units be outfitted with special hinges to close on their own, and why the city encourages residents to close the doors to bedrooms while they sleep.City officials said the fire in the Bronx started when an electrical space heater in a third-floor duplex burst into flames on Sunday morning. Residents in the unit rushed out, but the self-closing door to the apartment failed to shut behind them.
Dr Jeff Kimble, an assistant professor of fire safety at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, said smoke"behaves like a fluid would", finding its way through small openings and into crevices. But because smoke is hot, lighter than the surrounding air, he added,"it has a propensity to want to rise".
Deciding whether to stay or go comes down to two critical factors: how close the fire is to your apartment, and whether your building is fireproof.
straits_times A safety device failed to work? Sounds like negligent manslaughter to me.
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