On May 5, when the reporter visited the fire hazard investigation and rectification in Haizhu District and Yuexiu District of Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, he found that the fire hazards such as illegal charging of electric bicycles, fire hydrants not coming out of water, and poor evacuation channels were more prominent.

Illegal charging is still common after fires

"How do you leave an e-bike on your doorstep to charge? If there is a fire together, what should I do? ”

"It's better than charging it at home. I had the first floor which was convenient for pulling the cord. Everyone else takes the battery home to recharge. ”

At about 5 o'clock on May 15, when the reporter was interviewing, he met Mr. Yao, who rented the first floor of No. 10 Baoshan Li, Baoxian Community, Haizhu Street, Haizhu District, pulling a cable through the window to charge the electric bicycle parked in front of his home. In the face of the reporter's prompt, he was not impressed, saying that there was no place for centralized parking or charging of powered bicycles in the vicinity. It is less than 7 meters from the scene of the "May 5" fire accident in Haizhu District, and the tragedy of five deaths has only passed one day.

A tenant in Haizhu District pulls wires to charge electric bicycles

In the early morning of May 5, a fire broke out in a private house on Xihouheng Street, Baogang, Haizhu District, killing five people. According to the "Guangzhou Haizhu Release" news, the cause of the fire accident has been preliminarily identified as the fire caused by the charging of electric vehicle batteries. The house where the incident occurred is located in the Baoxian community.

On the morning of May 5, the reporter visited the scene of the "May 15" fire accident and found that there were widespread problems such as illegal parking of electric bicycles and charging at home in Baoxian community. The illegally parked electric bicycles are in stark contrast to the leaflets printed on the walls along the street with reminders such as "electric bicycles should not be parked in buildings and charged in the room".

"There should be no fire. I don't ride e-bikes much, so I park my bike at home and occasionally charge it. On the first floor of No. 6-6 Baoshanli, an electric bicycle owner told reporters while unplugging the charger. The owner lives in a house with an area of about 15 square meters, with furniture, appliances such as beds, refrigerators, and dining tables. Electric bicycles block most of the door, and owners have to pass sideways to get in and out.

The reporter met Mr. Zhao at No. 21 Baoshanli, who had just retrieved the electric bicycle battery from a charging point 3 kilometers away. It takes 7 hours to fully charge a battery, and half an hour to go back. "The fire on May 5 was said to have been caused by the indoor charging of electric bicycles, and I couldn't risk my family's life." He used to occasionally take the battery home to recharge, he said, but now he would rather run more.

Uncle Wang, who lives on the fourth floor of No. 4-1 in Baoshan Li, does not think so: "I am old, too lazy to toss, and I don't know where to charge, so I can only bring the battery home to charge, which is to gamble with my life and luck." ”

Baoxian community is a typical old community, with an area of only 0.08 square kilometers, most of the houses were built in the 80s of last century, and the permanent population is more than 5000,<> people, mostly the elderly. The reporter saw at the scene that most of the houses were installed with anti-theft windows, and there were no escape doors, and the spacing between buildings was narrow. Limited by the width of the streets and alleys, electric bicycles are a common means of transportation for community residents. Many residents are well aware of the dangers of illegal parking and charging of electric bicycles, but they are still lucky.

Multiple hydrants do not come out of the water and the evacuation routes are not smooth

On the same day, the reporter also visited some places in Yuexiu District.

"Don't worry, our firefighting facilities here are complete and safe..." said Ms. Yuan, who is in charge of the apartment at No. 5-15 Jixiang Road, Yuexiu District, on the afternoon of May 48.

However, this is not the case. Located on the second floor, the auspicious apartments have a total of 23 rooms, and the only access is through a narrow staircase that can only accommodate one adult. The internal aisle is similarly narrow, with garbage and debris piled up next to the fire equipment placed on one side of the aisle. Unscrewed the hydrant at the door of the apartment, and no water came out. Ms. Yuan explained that this hydrant belongs to the property management, and she does not know, the fire hydrants in the store are all water.

A number of fire hydrants in a building in Yuexiu District do not produce water

The lack of water on fire hydrants also occurred in the building at 48-3 Jixiang Road. The building has a total of 10 floors, and the sign at the entrance shows that there are Guangzhou Calligraphy and Painting Art Platform Appreciation Research Association, Guangdong Light Up Youth Growth Center, Guangdong Shangshang Education Technology Company and other units. After entering through the only passage of the building, you can see 6 electric bicycles placed at random. On the side of the passage, there is a sign in front of the China Southern Power Grid public transformer house printed with the words "No parking and stacking items in front of the electric room", but an electric bicycle is parked directly in front of it. Inside the building, the reporter unscrewed 3 hydrants in a row, and none of them came out of the water. An uncle passing by said: "Don't try, it's all waterless." Living here, you can only ask for blessings. ”

The Yuexiu District Letters and Visits Bureau, located at 66 Jixiang Road, is not far from this building. There are outdoor evacuation stairs outside the Letters and Visits Bureau building, but there are "roadblocks" in front and behind the evacuation staircase - the iron door in front cannot be opened, and the passage behind is blocked by flower pots. There are also many problems in the lobby on the first floor of the Letters and Visits Bureau, where fire hydrants are blocked by water dispensers and fire doors are kept open by fire extinguishers.

Guidelines for the safe use of electric vehicles

Illegal charging of electric vehicles, unauthorized modification, etc

This may lead to the occurrence of fire

Keep in mind the guidelines for the safe use of electric vehicles

Reduce fire hazards

Avoid tragedies

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Source: China Emergency Management News Authors: Huang Xiong, Zhang Qianzhen, Luo Xu

(WeChat public account of the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People's Republic of China)