The following is a list of fires in high-rise buildings. A skyscraper fire or high-rise fire is a class of
structural fire specific to
tall buildings. Skyscraper fires are technically challenging for
fire department
A fire department (American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in th ...
s: they require unusually high degrees of organization and cooperation between participating
firefighting
Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter.
Firefighters typicall ...
units to contain and extinguish. Skyscraper fires are often
multiple-alarm fire
One-alarm fires, two-alarm fires, three-alarm fires, etc., are categories classifying the seriousness of fires, commonly used in the United States and in Canada, particularly indicating the level of response by local authorities. The term multip ...
s.
Notable fires in history
Gallery
File:Call Bldg on fire, San Francisco earthquake cph.3b04298.jpg, Central Tower burns after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity s ...
File:Image of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25 - 1911.jpg, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The ...
in 1911
File:1971년 12월 25일 대연각호텔 대화재 사고(大然閣 -大火災事故)2.jpg, Daeyeonggak Hotel fire in 1971
File:Dupont Plaza Fire USCG.jpg, Dupont Plaza Hotel arson in 1986
File:Bijlmerramp2 without link.jpg, Aftermath of the El Al Flight 1862
On 4 October 1992, El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft of the then state-owned Israeli airline El Al, crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kruitberg flats in the Bijlmermeer (colloquially "Bijlmer") neighbourhood (part of Amsterdam- ...
crash in 1992
File:WTC 1993 ATF Commons.jpg, Aftermath of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the complex. The urea nitrate–hydrogen gas ...
File:UNIS towers may 1996.png, UNITIC Twin Skyscrapers after the Siege of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo ( sh, Opsada Sarajeva) was a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav People's Army, the city was then ...
in 1992
File:Evstafiev-sarajevo-building-burns.jpg, Executive Council Building during the Siege of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo ( sh, Opsada Sarajeva) was a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav People's Army, the city was then ...
in 1992
File:Ostankino fire august 2000.jpg, Ostankino Tower
Ostankino Tower (russian: links=no, Останкинская телебашня, Ostankinskaya telebashnya) is a television and radio tower in Moscow, Russia, owned by the Moscow branch of unitary enterprise Russian TV and Radio Broadcasting Ne ...
fire in 2000
File:North face south tower after plane strike 9-11.jpg, The north face of Two World Trade Center
2 World Trade Center (2 WTC; also known as 200 Greenwich Street) is a planned skyscraper as part of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It will replace the original 2 World Trade Center, which was completed in 1972 and ...
(south tower) immediately after being struck by United Airlines Flight 175
United Airlines Flight 175 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The flight's scheduled plan was from Logan International Airport, in Boston, M ...
in the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
File:Wtc7onfire.jpg, 7 World Trade Center
7 World Trade Center (7 WTC, WTC-7, or Tower 7) refers to two buildings that have existed at the same location within the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The original structure, part of the World Trade Center (1973� ...
burns after the collapse of the Twin Towers
File:TorreWindsor1.JPG, Windsor Tower after the 2005 fire
File:Belaire Condominium, 12 October 2006.jpg, Aftermath of the 2006 New York City plane crash
On October 11, 2006, a Cirrus SR20 aircraft crashed into the Belaire Apartments in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, at about 2:42 p.m. EDT (18:42 UTC). The aircraft struck the north side of the building, causing a fire i ...
File:Deutsche Bank Building fire 8-18-07 09.jpg, Deutsche Bank Building
The Deutsche Bank Building (formerly Bankers Trust Plaza) was a 39-story office building located at 130 Liberty Street in Manhattan, New York City, adjacent to the World Trade Center site. The building opened in 1974 and closed following the ...
fire in 2007
File:Harrow Court - fire extinguised.jpg, Aftermath of the Harrow Court fire
The Harrow Court fire occurred in a tower block on 2 February 2005 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. Three people were killed, two of them firefighters, when a fire developed and spread from the 14th floor. An investigation of the fire found t ...
in 2007
File:CCTV new headquarters Fire 20090209.jpg, Beijing Television Cultural Center fire in 2009
File:Wushinfire22.jpg, Wooshin Golden Suites fire in 2010
File:Shanghai jiaozhou road fire.jpg, 2010 Shanghai fire
File:2010 Shanghai fire video.ogv, A video showing 2010 Shanghai fire
File:Explosión en torre de PEMEX.jpg, Aftermath of the Torre Ejecutiva Pemex explosion
On 31 January 2013 in Mexico City, an explosion caused by a gas leak occurred beneath Building B-2 at the Torre Ejecutiva Pemex (Pemex Executive Tower), a skyscraper complex that is the headquarters of Pemex, the Mexican state oil company. At leas ...
in 2013
File:Fire at Extell's One57 - March 15, 2014.jpg, Fire at One57
One57, formerly known as Carnegie 57, is a 75-story, supertall skyscraper at 157 West 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building has 92 condominium units on top of ...
in 2014.
File:Plasco building on fire by Emi uploaded by Mardetanha (2).jpg, Plasco Building on fire prior to collapse in 2017.
File:Grenfell Tower fire morning.jpg, Grenfell Tower
Grenfell Tower is a derelict 24-storey residential tower block in North Kensington in London, England. The tower was completed in 1974 as part of the first phase of the Lancaster West Estate. The tower was named after Grenfell Road, which ran t ...
in the early morning of 14 June 2017.
File:2020 Bohumín arson attack 11.jpg, Aftermath of the Bohumín arson attack
The Bohumín arson attack took place on 8 August 2020 at an apartment building on Nerudova Street in the town of Bohumín, roughly 300 km north-east of Prague, Czech Republic. Eleven people were killed and fifteen were injured. Police ar ...
in 2020.
File:Gas explosion and fire house in Prešov 19 Slovakia 71.jpg, Aftermath of gas explosion in Prešov
Prešov (, hu, Eperjes, Rusyn language, Rusyn and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Пряшів) is a city in Eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj) and Šariš, as well as the historic Sáros Cou ...
in 2019.
File:高雄城中城大火01.jpg, Aftermath of the 2021 Kaohsiung tower fire
File:Huge-fire-erupts-at-islamabad-shopping-mall-1665320371-3775.jpg, alt=The Centaurus Mall Islamabad with the spire aflame, 2022 Islamabad building fire
See also
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Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...
*
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...
*
Firefighting
Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter.
Firefighters typicall ...
*
Fire escape
A fire escape is a special kind of emergency exit, usually mounted to the outside of a building or occasionally inside but separate from the main areas of the building. It provides a method of escape in the event of a fire or other emergency th ...
*
List of high-rise facade fires
* ''
The Towering Inferno
''The Towering Inferno'' is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels '' The ...
'' (film)
References
{{Reflist
External links
* https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/local-news/2172608/bank-of-lisbon-building-site-of-deadly-joburg-fire-to-come-down/
Windsor Building in MadridEast Tower in Caracas* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tMTSWdwvwM
Articles containing video clips
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