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An omnious quote from an article on l0phet: Wysopal offered this grim precedent: Cities were once vulnerable to disastrous fires, which raged through dens
by nosuchthing 11y ago
An omnious quote from an article on l0phet:
Wysopal offered this grim precedent: Cities were once
vulnerable to disastrous fires, which raged through dense
clusters of mostly wooden buildings. It took a giant fire
in Chicago to spur government officials into serious
reforms, including limits on new wooden structures, a
more robust water supply for suppressing blazes and an
overhaul to the city’s fire department.
“The market didn’t solve the problem of cities burning
down,” Wysopal said, predicting that Internet security
may require a historic disaster to force change. “It
seems to me that the market isn’t really going to solve
this one on its own.”
But here’s a frightening fact: The push to create tough
new fire-safety standards did not start after the Great
Chicago Fire in 1871, which killed hundreds of people and
left 100,000 homeless. It took a second fire, nearly
three years later in 1874, to get officials in Chicago to
finally make real changes.
[via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9760164 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9760164]
- ryanmarsh 11y agoIronically enough, the architecture of the French Quarter in New Orleans is exactly an example of this. The way it was explained to me the French used wood until a mayor or some such proclaimed that all new buildings would use stone because the Spanish inspired buildings were the only ones left standing each time the city burned down.
- ido 11y agoCan we build relatively fire-resistant wooden buildings today, using modern technology?
- TheLoneWolfling 11y agoWe can build relatively fire-resistant buildings. As for relatively fire-resistant wooden buildings? I suspect that it's easier to "just" use less wood. Although note that there are a couple of things that do help. A steel roof as opposed to a shingled one. Having proper screens in the roof vents. Having fire-resistant siding. Tile floors (or something else that's non-flammable) as opposed to carpet or wooden ones. Not having gas lines to be ruptured by an earthquake. Having proper (read: not likely to catch something on fire in the case of an earthquake) electrical connections.