Beijing cyber cafe fire kills 24
Investigators blamed the high death toll on locked emergency exits.
My brother-in-law is currently in Beijing, and a frequent user of internet cafes...
China's deadly fires
In the past decade, well over 1,000 people have been killed by big fires across the country.
BBC Beijing correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says that building safety standards in China are seldom properly enforced.
Hopefully they don't have any forest rangers setting accidental fires in their National forests...
When I visited Taiwan about 4-5 years ago, I went to a "KTV" Karaoke-box club. It was located inside a multiple story building in which there were many private rooms equipped with Television sets and nice couches. The idea is for customers to have a private Karaoke party with their friends in these mini lounges (or, if they don't have friends, they can invite some hostesses (and some say KTV tolerates if not exactly engages in prostitution via their clubs as well.)). Because there had been a major fire in which many people died sometime before, when I visited the KTV in Taiwan, there was a requirement to watch a safety video which depicted customers throwing rope ladders out windows, donning breathing masks, and making their way to safety in the event of fire. I've seen comments on the web that indicate that KTV establishments in Taiwan are still not very safe.
I went to a KTV club in Beijing on my recent trip. There was no safety video. (The interior decoration of the club was first rate, however. Like a 5 star hotel...)
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