Meridian Plaza Fire Creative Writing Examples

The meridian plaza fire documents one of the most major high rise fires ever reported In the United States. This fire occurred in a 38 storied building in Philadelphia and caused severe damages estimated to 100 million dollars direct property loss. The fire claimed the lives of three Philadelphia fire fighters and injured 24 more fighters and one civilian. Businesses located within the building also experienced great losses due to business interruptions for longer periods. The fire started on the 22nd floor and later advanced to the rest of the building because it was not reported on time. Moreover, the building lacked an automatic fire detection system and therefore it took time for the fire to be reported.
The fire was mainly caused by improperly stored linseed oil soaked rags and associated combustibles on the 22nd floor which was vacant. The rags were left by the builders piled together in the room without adequate ventilation; they generated heat, caught fire and the fire spread to the rest of the floors.
Lack of proper working automatic water sprinklers and proper ventilation led to the spread of the fire. There was a heavy dense smoke which had covered the building and this led to the death of the three fighters as they could not breathe properly. The fire was able to spread to other floors because there were delays in reporting the fire. Moreover, even after the firefighters arrived, they were unable to combat the fire immediately because the mechanical and electrical system in the building failed and this further led to the failure of emergency generators. The failure of the electrical system made the ventilation system fail which made fighting the fire more difficult as the building was covered with smoke. The fire fighters used the stairs to carry five inch hose lines to the 24th floor which helped in sprinkling water but unfortunately, it was already too late as the fire had spread all over the building and out of control. However, the automatic water sprinklers on the 13th floor helped in controlling the fire from spreading farther.