Fire and Society

entropychaser · Mar 22, 2021

In the Fall 2020 issue of WNYF there is an article by the Chief Fire Officer of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department. He records about 2150 total structural fires per year in Hong Kong the last several years. Hong Kong has a population of 7.5 million (versus 8.4 million in New York City), 30% of whom reside in public housing (versus 8% in New York City). They have almost twice the number of high rise buildings as New York City.
In January, 2021, FDNY recorded 2144 structural fires. This would be about 10-12 times the incidence of Hong Kong (the most densely populated city on earth). This great for buffs....but?
Does New York City meet the definition of a dystopian society?

Parkave32 · Mar 22, 2021

The post says that Hong Kong has 2150 structural fires per year and NYC had 2144 in the month of January 2021 so that would be about 12 times the fires.

entropychaser · Mar 22, 2021

I think you can find the same numbers in Tokyo and most big cities in the world. Remember, Santiago, Chile has a volunteer fire service with 6.7 million people.

Lebby · Mar 22, 2021

I think much depends on the definition of a fire

entropychaser · Mar 23, 2021

In other news, a fire last Friday in a piece of equipment at Renesas Electronics Corporation northeast of Tokyo halted production there. Renesas is one of the world's largest producers of semiconductor chips, particularly for automotive use. The fire contaminated the clean room production line and is expected to take at least a month to rectify.
Worldwide auto production will be severely impacted causing billions of dollars of lost profits. Already, Japanese automakers Toyota, Nissan, and Acura stock prices fell 3% yesterday.
All because of a simple electrical fire.

E32CaptBFD · May 3, 2021

Lebby said:
I think much depends on the definition of a fire

How many OSW's

entropychaser · May 4, 2021

E32CaptBFD said:
How many OSW's

Given the high price of real estate in those cities, 100%.
Also, and this is just a hunch, I'll bet that a mattress fire in the public stairwell is not much of a problem in communist Hong Kong.

skiLB · May 4, 2021

entropychaser said:
In the Fall 2020 issue of WNYF there is an article by the Chief Fire Officer of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department. He records about 2150 total structural fires per year in Hong Kong the last several years. Hong Kong has a population of 7.5 million (versus 8.4 million in New York City), 30% of whom reside in public housing (versus 8% in New York City). They have almost twice the number of high rise buildings as New York City.
In January, 2021, FDNY recorded 2144 structural fires. This would be about 10-12 times the incidence of Hong Kong (the most densely populated city on earth). This great for buffs....but?
Does New York City meet the definition of a dystopian society?

pretty cool info