Well thats a little differant. I was thinking an office building in the U.S.

One stairs and no system !

I'd be living on the first floor.

You would be living in the first floor but I have to work in the 24th :-) maybe I have to buy myself a parachute just in case...

One of my questions is: In a building made of concrete is it logical to evacuate for a fire that is more than 10 floors below your level ? Would you always go down ASAP or stay put? How far do you need to be from the fire to be safe staying at your location?

To evacuate we had to go through a lot of smoke, cross firemen rushing, there was glass on the stairs because firemen were breaking the ventilation shafts to help the smoke clear. etc etc. And 24 floors down rushing is also a risk.

All in all I had the feeling that evacuating was far more dangerous than staying up as safe as possible. Of course once you get to street level you feel you did the right thing because you are safe.

EoK

FYI: Helicopters take a bit to get underway. Pilots have to do a safety check, crew must be assembled, gear packed, etc. As helicopter rescue is a rarity, they would most likely NOT be ready at the drop of a hat to get into the air. With a major airport, in a major city, with a helo capable of heavy lift, you're porbably looking of at LEAST an hour's time. Even the biggest civvie choppers cannot hold more than probably 12 people. if there's 300 people on the roof, say, thats at LEAST 25 trips of one chopper. Figure in flight time, load/unload time, and any other variables, its about a 20 minute round trip. So, with 300 folks (mind you, I simply picked a number, not based on anything), you make 25 trips, as 20 minutes apiece, you're looking at a timetable of several hours, just for a roof evacuation. All in all, the numbers simply dont add up. Just head down the damned staircase!!!

I just started reading this thread, and I also assumed that you were talking about a highrise in the US, in which case, I was going to say that I am surprised that they ordered the entire 24-story building to be evacuated at once. However, now that you mention that it is in South America and the lack of escape routes and fire systems, that completely changes the situation.

In that case, I probably would not trust staying inside the building and would try and get to the ground floor as soon as possible. As others have pointed out, helicopter rescues are generally reserved for the movies, so don't think that you'll be rescued from the roof.

Although people may have been injured during the evacuation, I believe that in your case, the consequences of a large number of people staying inside the building could be far, far worse, so evacuating is still probably the better thing to do. Your situation reminds me of the terrible MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas in 1980 where a number of building codes and safety systems were not in place, and something like 85 people died and, I think, almost a thousand people were injured. That hotel was about 25-stories high, too. Therefore, I think the order to evacuate was the correct thing to do in your case.

I don't know how accurate this is, but I think I have something in my memory that said that many rooftops can't handle the weight of a helicopter. Even a little Bell Jet Ranger weighs about 1800 lbs with just a pilot, and with a max passenger load of five (say another 1000 lbs), you're talking over 1.5 tons of weight resting on a small area. A Blackhawk weighs six times that... empty.

And, as mentioned, can you even get to the roof? In the infamous MGM Grand hotel fire, not only was there no plan for aerial rescue, but the access to the roof was locked.

[Just some interesting info on the MGM fire: the fire was electrical in origin, and started in/near the kitchens. The kitchens and hallway areas were tiled (floors and walls both, I believe) with ceramic tiles affixed with a flammable adhesive. Once the flames were going, the fireball that surged through the kitchens and down the access areas were moving about 17 to 21 feet per second.]

Sue

Well, then, I'd say make sure your will is up to date.

Marty