[seadragon]

This posting may seem a bit long in length and disconnected at first, but I have to share my thoughts on this project as this building sends me all sorts of warning bells. For starters, I have about 8 years of experience with NFPA 72, NFPA 101, operated an electrical contracting company that was a distributor for Edwards (EST), Thorn EMI and in that time worked on some very large and prestigious public and private projects.

A problem I've encounter when surveying office space in Shanghai is the state of the building fire alarm systems. Although required by law, some very well known skyscrapers and hotels in China have their smoke detection circuits turned off or disabled. Yes, turned off, lives placed into deceitful risk, buildings left exposed and I have videos to back the claim. If ever in a Chinese skyscraper, look at the red LED on the outside/base of a smoke detector housing in the hallway, elevator lobby or lounge. If the LED does not blink every ~30 seconds or less, then the smoke detector head is not powered up, and for system addressable smoke detectors not communicating (polling) with the Fire Alarm Control Panel (FACP) and out of operation.

The reason being, that in the minds of a typical property manager in China, it does not make good economical sense to maintain the smoke detector heads. That financially, it is better to save the money then perform the required periodic work of vacuuming and testing with artificial smoke each smoke detector in the system. In the USA, this testing schedule varies according to building height, occupancy, use and municipality.

On my last visit to China, I had to directly order a Chinese person to put out their cigarette in the elevator. A week later, I asked a person that lit up under a smoke detector in a low ceiling hotel lounge to put out their cigarette as we were in a non smoking area. As an observation, the hotel smoke detector directly over the person smoking never activated.

Seeing how smoke detectors and life safety systems in theory would carry a higher level of importance and attention to a building owner/operator since lives at stake, that if any system in building would have preference in a building's expense budget, it would be the fire alarm system.

Now let’s take into consideration large trees on the exterior edges of high floors. Trees that by the nature of their location and placement will need to be frequently watered, maintained and very securely anchored to the floor and or deck on to which they are placed.

When Chongqing goes into water shortages during the summer, the trees will dry and turn highly combustible. If the Chinese are willing to ignore something as important as a FACP and smoke detectors, you have to wonder how much respect and attention the operators of the building are going to give to rusting and corroding cables used to anchor and hold down the trees.

I can see it now, some Chinese with a lit cigarette goes to lean over a building railing on a summer day and their hot ashes start foliage on the floors below to catch on fire. The Chinese with the lit cigarette runs away, never activating the fire alarm and later if caught, blames the owner of the building for having had the tree/plant outside in the first place. This besides the fact that the smoker knew all along that they were in the wrong for having done so, but none the less, the building operators should have had a better understanding of Chinese nature and have anticipated that some Chinese fool would break the law and light up a cigarette in a non smoking building. In the end, the building burns down and lives are lost.

If not the first scenario then this one, with the first large summer storm, it's going to be raining heavy tree branches and tree trunks throughout Chongqing’s CBD. I’m not sure which is worst, but none the less I will need a really strong umbrella from the Hotel concierge.