By Lu Ren
“Many residents are so used to stacking inflammables like cartons at home that you can’t imagine how hard it is to make them dump the habit. And some elders would smoke in bed, which can easily cause fire where there’re inflammables. But still, in vain to advise them.” That’s why Wu Xizhen, CPC Branch Secretary of a neighborhood in Jiangwan Town Subdistrict, had been worried about the fire risks in the neighborhood, until she came up with the idea of building a fire experiencing room to get residents in “real” touch with fire. It was realized in 2012 with the support of the neighborhood committee and relevant fire control department, and in the last 3 years, more than 8,500 residents have visited the room.
“Mr. Lu living alone in our neighborhood used to smoke in bed so often that his neighbors worried about potential fires very much. We tried to dissuade him from doing that, but all in vain. Then we invited him to the room, and it worked.” Wu said that under the strong visual and audio effects, the elder was so scared by fire that he promised not to smoke in bed any more.
According to Wu, the virtual fire experiencing room plays a significant role in enhancing the neighborhood residents’ awareness of fire control, which can be seen from a recent survey they conducted among the residents, in which the awareness rate reached 98%; besides, there’s not a single fire accident during the last three years.
The fire experiencing room consists of fire control publicity area and fire-fighting equipment show area, where there’s illustrated knowledge about the harm of fire, building fire protection, electrical fire prevention and escape from fire scene, as well as 20-plus types of fire-fighting equipment, comparison between secure and insecure electric appliances and videos of major fire accidents, so that residents can not only “sense” the fire but learn how to operate fire-fighting devices. Wang Huimin, a resident from another neighborhood, spoke highly of the room for its display of professional fire-fighting equipment and comprehensive knowledge about fire control at home.
It’s learned that as an innovation for popularizing fire control knowledge, the fire experiencing room will be promoted to more neighborhoods to have more people armed with the awareness and knowledge against fire.