Early raw video: View of deadly Shanghai fire as firefighters arrive. See first lines deployed.

Previous coverage of Shanghai fire including dramatic rescue of man from scaffolding

Criticism of construction practices and the capability of the fire department

I had not seen this one until this morning. It is 12-minutes of raw video shot in the early stages of the massive high-raise fire on Monday afternoon in downtown Shanghai. It appears the video captures the first water being applied to the burning scaffolding sheathing the building.

At least 53 people died due to the fire. Others are still unaccounted for. A spark from the torch of an unlicensed welder is being blamed for starting the fire. Eight people connected to the renovation of the residential building have been arrested.

Here is more in excerpts from an article at Time.com: 

“The accident should not have happened and could have been completely avoided,” Luo Lin, the director of the State Administration of Work Safety, said Wednesday, according to the state-run Xinhua news service. The building, which was constructed in 1997 to house retired teachers, was wrapped in scaffolding as part of a project to install insulation. The procedure is common in China, where the government has ordered broad measures to improve energy efficiency. Insulation is frequently added to the outside of buildings and then covered with layers of paint.

Lin said that workers had been scrambling to finish work on the building, which was illegally covered with flammable nylon netting. The netting, which was intended to keep construction debris from falling on the street below, helped the fire expand quickly across several floors. Flammable insulation made from polyurethane may have also contributed to the destructiveness of the fire, according to state media reports.