Re:Fire! A brief history of theater fires in New York City
by dredmorbius on Sunday October 20, 2019 @12:15PM
(#21305038)
Having seen this essay as it's appeared a few times across HN and elsewhere, a key lesson is the extreme tendency of those who are responsible for and more specifically benefit by externalised risks, to deny, equivocate, and outright lie about those risks.
It's a lesson that applies as well to numerous other technologies: asbestos, lead paint, leaded petrol, CFCs, tobacco, vaping.
And, just possibly, some aspects of information technology.
There's also the long history and tremendous advances in fire safety, mostly through avoidance, but also through improved response and firefighting techniques. Among the notable aspects of the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire was that it was the largest urban fire in well over half a century. I've just looked through Wikipedia's listings for an earlier comparable event, and thought there was one in the 1920s or possibly 1930s, but there the only remotely similar fires were in the 1900s or 1910s, with the Great Fire of San Francisco (1906) possibly being the most notable. Also suggesting that the SF fire and quake left such an impression simply because there was no comparable disaster following it. Previously, great, city-wide conflagrations occurred with distressing regularity.
It's a lesson that applies as well to numerous other technologies: asbestos, lead paint, leaded petrol, CFCs, tobacco, vaping.
And, just possibly, some aspects of information technology.
There's also the long history and tremendous advances in fire safety, mostly through avoidance, but also through improved response and firefighting techniques. Among the notable aspects of the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire was that it was the largest urban fire in well over half a century. I've just looked through Wikipedia's listings for an earlier comparable event, and thought there was one in the 1920s or possibly 1930s, but there the only remotely similar fires were in the 1900s or 1910s, with the Great Fire of San Francisco (1906) possibly being the most notable. Also suggesting that the SF fire and quake left such an impression simply because there was no comparable disaster following it. Previously, great, city-wide conflagrations occurred with distressing regularity.