Lessons from the London high-rise fire

!- Start of DoubleClick Floodlight Tag: Please do not remove Activity name of this tag: UCB001CP Retargeting URL of the webpage where the tag is expected to be placed: http://unknown This tag must be placed between the. The inferno in London was finally extinguished, mainly because the entire flammable contents of the building burned up. Fire hoses cannot deliver water to the upper floors of such buildings, and the ladders that trucks can bring to the scene don't reach nearly high enough. Many more deaths will be recorded as the search for the missing continues. Police and fire brigades told people to stay in their flats and close their doors rather than escaping, and those people were incinerated. How is such a thing possible? Well, first we should note that dying in a fire is  rare and getting more so in all industrialized countries : annual fire deaths per million in the United States are only about 12, and remarkably, down by two-thirds since 1979. The United Kingdom is on a similar trend and about a third safer overall.