During China's recent "Golden Week" holiday (October 1st to October 8th), an unusual incident occurred that attracted significant public attention and generated much debate.
According to Chinese media, the incident took place at a hotel in Shanghai. The guest who rented the room hung a coat hanger right in front of the nozzle of the automatic fire extinguishing system installed on the ceiling.
This caused the glass bulb of the sprinkler to shatter, activating the fire suppression system and releasing tons of water from the pipes. Although hotel staff quickly shut off the water valve, an estimated 10 tons of water spilled down, causing severe flooding on two floors of the hotel.
Many facilities, walls, ceilings and furniture were severely damaged.
A guest hung a coat hanger on the ceiling, activating the fire suppression system in the hotel ( Video source: News).
After assessing the damage, the hotel operator demanded 160,000 yuan (approximately 600 million VND) from the guest to cover repair and cleaning costs. However, the guest refused this compensation, claiming the hotel was overcharging. Since the two parties could not reach an agreement, a lawsuit was filed.
The incident is currently attracting great attention on Chinese social networks.
According to fire safety experts in China, automatic sprinkler systems are designed with extremely high sensitivity to detect and extinguish fires in their early stages.
The activation mechanism includes both thermal activation and force-activated activation systems.
Specifically, when the ambient temperature exceeds the specified level, the glass bulb in the sprinkler head will break, allowing water to spray out to extinguish the fire. In addition, if the sprinkler head is pulled, crushed, collided or hung with a heavy object, the glass bulb can also break and the system will discharge water.
A customer hung his belongings on a fire sprinkler head, triggering tons of water to flow down (Photo cut from clip).
Therefore, any action that interferes with the nozzle carries the risk of activating the system and causing significant damage.
In this case, legal experts argue that compensation should be based on actual damages. However, tourists also have a responsibility to comply with regulations and not misuse the safety equipment in their rooms.
If causing damage, individuals may be held civilly liable, even criminally liable in cases of serious damage.
At the same time, hotels are advised to install more coat hooks in rooms and post clear warning signs near fire safety equipment to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
Reportedly, this is not the first time such an incident has occurred at hotels.
Earlier in July, in Guiyang city, Guizhou province, a hotel also recorded a similar incident involving a tourist. However, the nature of the incident was not too serious, so the compensation amount for the guest was 2,000 yuan (approximately 7.5 million VND).
Similarly, in May 2023, a student in Dalian city (Liaoning province) accidentally flooded his hotel room by hanging clothes on the sprinkler head, resulting in a compensation claim of 10,000 yuan (approximately 37 million VND).
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/du-lich/khach-trèo-ao-len-dau-phun-chua-chay-10-tan-nuoc-tran-xuong-ngap-khach-san-20251020160809522.htm
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