Hey everyone, I’m new to Taipei as an American born and raised in Los Angeles. I rented an apartment ahead of time and when I got here, it’s mostly fine, just have to adjust to little things here or there. But one thing I noticed is that I’m on the fifth floor, and the balcony/windows all have metal gating around them with no apparent fire escape or way of opening them.
Is this…normal? If so, how do I go about finding a place that isn’t like this? I’m month-to-month but only having the front door as a means of escape feels pretty uncomfortable this high up. Am I wrong here and just being a paranoid American? Thanks for any help.
Go to Skyscanner, and buy a ticket back to Los Angeles. Seriously though, Taiwan is the king of ignoring safety standards. Unless you are staying in a very expensive brand new building in Taipei I would forget about fire safety. You aren’t being paranoid, I feel the same but there isn’t much I can do about it. Best thing you can do is reduce the risk of fire’s happening in the first place. Invest in a good digital fire detector, but have a backup traditional one too. You can also install fire extinguisher’s in each room quite cheaply. Do not rely on the building’s central fire alarm system. Don’t use extension leads, and check your cables for faults. I know a lot of Taiwanese have the electrics redone when they buy a property but I guess that’s not a possibility if you are renting. Ask when this was last done before signing a contract, but expect to be lied to.
bars should have a small escape door in them, the apartments ove rented have them. how ever, these will only help the firefighters take you to safety, you don’t want to jump 5 stories down.
I was in a similar situation to yours and just installed my own smoke detectors and bought a fire extinguisher for the apartment.
Fires and gas leaks are a real danger here, all homes should have exit doors on their windows/metal gates. Hopefully front and back.
They were actually giving away smoke detectors at the fire station a few months ago. Too many lives lost.
Get a monoxide detector too, for extra safety.
That said, finding a nice, safe, affordable place is a challenge. Pick an area, focus on that area. Bring a local friend, especially as a witness to sign the contract if long term. Take pictures of everything.
Maybe take another close look at the bars. The opening on the bars at my old apartment was remarkably hard to find. Well, and if has…usually is locked so must ask landlord for key.
First floor of many apartment buildings have a gas store where there are over 200 gas containers. The driver who delivers them or drives them around town smokes.
There are no fire safety standards for buildings with less than five stories I believe. So all of the old 公寓 are potential death traps. I personally just bought some fire alarms (which will 100% be ignored if there’s a fire while I’m not home) and a fire extinguisher.
I didn’t know about any of this until after I moved in. Before this I was living in a 大樓 which has to adhere to fire safety standards, and I had a good landlord so I know stuff was working. Although, the same issue there are no fire escapes besides the stairs.
Taiwan has shitty safety standards and many laws are not enforced. People seem to care about their families but it seems no one gives a shit about anyone else.
A lot of good info here. I did end up finding a fire escape (that leads nowhere, as someone said the fire department would need to be here with a ladder - how I don’t know since it’s a tiny alley) but it’s in someone’s (lockable) room as this is a shared apartment. Will have to think this one over. We do have a fire extinguisher.
If a fire starts above you, you can hurtle through the main exit, no worries. The problem is if it starts below you. I’m no expert, but a fire escape is mandatory in tall buildings, and safety standards should be strictly adhered to. If you have no escape route, you’re pretty much going to be a crispy pile of black stuff. I have no idea what contingency plan you could make, but it’s something to seriously think about.
Most importantly, if you want pets, get cats, not dragons. Dragons are temperamental and a potential fire hazard.
Well the building is seven floors, and I’m on the fifth. But a lot of people seem to be saying that’s how it is most places here, unless I wanna drop top dollar on a new luxury apartment building or something…?
I’m guessing that he/she is doing the irritating U.S. thing of assuming that everyone in the world thinks in USD, despite the fact that we live in a country that also uses dollars.
