THE Pudong New Area’s fire department said yesterday that a 130-meter high-rise office building on Xinjinqiao Road was partly sealed after it failed a fire inspection.

Multiple damage and hidden dangers from the building’s fire safety facilities were exposed by a night inspection last Friday.

Inspectors said there was no staff member on duty who was able to operate the alert system and the only employee in the fire safety control room didn’t have the required qualification.

Moreover, the building’s refuge area on the 17th floor did not meet fire-protection requirements or even have water available to help protect people from fire and smoke. Such deficiencies could place anyone needing to use the refuge area in a dangerous position.

The authority added that an inadequate fire alert system would delay a security force from coming to the site, staff members who could not operate the fire safety system would hamper any hope of controlling a fire, and without broadcasts, people would not even realize there was a fire until it was too late.

Other malfunctioning facilities, such as broken lights, would contribute to a chaotic evacuation.

The authority sealed up several dangerous areas in the building, whose full address wasn’t revealed, and told the management company to repair the facilities.