Instead of constructing proper foundations, or installing a fire-escape, for example, the developers pay bribes to officials and politicians.

BBC: Dhaka: City of construction death traps

One regular army officer who managed to escape said the hostage-takers had opened fire indiscriminately.

BBC: Bangladesh mutineers 'arrested'

Some of the other firefighting equipment founded in Chicago is less high-tech: the snorkel truck, the fire plug or hydrant, the collapsible fire escape and the fire pole, which was invented by a Chicago fire captain in 1874 so firefighters could slide quickly to the ground floor.

CNN: Disaster is topic of new Web site

Tuesday, ambulances and fire trucks, sirens wailing, streamed onto the wind-whipped peninsula and residents waded through waist-high water to escape with what belongings they could or for those who fled to check on homes that were certainly left with standing water.

WSJ: After Devastating Fire, Breezy Point Bands Together