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Comment by emodendroket | Hacker News Reader

I disagree that they could have done this just as easily. One person can only guard one way.

Yeah but one person who is setting fires could torch a stairwell, effectively blocking it without being there.

People setting these fires are not experts.

Let's say a lot of them are garbage and you only hear about the rare occasions it works. Let's say 10% of the time the fire is good enough to kill.

Two stair wells means only 1% of the time you get a kill.

Lighting two fires is also harder, you need more planning and stuff. So that probably equals out a bit for the better fire lighters.

If it's Mossad doing it then sure it's possibly similar.

"Police quoted witnesses who saw a man walking into the clinic with a paper bag, which he put on the floor, right next to a heater by the reception desk, and kicked it. Liquid poured out, caught fire and the whole floor was in flames and smoke."

Don't really need to be an expert in starting fires.

Seriously? We are talking about fire here. Set it and forget it, doesn't require constant attention ...

It does in most places - concrete stairwells (typical) don’t exactly love fire. Sheetrock similar.

If an accelerant is used that is continuously burned until exhausted , then I'm not sure it matters where or what materials are present. If there is a fire at an exit that persists and is difficult to extinguish, said arsonist can then move to the next exit, and perform the same action. Thus blocking multiple exits while acting as a single individual. That's my point.

But hopefully the fire alarms are causing an evacuation and those using the other door will stop someone from going in

As someone who has been trapped in a building during a fire by a pipe wielding maniac. It isn't always that simple.

Story time?

It’s surprisingly hard to put enough accelerant in a place to burn awhile (5-10 minutes?) in a way that can’t be interfered with and will keep going without tending, without drawing attention to yourself while doing so if anyone is paying attention. Most portable methods (gasoline can?) are so volatile it is just going to explode almost immediately and are easy to recognize as a hazard.

Certainly not impossible, but it requires more craftiness and more prep the more complicated we get.

Which hopefully there aren’t that many folks who are likely to do so. And if someone does, we can catch them fast.

Basic redundancy is a good idea (n=2) in general, for many many reasons. Maintenance doesn’t take out the only way out for instance, or a single fight or accident doesn’t leave someone stuck.

N=5 is probably overkill for anything for a huge convention center.

People might start to notice something amiss while you're setting fire to the first staircase.

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