What if the CN Tower caught fire?

Officials at Toronto's CN Tower say a fire similar to the one at Moscow's Ostankino tower is highly unlikely because of building materials used and frequent and stringent inspections of the facility.

Bruce MacKenzie, executive director of marketing and sales at the CN Tower, told CBC News Online he knows of no fire ever happening at the Toronto structure since it opened in 1976.

Capt. Alan Thomas of the Toronto Fire Department's emergency planning department told CBC News Online the CN Tower, despite its prodigious height, is an exceptionally safe building by firefighting standards.

The CN Tower, the tallest freestanding structure in the world 13 metres taller than the Ostankino tower has an extensive sprinkler system, a 24-hour emergency monitoring operation, as well as two 15,000-gallon water reservoirs at the top. The reservoirs are automatically replenished.

There is also a fire hose at the base of the structure capable of sending 600 gallons a minute to any location in the tower.

For safety reasons, no gas appliances are permitted anywhere in the tower, which has a revolving restaurant at the pod level.

The elevator at the CN Tower can also be used during a blaze, unlike the elevator at ther Ostankino tower, which seriously malfunctioned during the weekend inferno. It dropped to the sub-basement of the Moscow tower, with people inside.

The elevator at the CN Tower runs up the outside of the building, and can be powered by three emergency generators at the base of the structure.