A 118-year-old fire prevention watch tower in Shanghai will open to the public after it is renovated, Oriental Morning Post said last week, citing the city's Fire Fighting Bureau.

The tower, on 560 Wusong Rd, was China's first fire prevention watch tower. It is about 20 meters in height. The tower hasn't been repaired for many years that there's no stairway inside to reach the top level, said the Hongkou fire squadron, who owns the tower.

"A fire prevention watch tower used to be the tallest building in its prefecture, to ensure the guards would be the first to detect a fire," said Zhong Jianbo, the station chief of the squadron.

In the past, every fire squadron would set aside four firemen to stand-watch at these observation stations. The four men would go on duty in shifts, from the morning, afternoon, midnight and the wee hours, said Xue Daming, an expert in fire prevention history.

However, the bureau canceled all of the observation positions in 1997. Since then, the 11 fire prevention watch towers have been left abandoned, the expert said.

Two towers in Hongkou and Putuo districts have been listed by the local government as heritage architecture sites of the city. Another tower in Huangpu District is protected as a heritage architecture site of the district. However, two towers in the Pudong area will be demolished to pave the way for the 2010 World Expo.

(Shanghai Daily July 26, 2006)