Evacuation ropes have become extremely popular items on the country's biggest trading platform, Taobao.com, after the deadly fire that destroyed a residential building on Jiaozhou Road last Monday.

In seven days, a Hangzhou-based online vendor sold 252 evacuation ropes, each costing 180 yuan (US$27), and 157 fire extinguishers, each priced at 45 yuan.

A worker on the website told Shanghai Daily their main customers used to be small and medium companies, but after the tragic fire in Shanghai, more people were purchasing their goods for their homes.

People on some popular Internet forums are also teaching others to build cheap and simple evacuation systems in the event of a fire.

A netizen, "Yi Ma Qing Chen," uploaded pictures of an installation procedure for one of the evacuation systems - an evacuation rope, on the popular website Tianya.cn.

He claims the evacuation rope can be made by tying several tough ropes with a clothes hanger, two metal locks, a set of bolts and a pulley.