Multiple problems. The installation may have a part to play, but the cladding was flammable(pictures show it burning). Fixings should be stainless steel(canāt have sections falling). The main problem though is this.
Chartered surveyor and fire expert Arnold Tarling, from Hindwoods, said the process can createa 25-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation. āIt producesa windtunnel and also traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building,"he said.
Anyone thatās used a bunsen burner will understand. Put them all together and you get a disaster . Iām struggling to understand how this was allowed. Aesthetics over safety?
BBC London news had a fire safety officer demonstrating how cladding / insulation burns - fucking quickly!
We donāt know the truth of the matter so canāt say what caused the building to burn like that, but my gut reaction is that those culpable will only get a slap on the wristsā¦as always.
The cladding is stainless steel or something that has a high temp tolerance, blag internal foam between the two (kingspan like foam?) will burn like fuck once going. Slightly different but gloss paint once going is another bastard.
A London firefighter today described the insides of the flats as ālike the third worldā. Speaks volumes.
Millions spent on doing them up, yet none of this money was spent on sprinkler systems, residents saying there were no fire alarms. Incredibly there was only one stairwell for the whole block. This is the 21st century FFS.
Also worrying is the race to build as many new tower blocks for sale between Waterloo and Clapham. Seems like the wild west. Hopefully after today someone will check and take responsibility for ensuring corners arenāt being cutā¦
We live in a new build block. Itās not a high rise and if we jumped from our 2nd floor weād break a few bits but hopefully survive? We donāt have cladding apart from possibly some bits on balconies. We do not have a fire exit only one door to the building which is near the stairs. If the fire is in the stairwell we are not sure how we would get out (apart from jumping). They could have put fire exits at each end of the building as there is space between flats. We havenāt noticed sprinklers either. Starts to make you think.
Youāre right about that but honestly, thereās literally no fucking space anymore in London.
In damn near any other country, a concerted effort would have been made to quite simply build outwards; just expand the city as is necessary to cope with its growing population. Problem is that the Green Belt/Nimby combo in the leafy suburbs with their 7-figure houses quickly put paid to that idea. So instead, we cram into shoeboxes that are 8-foot wide and cost Ā£3k per month to rent.
This isnāt even a novel idea. After the war was over the plan was to do precisely that - and we did to a large extent, with eyes even further afield than modern-day zone 5/6 - there simply wasnāt anywhere near as much ideological opposition to the (shock horror) crazy idea of making London bigger to fit all the people in.
This is an interesting mini-documentary on the subject (honestly, its more interesting than the title suggests).
Here in Dubai we have had a number of Tower Block fires.
All newly built and sprinklers did save lives. Causes ranged from discarded cigarettes and illegally stored waste through to electric spotlight bulbs.
Huge steps have been taken regular drills & inspections.
The point is the cladding had to meet the same building regs as the UK & EU.
Subsequent investigations revealed those rules were not fit for purpose & MOST cladding from about 2003 onwards is a fire risk.
A number of orders have been made forcing developers to install new fire proof spec materials (at significant cost) our apartment block needed special external balcony sprinklers to be installed and bans on bbq.
All of this can be googled here in official publications.That cladding has been used GLOBALLY it is a ticking time bombTemperatures at the Address Hotel fire - the NYE one on TV - reached over 3000C but no lives were lost due to the design rules and the sprinklers.
That is on top of any management/procedural/criminal errors that could have happened
Any Tower Block without sprinklers or working alarms is a death trap and people here would be charged with manslaughter
High rise buildings constructed in the 50ās up to the early 90ās have endemic problems with fire prevention that Councils and Social Landlords are unwilling to address and have been unwilling to address for years.
Whilst the cladding system may have not acted as a prevention to the fire, thatās not itās job to do. The real concern is how for years, Councils and Social Landlords have dismissed calls for an integrated, comprehensive fire safety system to be installed in these blocks which have no alternative means of escape. Calls for sprinkler systems, fully addressible fire alarms, smoke detection, fire retarding alterations and alternative means of escape have been primarily ignored, chiefly on the basis of cost. Well, the cost for ignoring this now has hit home in rather sharp focus.
If any good is to come out of this, then i hope it is legislation to force Councils and Social Landlords to retro fit appropriate measures or, as i would prefer, knock the fucking things down.
Just reading some trade press which suggests that the firebreaks may not have been installed in the cladding, between floors and around the windows. Since the works were complete, the cladding contractor has gone into adminsitration. If true, the Main Contractor site team will be shitting themselves ā¦
Donāt be soft lad, the outskirts of London are the safest Tory seats in the land, they wonāt be building on those sites, need golf courses and the like the the vampire bankers living there, cunts.
dafuq has happened to this thread? formatting or something is borked (think Mr T linked his YT video weird).
Anyway, I find myself agreeing with Barry again. I grew up in one of those seats (Ruislip and Northwood). It also doesnāt help how many MPs are also landlords, so building more houses is not good for business, for them. Many of these landlords voted against the bill to ensure houses were fit for human habitation - again, canāt think why. This actually includes the MP of the above constituency, Nick Hurd (yes, Douglasā son).
