Did the Grenfell tragedy nearly happen here?

PETALING JAYA: Did Malaysia very nearly have its own Grenfell Tower tragedy? Just how many buildings are there in the country which use polyethylene, or polyfoam, as cladding?

These are just some of the questions in the aftermath of the blaze at the Employees Provident Fund building in Jalan Gasing here as the authorities revealed that a spark from renovation work caused the polyethylene cladding to catch fire.

Fire and Rescue Department deputy director-general (operations) Datuk Soiman Jahid said the polyethylene cladding was similar to the one used on the exterior of Grenfell Tower in London.

“The cladding that was used is made of material that is highlyflammable... It is made of polyethylene (polyfoam), which can easily catch fire.

“It should not be used in any building, let alone a government agency building,” he said yesterday.

He said such materials, though previously allowed, was no longer considered safe.

Grenfell Tower is a high-rise block of public housing flats in North Kensington, London.

In the early hours of the morning of June 14 last year, a fire broke out, killing 71 people, including many children, one stillborn baby, and at injured least 70 people.

A refrigerator in a unit on the fourth floor of the building caught fire, but was quickly put out by firefighters who responded to an emergency call.

However, as the firefighters were leaving, they noticed that the fire had spread to the cladding on the exterior of the flats and was spreading quickly.

The fire burned for 60 hours before being extinguished, with newspaper reports crediting the block’s Muslim residents for the fact that the death toll was lower than what it could have been.

As the fire took place during Ramadan, Muslim residents were awake for sahur and alerted their neighbours, saving more than 220 people.

An inquiry soon followed, with evidence pointing to the cladding being the cause of the fire spreading rapidly.

An independent review of building regulations and fire safety is in progress in the United Kingdom.