Fire fears for older buildings

London blaze sparks concern over lack of modern safety features

MANY high-rise buildings in Durban older than 27 years lack sprinklers, as was the case in London’s Grenfell Towers, which caught fire this month, killing at least 79 people.

“What the (fire) community would like to see is the older buildings getting retro-fitted with fire protection systems that are now well known to be necessary,” Andrew Greig, consulting fire engineer and an office bearer of the Institute of Fire Engineers, told The Independent on Saturday.

“That’s going to happen in London, where according to the latest press release, the local authority is going to fund the fitment of sprinklers in all buildings similar to Grenfell Towers.”

He said modern high-rise buildings tended to have sprinklers and smoke control systems for escape stairs, among other fire protection features.

“But older high-rise buildings, typically constructed before the National Building Regulations in about 1990, often lack modern fire protection features and systems.”

Greig said people often “hide behind the excuse that it wasn’t a requirement then”.

“That doesn’t mean we need to first have a catastrophe and then change the laws.”

Combustible cladding insulating the Grenfell Towers, believed to have caused the London fire to spread so fast many people were unable to flee, is generally used only in hot or cold climates, said Greig.

“We are happily in the middle of those climates. Generally, we would not use this type of material for building façades,” he said.

Ross Stenbridge, building services manager at Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal, concurred with Greig that the lack of sprinklers posed a problem, but said retro-fitting would be a huge cost.

“In sectional title buildings it would mean people would have to pay a levy of R50 000 per flat,” he said. “Retrofitting means ceilings being ripped out. It’s all a problem of economics.”

Greig said Durban had experienced some potentially lethal fires.

“A very hazardous incident occurred in 2007 in Seaboard Apartments, where a fire started on the eighth floor but spread out of control both internally and externally upwards for many storeys.

“The vertical fire spread and a number of other fire protection failures resulted in victims inside the building not being able to escape down stairs, and only fortuitous and skilled helicopter rescues from the roof saved many lives.

“Earlier this year, a serious fire developed in Commercial City (in Rossburgh), a building of some 20 storeys.”

Greig said Durban’s Royal Hotel was not fitted with sprinklers when constructed and, some years ago, “there was a fire in this building that was challenging for the residents and the Fire Department”. Greig said that before 1990, municipal by-laws had stipulated the national building regulations.

“Local by-laws did not have the standards for fires in high rises as the national building regulations have now. Apart from sprinklers, this is also the case with smoke control in the escape stairs. They were not as well designed as they are now.”

The eThekwini Municipality was not able to comment by the time of going to press.

LONDON: Police are considering filing manslaughter charges related to the fire at a west London apartment tower that killed at least 79 people.

In its most detailed briefing on the criminal investigation, the Metropolitan Police yesterday confirmed residents’ suspicions that the June 14 inferno at Grenfell Tower was touched off by a fridge fire. The department also said exterior cladding attached to the 24-storey public housing project during a recent renovation failed safety tests conducted by investigators, and that police had seized documents from a number of organisations.

“We are looking at every criminal offence from manslaughter onwards,” Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack told reporters. “We are looking at all health and safety and fire safety offences, and we are reviewing every company at the moment involved in the building and refurbishment of Grenfell Tower.”

The government has ordered an immediate examination of the fridge model that started the blaze. McCormack said the Hotpoint model FF175BP fridgefreezer was not subject to any product recalls before the fire.

Hotpoint said yesterday that “words cannot express our sorrow at this terrible tragedy” and it was working with authorities to examine the appliance.

The overnight fire rapidly engulfed Grenfell Tower, with flames shooting up the outside of the building, raising concerns that cladding material attached to concrete blocks didn’t comply with fire-safety rules.

Police are looking at all parts of the cladding system and its installation, McCormack said.

Safety tests

“Preliminary tests show the insulation samples collected from Grenfell Tower combusted soon after the test started,” she said. “The initial tests on equivalent aluminium composite tiles failed the safety tests.”

The government has called on all building owners, public and private, to submit samples of cladding material used on buildings for testing. Samples from 11 buildings in London, Manchester and Plymouth were already found to be combustible.

Fears about cladding are not limited to apartment buildings – at least one hotel chain is calling in experts to make certain it meets safety regulations. Premier Inn said yesterday it had “concerns” about the material used on some of its buildings, though it is different from the type used at Grenfell Tower.

McCormack repeated calls for anyone with information about the fire and all those in the tower at the time to come forward as police continue to comb through the devastated building to try to find and identify all the victims.

Police said earlier this week that 79 people were either dead, missing or presumed to be dead, though numbers may change.

To ensure everyone comes forward, London mayor Sadiq Khan pledged to seek an amnesty for people who were living in the public housing block illegally.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the government won’t penalise fire survivors who were in the country illegally.

“We want to identify all those who died as result of the fire at Grenfell Tower, and that is where I need the public’s help,” McCormack said. “I do not want there to be any hidden victims of this tragedy.”