Cladding link to London blaze
Tower block had the same aluminium composite covering that went up in flames at several high-rise blocks around the world, including three in Dubai
LONDON // The London apartment block devastated by fire was covered in flammable cladding linked to several high-rise fires in the past few years, including three in Dubai.
The contractor Harley Facades fitted Grenfell Tower with aluminium composite cladding in a contract valued at £2.6 million (Dh12.2m). The combustible cladding has been blamed for the rapid spread of the 2012 blaze that gutted Tamweel Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, the fire at the Torch apartment building in 2015 and the Address Downtown Dubai hotel fire on New Year’s Eve the same year.
One witness to the Grenfell Tower fire said: “It was burning like paper. It wasn’t the building, it wasn’t the structure. That cladding – it was just like throwing fuel on the fire.”
Another witness said: “Whole panels were coming off in flames. The firefighters’ hoses could reach only halfway up the building, and whole bits of the facade from the top, these panels were literally falling down. It was horrible.”
Residents had repeatedly complained about the safety of the block but were assured there was no problem.
Judith Blakeman, a local councillor, said questions would now be asked about those assurances.
“If the cladding was partly responsible for the fire we need to know what the specification for the cladding was and why it sud- denly just went up in about five minutes, because it should have been fire resistant, surely,” she said.
“Neighbours said the cladding went up like a nightdress by a fire – it just went ‘whoosh’.”
The Grenfell Action Group, set up in 2010 to oppose the redevelopment of a nearby green space, said it had repeatedly raised the issue of fire-safety standards at Grenfell Tower.
“All our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable – just a matter of time,” the group said.
Eddie Daffarn, who lived on the 16th floor of the block, said he had warned that “one day there will be a catastrophic fire that will hold these people to account”. “This is mass murder and these people need to be put into court,” he said.
Experts have repeatedly said that combustible cladding can work like a chimney, bringing up air that allows a fire to spread across a building quickly.
Chartered surveyor and fire expert Arnold Tarling said the installation can create a 25 to 30-millimetre cavity between the cladding and the insulation. “It produces a wind tunnel and also traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building. So basically you have got a cavity with a fire spreading behind it.”
Angus Law, of the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, said: “This event has similarities with other fires that have occurred re- cently around the world.
“The UK’s regulatory framework for tall residential buildings is intended to prevent the spread of fire between floors and between apartments.
“If spread of fire does occur, as has happened at Grenfell Tower, the consequences are often catastrophic.”
The refurbishment work that added the cladding cost £8.6m and finished in May last year. The construction company Rydon, which carried out the work, said it “met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards”.