Developers hire experts to assess fire risk to aluminium cladding on apartment blocks
Fines for smoking or barbecuing on balconies, more regular drills and equipment checks encouraged
Developers are hiring fire experts to assess the aluminium cladding on apartment blocks, but more owners must evaluate risks and develop strategies to ensure safety.
Regular maintenance of safety equipment, fire drills and strict enforcement of fines are key to keeping older buildings with flammable aluminium cladding safe from fires, experts said.
Authorities are working with experts on whether fire barriers can be added to delay the spread of a blaze in buildings that are clad with aluminium panels with a combustible thermoplastic core.
But these are long-term measure and experts said other important steps could be taken in the interim.
“I don’t believe we can do it with one entity like an authority going around and looking at all the buildings,” said Andy Dean, of engineering company WSP. “The way to do it is to ask anyone who owns the buildings to make that assessment and pool all that information.
“Everybody who owns a building really ought to be thinking about assessing their level of risk because, until you know the nature and extent of the problem, how can you fix it?
“So either a homeowners’ association or an office landlord gets involved, whoever is charged with the responsibility of that building. I can’t see any good reason why anyone would wait any longer.”
A basic assessment to sketch out the extent of problems can cost a developer Dh20,000.
“Nobody wants to be alarmist, but a lot of the more responsible developers and building owners are assessing their building stock,” Mr Dean said.
“They are looking for expert advice, some of them on a single building basis, to make that initial assessment and understand where the problems are, and try to quantify it.
“You don’t have to spend a fortune doing it, but it’s money well spent.”
There have been strong calls for enhanced safety after the second fire in as many years at Dubai Marina’s The Torch tower, one of the world’s tallest residential buildings, and the tragic Grenfell Fire in London that killed 79 people, fuelled by flammable aluminium panelling.
Cladding has also fed the flames in at least five major tower fires in the UAE over the past five years.
Of these, Dubai Police said that the 2012 fire in Tamweel Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers was caused by a cigarette butt thrown into a waste bin.
Experts have estimated that between 65 to 70 per cent of buildings in the UAE have some form of aluminium panels
It’s flammable material, but it does not just spontaneously combust. Cladding combusts because someone has ignited it. Education needs to be stressed
with a thermoplastic core, but Civil Defence officials have refuted the figure, saying that a much smaller percentage of buildings have such cladding. Official data is not available.
Authorities banned the cladding under the federal 2012 Fire and Life Safety Code, but concerns remain for buildings constructed before the code.
While the cost to replace the entire cladding is prohibitive and, in many cases, not possible because of the placement
of the exterior covering, occupants must be more aware of the risks.
“Yes, the cladding is flammable, but we need to make sure that maintenance is being done right,” said Douglas Ralph, president of the Middle East Real Estate Inspection Association.
“It’s an interesting challenge that we have to get people to understand that it’s flammable material, but it does not just spontaneously combust. Cladding combusts because someone has ignited it. Education needs to be stressed,” Mr Ralph said.
“You do not smoke a cigarette close to an open can of gasoline. We all know better than that. The cladding is the same. We know the cladding is flammable, so why are the residents using barbecue grills or shisha charcoal on the balconies?
“Why are they smoking and dropping their cigarettes off the building? The building security needs to get much stronger. If someone uses a barbecue grill, they should be fined. We have to look at the big picture.
“The cladding is the problem, but it will take a long time to come up with a good plan for all the different styles of buildings and it’s going to be costly. Our big challenge is educating people so they stop having the attitude that it’s OK for them to still have a shisha or barbecue on their balcony.”