Scandal of the missing sprinklers

EMERGENCY checks are to be carried out on similar tower blocks after it emerged that as many as 4,000 across the country may be without sprinkler systems.

Grenfell Tower had recently undergone an £8.6million upgrade including cladding and replacement windows but residents said it did not have sprinklers.

Dozens of other high-rise buildings across the country are undergoing or have recently had similar refurbishments that included installing sprinkler systems, which are activated by heat and douse the whole area in water. The law now states new tower blocks must include them.

Parliament’s All-Party Fire Safety and Rescue Group had recommended fitting sprinklers in buildings. Honorary secre- tary Ronnie King said: ‘Buildings like the one today – over 30 metres – when they are new would require fire suppression installed.

‘But there are 4,000 older tower blocks in the UK that don’t have sprinklers. There are people who would argue that it’s too costly and there are other measures that could have been done, but it’s a fact that people don’t die in sprinkler buildings.’

Paul Fuller, chairman of the Fire Sector Federation trade body, said a sprinkler system could have helped lessen the impact of the fire.

‘We know that sprinklers are effective,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One pro- gramme. ‘Also, sprinklers will make the environment more survivable by containing the fire and containing the smoke. But they are not a total solution.’

Policing and Fire Minister Nick Hurd last night said emergency checks would be carried out on tower blocks. He said the government wanted to provide reassurance to people living in similar buildings as soon as possible.

He said: ‘We have discussed with the Department for Communities and Local Government, local authorities and the fire service a process whereby we seek to identify towers that might have a similar process of refurbishment and run a system of checks so that we can, as quickly as possible, give reassurance to people.’