Fire experts say towers must change
BRIDGES should be built between tower blocks and residents should be able to use lifts in the event of a fire, leading fire safety experts have said following the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Safety testing of exterior cladding will also have to be strengthened in the light of the fire, while assembly points for those evacuated from burning buildings need to be urgently revised.
Experts at a conference, held as part of the international Firex fire and security exhibition at London’s Excel Centre, issued the warnings while discussing the dangers posed by the rapid spread of fire in tall buildings all over the world.
Fire engineers said they fear preparations for devastating fires similar to the one that claimed at least 79 lives last week are “woefully inadequate”.
They also told the Tall Building Fire Safety Conference in London that hundreds of other tall buildings around the world are fitted with “inferior”, nonfire resistant cladding, such as the type thought to have spread the flames which engulfed the Kensington tower.
The conference heard that the ability of firefighters to tackle such catastrophic blazes was lagging behind the growing demand for tall buildings.
Russ Timpson, founder of the Tall Buildings Fire Safety Network, said that in London alone 400 new tall buildings are under construction or planned over the next few years.
However, he warned that1 many officials with responsibility for fire safety, particularly in council-run residential blocks such as Grenfell Tower, did not have the information or training required to handle an emergency.
Mr Timpson, a former firefighter and head of safety for Virgin Atlantic Airways, said: “These buildings require a high level of fire safety management and in my experience the capacity of those people is woefully inadequate.
“We are not keeping up as a fire community with the tall buildings being built and it’s not an issue until something dreadful happens like last week.”
He added that the ability of architects and engineers to build ever higher was outpacing the ability of firefighters to tackle potentially catastrophic blazes in tall buildings.
“There are no more tools in the box of a firefighter faced with a full height facade fire,” said Mr Timpson. He suggested that more tall buildings should be linked by walkways, such as the one between the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, allowing occupants to escape more quickly.
Mr Timpson urged the scrapping of emergency assembly points near tall buildings because of the danger of falling debris, as happened when burning cladding fell from Grenfell Tower on to residents and firefighters.
The conference also heard that steps had to be taken to redesign buildings so lifts could be used to evacuate residents faster, in contrast to current advice not to use them during a fire.