In U.K., all 75 buildings tested so far for fire safety have failed

LONDON — All 75 high-rises in Britain tested for fire safety since the Grenfell Tower tragedy have failed, a leading government official said Monday, raising concerns even more buildings may have to be evacuated while emergency repairs are undertaken.

Addressing the House of Commons, Sajid Javid, the minister for communities and local government, said all 75 towers in Britain whose cladding had so far been tested for combustibility had failed. He said hospitals and schools also would be tested to ensure they had not been built with cladding that could easily catch fire.

Hundreds of families were ordered to evacuate apartments in the five high-rise buildings of the Chalcots Estate in northwest London on Friday night in an urgent scramble after it emerged that, among other safety risks, the buildings had exterior cladding similar to the material used on Grenfell Tower. At least 79 people died in Grenfell Tower on June 14, in London’s deadliest fire in more than a century.

An estimated 4,000 residents of the more than 800 apartments in the Chalcots Estate were advised to leave their homes, many of them resorting to sleeping on air mattresses in a nearby hospitality center. But at least 100 residents refused to budge, even as local officials were knocking on their doors urging them to get out.

Javid, the government minister, told Sky News over the weekend the forced evacuation had been spurred not just by the cladding, but by many other “fire safety failures,” including missing fire doors, insulation used on gas pipes, and plywood used above doors.

Safety checks were continuing on the cladding on high-rise buildings across the country. Sian Berry, a member of the Camden Council, said the decision to test buildings was voluntary and was being decided by local authorities based on individual risk assessments.

She said because all the tower blocks tested so far had failed, questions were being raised that even cladding deemed to be safer than that which had been used at Grenfell may not meet fire safety standards.

“Councils who can’t tell if cladding is safe from the paper trail or just by looking at the building are sending them out for testing, and people are being cautious,” she said. “The results so far are alarming.”

The United States, a world leader in fire safety standards, forbids the application of the sort of highly flammable materials used on Grenfell Tower. But under the regulatory system in force in Britain, builders and property owners faced less strict restrictions and may have wrapped hundreds of buildings in the potentially risky cladding.

John McDonnell, the opposition Labour Party’s spokesman on economic issues, said those killed in Grenfell Tower had been “murdered” by “political decisions” made over recent decades.

As many across the political spectrum have criticized the regulatory shortcomings that may have led to the Grenfell fire, members of the insurance industry have said they warned the government about the risks of flammable cladding just a month before it happened.

Malcolm Tarling, a spokesman for the Association of British Insurers, said the industry was closely watching the response to the fire. “We have been calling for the U.K. government to review fire regulations since 2009,” he said. “As recently as May, we made a submission to the government which referenced the need to consider the fire risk posed by combustible cladding.”

In its submission to the government, the association warned “external cladding made from combustible material can often cause significant fire spread upward and between buildings, which is a particular concern for areas of high building density.”