Cladding reports fuel anger
Residents round on politician as stories say panels with less flame resistance were used for tower
LONDON // Grief over the tower fire that killed dozens turned to outrage yesterday amid reports that the materials used in a recent renovation of the public housing block might have fuelled the inferno.
Engineering experts have speculated that outside insulation panels, or cladding, installed on the 24-storey Grenfell Tower might have helped the fire to spread rapidly from one floor to the next. The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday that contractors installed a cheaper, less flame-resistant type of cladding in the renovation that was completed in May last year.
Angry residents yesterday surrounded Andrea Leadsom, a Conservative politician and leader of the house of commons, when she visited the neighbourhood. They demanded to know why prime minister Theresa May had not met survivors when she toured the area on Thursday.
“Because of people saving money, people are dying,” one man told Ms Leadsom.
She replied: “I do sense the anger. I’ve come here today because I wanted to meet residents. I wanted to show the absolute sorrow and horror of everyone in the house of commons from the prime minister down.”
The police said 30 people were known to have died in the blaze that started just before 1am on Wednesday, but the death toll might exceed 100 because at least 70 people were missing.
The speed with which the fire spread shocked experts and its heavy black smoke forced many residents in the tower’s 120 apartments to stay inside and wait for help.
Queen Elizabeth II received a different welcome when she visited residents, volunteers and emergency services at the Westway sports centre, which has become a hub for the relief effort.
Her grandson Prince William accompanied her and told a volunteer “That’s one of the most terrible things I have ever seen”.
As the royals were leaving the centre, they were met with cheers but also anguished cries for help from a crowd of about 40 people. One man held a poster of a missing person and shouted that he wanted to speak to the queen about lost children. The queen waved to the crowd, and then hesitated before getting into her car.
As others shouted in desperation, Prince William replied: “I’ll come back, I’ll come back.”
Using drones and sniffer dogs, firefighters continued to search the building that looms over Notting Dale, a low-income district of west London.
Grenfell Tower is owned by the local government council and managed by a non-profit organisation known as the Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation.
The group last year completed a £10 million (Dh47m) renovation that included new cladding, double-glazed windows and a communal heating system. Aluminium composite panels have been used to cover the exterior of buildings for more than 40 years. They essentially consist of two thin layers of aluminium sandwiched around a lightweight insulating material. Standard versions use plastic such as polythene for the core, while more expensive variants use fire-resistant material.
The Times newspaper reported that contractors were thought to have used panels with a polythene core for the Grenfell project. Fire-resistant panels cost £ 24 a square metre, about £ 2 more than the standard model, The Times said.
The International Building Code calls for the use of fire-resistant cores in buildings that are taller than 12 metres to slow the spread of flames and reduce the amount of smoke generated. The company that installed the exterior cladding, Harley Facades, said the panels were “commonly used” in refurbishing buildings.
“There will be many questions about this whole incident and so you will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for us to comment or for others to speculate on any aspect of fire, or its causes, in advance of these inquiries,” said Ray Bailey, managing director of Harley Facades.