It has just been revealed that a month before the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Association of British Insurers had warned ministers of the dangers of flammable cladding.
Responding to a consultation on housing, the ABI said that building regulations were outdated and they should be reviewed according to the
Financial Times.
“External cladding made from combustible material can often cause significant fire to spread upwards and between buildings, which is a particular concern for areas of high building density,” the ABI wrote.
It continued in its submission that if there were “large quantities” of flammable cladding, then there would be a significant increase in “the probability of fire and potential scale of loss”. Grenfell Tower received its cladding in a refurbishment carried out across the end of 2015 and start of 2016.
BBC’s
Panorama has reported that firefighters had just put out the blaze in a fridge that is suspected to be the cause of the fire and had started to leave the building when they spotted flames racing up the outside of the building.
Dave Green, national officer at the Fire Brigades Union explained: ”Clearly it was a hot night and if the (fire) was fairly close to an open window then potentially the flames could have got outside - if there were net curtains, something like that, it could have got up.
“Then the cladding might well have been smouldering.
“As a firefighter you wouldn’t have thought to look outside. We would assume that the outside of the building would not be compromised.”
The Grenfell Tower fire, which killed at least 79 people and
could be one of Europe’s biggest insurance claims, was not the first of its kind. In 2009 there was a blaze at Lakanal House that killed six. In the subsequent inquest Southwark Council was found to be responsible for a “serious failure” over the materials used in the building. And another chilling similarity – a jury found that the fire brigade’s “stay where you are” to be rescued policy contributed to at least some of the deaths.
Although the number of fires reported by the ABI has dropped, it also told the FT that costs related to those fires have nearly doubled in the last decade.
Councils have rushed to address the issue – with varying levels of success – last night Camden council was still trying to get the last of the residents of four tower blocks to evacuate.
Related stories:
Revealed: Cause of Grenfell Tower fire
Revealed: Hundreds of UK apartment blocks share Grenfell Tower fire hazard
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