Grenfell Tower: Seven high rises 'fail fire-risk tests'

[Eugene]

LBN thread: Tests being carried out on 600 English tower blocks with cladding

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Source: BBC

Grenfell Tower: Seven high rises 'fail fire-risk tests'

22 June 2017 UK

Seven residential high-rise buildings in four local authority areas have been found to be covered in combustible cladding following safety tests.

Landlords are being told and more checks carried out, number 10 said.

It comes as further tests are being carried out on about 600 high rises across England.

Cladding is thought to have contributed to the rapid spread of fire at Grenfell Tower, in which at least 79 people are believed to have died.

Extra checks by the fire service would determine whether the buildings were safe and what - if any - action needed to be taken, the prime minister's spokesman said.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40366646

[matt819]

1. Question

Was the Grenfell Tower one of those "estates" we read of and see on tv shows? As in, stay away from the estates.

And what about the 600 - 600?? -- other buildings? Who owns them? Who's the landlord? Where did the funding come from? The Grenfell Tower survivors have been reported to have brought this issue to the attention of the government, only to be ignored. What about the hundreds of other buildings? Have there been reports previously of corruption that allowed the cost-cutting measures that seem to have resulted in thousands of Britons living in death traps? Under which governments? Conservative? Liberal? Other?
And the cost to fix? This is what austerity does. Not that the 1% or conservatives give a damn.

[Eugene]

4. These 600 buildings are owned by the local councils.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/22/flammable-cladding-found-on-other-flats-after-grenfell-fire-says-may

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/after-london-fire-probe-finds-600-high-rise-apartments-in-england-may-have-similar-flammable-panels/2017/06/22/c6f5469b-a8df-4616-8961-52f5d765205a_story.html

There are a total 4,000 similar tower blocks in Britain.
The London Borough Council that ran Grenfell Tower
is governed by the Conservatives.

The fire appears to be a toxic mix of ruthless cost cutting,
zealous deregulation and malign neglect. The "renovation"
dressed up the tower to improve the view of the richer
neighbors. They could have made the tower safer
for a fraction of that cost.

[pansypoo53219]

2. our downtown adjacent areas have a lot of trendy condos being built. cladding.

how much of this shit is deadly?

[Warpy]

3. Plastic core cladding is illegal in the US

It is now also illegal in the EU, although some older buildings still have it.

The cladding on the Grenfell Tower was supposed to have mineral wool firestops between floors. It is not clear if those were ever installed. If they were, they were utterly inadequate.

There have been catastrophic high rise fires around the planet in buildings that used this garbage. Newer buildings in places like Beijing and the UAE have had fire alarms and multiple stairwells, so loss of life was very low. Until Grenfell.

[nitpicker]

5. BBC: Tower count now 11

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40366646