Are our Tower Blocks safe?

[Berberis]

I find it beyond sad that action is only being taken (re the sprinklers) after this awful tragedy. Has your building been fitted with new cladding in the last few years? If so, you must demand urgent assurances from the relevant authorities. I don't live in a high rise myself but can totally understand how anxious this must be making you feel.

 

I may be wrong, but I thought I heard the fire brigade say there was no wet risers after a point in this block to there was no access to water for the firefighters. If other blocks have access to water all the way to the top, this would help prevent such a tragedy. The water was certainly still on in the building as one lady managed to survive by flooding her bathroom and staying in that room.

[Tavit]

Article worth a read http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article59394.html

[Dan_Ashcroft]

We've known since Ronan Point in 1968 that these are death traps.

 

They all need to come down - Exeter Drive, Sharrow, Park Hill, Hyde Park, St Pauls - the lot of them.

[bassett one]

had a email stating all council high rise are safe from scc

[srtaylo0]

Article worth a read http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article59394.html

 

Does anyone else think this article is somewhat misleading and not very good ?

It discusses two sheffield buildings

 

1 The arts tower

It suggests this is at risk yet I do not believe this has been cladded ? Its just glass and steel.

 

2. A student housing block..

Looking at the picture it is mainly brick.

 

 

The rest of the article says nothing that has not been on news sites and just uses headline grabbing words like "ticking time bombs" and "incompetent councils" whilst not substantiating its claims.

[Mr Bloke]

Does anyone else think this article is somewhat misleading and not very good ?

It discusses two sheffield buildings

 

1 The arts tower

It suggests this is at risk yet I do not believe this has been cladded ? Its just glass and steel.

 

2. A student housing block..

Looking at the picture it is mainly brick.

 

 

The rest of the article says nothing that has not been on news sites and just uses headline grabbing words like "ticking time bombs" and "incompetent councils" whilst not substantiating its claims.

Don't take everything at face value!

 

It's just a badly written article quickly cobbled together to promote a marketing website!

[SYorksDeano]

I would be interested to see the Councils records for checking high rise blocks every day. The only thing that I can find on the Interweb is a pdf file from Sheffield Council saying checks are done every 6 weeks

[Eater Sundae]

It is easy for the Council or any other property owner to say that the materials used in their​ properties met all the relevant standards. I think it is unlikely that any don't. Cladding will meet necessary fire standards etc.

 

Although a public enquiry will get the answers, this will not be for several years. I hope that the people assessing other buildings now will look beyond the basic "it meets current regulations" and try and consider what may have happened here, ie is the cladding just fire retardant but can still burn if the circumstances are right, or is it fully inert. Also, is there a path for fire to spread, and the availability of a chimney effect to draw the fire.

 

It's easy to say that a building was constructed to the correct codes. Some councils have already said this. But it is just a platitude. If it wasn't constructed correctly, it should never have been signed off. Nobody is ever going to say that their buildings are believed to be unsafe.

 

Something went wrong here, and we don't, for certain, know what and why. Anyone with the knee jerk reaction of "our building used approved materials, so no need to worry" is being complacent.

[psynuk]

Builders and architects, project managers etc are very much inclined to cover their own asses(ts).

Your right they're very unlikely to disclose any known safety risks, they may simply put the manufacturers safety data sheets or product info in a folder pass it on to the owner and consider it done and adequate.

A good example of this is with asbestos, getting anybody who's involved and responsible for designing or building something to state unequivocally that there's no asbestos is nigh on impossible. Even in a modern building we had built 'to the best of our knowledge' is the most definite answer we could extract regarding the lack of asbestos in it. Which is as good as saying 'maybe, er we don't know'.

 

I'm not sure on this, but anybody in a public building, high rise, school etc should be able to get access to the latest fire risk assessment, which will detail any shortcomings by the assessor and will have time scales to remedy any shortcomings and should have reasons included for not doing suggested works.

[tinfoilhat]

I wonder about the boom in external insulation for houses. Is this safe? Could this be a fire risk? Since expanded polystyrene melts and gives off toxic fumes, should we be alarmed by this trend?

 

I'm not sure about the toxic fumes part, but if you have a bean bag at home, take out a hand full of the contents and set fire to it. No flame it just extinguishs itself into dust - doesn't melt.