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From ABC News:
The list of high-rise apartment towers in Britain that have failed fire safety tests grew to 60, officials said Sunday, revealing the mounting challenge the government faces in the aftermath of London's Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
All of the buildings for which external cladding samples were so far submitted failed combustibility tests, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said. As of late Sunday, that includes 60 towers from 25 different areas of the country — double the figure given a day earlier.
More from the BBC:
The Local Government Association said some councils have introduced 24-hour warden patrols to mitigate the risk before cladding is removed.
It said in a statement: "Where cladding fails the test, this will not necessarily mean moving residents from tower blocks.
"In Camden, the decision to evacuate was based on fire inspectors' concerns about a combination of other fire hazards together with the cladding."
So it looks like, far from an isolated thing, basically everyone had the bright idea to do this.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by VLM on Monday June 26 2017, @02:25PM
Its one of those two countries separated by a common language things. I live in the colonies and have this cladding on my house. Aluminum siding with a thin insulation layer. Theoretically the foam is fireproof. I live far enough east that excessive rain is more likely to be a problem than desert wildfires so I'm much better off than folks with the more modern all vinyl siding.
I also have experience with fire proof foam sealant as relates to wire installation in data centers and stuff. You pays your money and takes your chances. No fire prevention means its a smokey candle flame. "residential grade fire block" (note, not stop, block) will block smoke but direct flame will ignite it, but the smoke although toxic isn't as bad as it could be. The "commercial grade fire stop" like the 3M products will not sustain a flame. Given plenum rated wire and commercial grade fire stop you're pretty safe from fire, but that stuff is packed with enough chemicals that if you do somehow manage to ignite it, then you're F'd, of course that probably doesn't matter because to ignite it you'd have to be dead and cooked and cremated first. Still your next door neighbor probably doens't want to die of cancer so thats why they sell the wimpy but better than nothing residential stuff to rando civilians. From memory the weak stuff is flourescent orange and the strong stuff is "sewer malfunction" brown, but I could have it reversed.
Anyway the point is you can add somewhat toxic stuff to plastic to make it not burn, and thats pretty common on this side of the pond, maybe not in the UK.