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posted by martyb on Monday June 26 2017, @07:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the Going-With-The-Crowd dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by BK on Monday June 26 2017, @02:54PM (6 children)

    by BK (4868) on Monday June 26 2017, @02:54PM (#531336)

    They only put the cladding on the buildings because the people who had to look at (not live in) the buildings thought they were an eye sore.

    IIRC, the cladding also functioned as insulation?

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Unixnut on Monday June 26 2017, @03:44PM (2 children)

    by Unixnut (5779) on Monday June 26 2017, @03:44PM (#531357)

    IIRC, the cladding also functioned as insulation?

    That was the main reason, rather than external looks. The buildings were built decades ago, and found to be very energy wasteful, and in the interest of reducing the energy required to heat the blocks (and corresponding carbon footprint) the government had the building clad in insulation.

    The government had committed itself to reducing emissions under the previous environmental agreements, and they cannot force insulating cladding on private houses and buildings. However public buildings are under their purview, so they can mandate whatever they want, doubly so as they are usually the ones paying the heating bills.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Monday June 26 2017, @07:15PM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:15PM (#531474)

      There have been studies that say that adding external insulation on an old building is also a lot more efficient -let alone less disruptive- than putting it inside.
      Since it's faster too, and doesn't shrink living space, that is the recommended retrofit method for millions of homes across Europe (unless you're in a historical district). You often get a tax break for the job.

      I didn't expect high-rise external insulation to be flammable, though.

      • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday June 26 2017, @07:27PM

        by Unixnut (5779) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:27PM (#531479)

        > I didn't expect high-rise external insulation to be flammable, though.

        And neither did I quite frankly. Hopefully we will find out who's really bright idea that was in the end.

  • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday June 26 2017, @04:47PM (2 children)

    by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 26 2017, @04:47PM (#531393)

    Actually, the insulation functions as insulation and the cladding functions as cladding, and the air gap between the two functions as a chimney.

    Turns out the insulation used was as flammable as the cladding (maybe more so) and also has the nice friendly effect of releasing cyanide when burned, some of the victims were treated for cyanide poisoning in hospital.

    • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday June 26 2017, @07:29PM (1 child)

      by Unixnut (5779) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:29PM (#531481)

      > Turns out the insulation used was as flammable as the cladding (maybe more so) and also has the nice friendly effect of releasing cyanide when burned, some of the victims were treated for cyanide poisoning in hospital.

      Sounds like they couldn't have made the situation worse if they had tried deliberately :-/

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @08:57PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @08:57PM (#531532)

        Yeah but it was cheap. Any more questions?