LONDON — The authorities in Britain
are scrambling to conduct safety tests on at least 600 high-rise
buildings with exterior cladding, following the fire at Grenfell Tower
last week in which at least 79 people died.
Exterior
cladding is thought to have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire
on June 14, which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a 24-story apartment block
in West London, in about an hour.
Samples
of cladding from residential buildings over 18 meters (about 60 feet)
in height are being sent to a national laboratory to check whether they
are combustible. Tests have already shown that at least three buildings
are at risk.
The
cladding panels used at Grenfell Tower were of an aluminum composite
material. Critics of the material have warned for years that aluminum
surface sheets can melt in a fire, after which a blaze could race
through the flammable polyethylene insulation between the sheets.
Mrs. May’s announcement — made at the start of a parliamentary discussion — left lawmakers visibly surprised.
“Shortly
before I came to this chamber, I was informed that a number of tests
have come back as combustible,” Mrs. May told lawmakers. “The relevant
local authorities and local fire services have been informed, and as I
speak, they are taking all possible steps to ensure buildings are safe,
and to inform affected residents.”
After
the debate, Mrs. May’s office told journalists that 600 buildings had
panels “similar” to those used in Grenfell Tower. The office later
amended that statement, saying that the number 600 referred to tall
buildings with aluminum panels, and that not all of them would have
potentially combustible materials. Sajid Javid, the secretary for
communities and local government, was expected to provide further
details later on Thursday.
The fire has focused attention on a variety of safety issues at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere.
The
building, completed in 1974, did not have sprinklers or a centralized
alarm system, though this is not uncommon for a high rise of its age.
Lawmakers have chastised the government for failing to encourage the
retrofitting of older buildings with sprinklers, as was recommended in a
report on a deadly fire in Southeast London in 2009. A policy urging
residents to “stay put” until rescue workers arrived has also been
questioned.
Perhaps
no issue has gotten as much attention, however, as the cladding, which
was installed at Grenfell Tower as part of a renovation that was
completed in May 2016.
Similar
kinds of materials have been associated with fires in high-rise
buildings in China, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.
The
building contractor and cladding supplier that were involved in the
Grenfell Tower renovation also worked on the refurbishment of another
complex in London, Chalcots Estate.
The London borough of Camden, which owns that complex, announced on Thursday
that the aluminum cladding panels “were not to the standard that we had
commissioned.” It also said that it was considering legal action.
Officials
emphasized that Chalcots Estate had “fire-resistant rock wool
insulation designed to prevent the spread of fire and fire-resistant
sealant between floors, designed to stop a high-intensity flat fire from
spreading to neighboring flats,” adding that those measures had helped
contain a fire in 2012. Nonetheless, the borough said it would
“immediately begin preparing to remove” cladding panels from five
buildings in the complex.
Mrs.
May urged building owners to have their structures tested immediately.
“We can test over 100 buildings a day, and the results come within
hours,” she said. “I urge any landlord who owns a building of this kind
to send samples for testing as soon as possible. Any results will be
communicated immediately to local authorities and local fire services.”
Mrs.
May stressed that landlords had “a legal obligation to provide safe
buildings,” and said that owners would be asked to provide alternative
accommodation if they could not fulfill this duty. “We cannot and will
not ask people to live in unsafe homes,” she said.
Notably, Mrs. May did not repeat an assertion made by two of her ministers,
including Philip Hammond, chancellor of the Exchequer, that the kind of
cladding used on the tower was illegal under British regulations.
If
true, that would deflect responsibility for the disaster away from the
government and toward the tower’s owners and building contractors, but a
close examination of the regulations does not support the ministers’ assertions.
On
Sunday, Mrs. May’s government took control of the emergency response,
sidelining officials from the local council, the Royal Borough of
Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the building. On Wednesday, the
government said it would acquire 68 units in a luxury complex to permanently house displaced families.
The
council’s chief executive, Nicholas Holgate, announced his resignation
on Thursday, saying he had been asked to leave by Mr. Javid. The council
had been heavily criticized as being slow to provide emergency aid to
the survivors.
Mrs.
May said she would appoint within days a judge to lead an independent
public inquiry into the fire. The Metropolitan Police has opened a
criminal investigation.
Grenfell
Tower contained about 120 apartments, but Mrs. May said on Thursday
that 151 homes had been destroyed, because the fire had spread beyond
the tower.
On Thursday, 10 people injured in the fire remained hospitalized, five of them in critical condition.
Mrs. May’s statements did not mollify her critics, including Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party.
Mr.
Corbyn said that the residents’ longstanding concerns about fire safety
had been ignored, and he suggested that had been part of a pattern of
working-class people not being taken seriously.
He
said that local councils had reduced fire inspections because of budget
cuts, and that combustible cladding needed to be removed from all
buildings, whatever the cost.
Mrs.
May, who seemed poised and knowledgeable as she took numerous
questions, did not say what would happen to residents of towers where
combustible cladding was used, except that the government was
“immediately acting to ensure the safety of people within.”
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