The extent of the problem
A student residence in Bolton goes up like a torch.
Firefighters have been tackling a huge blaze at a university student accommodation block.
Crowds of students were evacuated from The Cube in Bolton when the fire broke out at about 20:30 GMT on Friday.
At its height about 200 firefighters from 40 fire engines were tackling the blaze which was affecting every floor.
A witness said the fire was “climbing up” the six-storey building. One person was rescued by crews using an aerial platform.
@JoLiptrott tweeted a Guardian article from last year about Grenfell-type cladding on student residences:
Thousands of students arriving at university for freshers’ week face sleeping in high-rise accommodation wrapped in combustible Grenfell-style cladding, the government has admitted.
Fifty-four privately owned student residential towers in England remain clad in aluminium composite material similar to that which helped spread the fire at Grenfell Tower 15 months ago, claiming 72 lives. The extent of the problem was revealed in figures released on Thursday by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Only eight of the 62 student towers rising over 18 metres and using material that officials said breached building regulations have so far been completely fixed, according to the data. Remediation plans were unclear for 23 of the towers, officials said.
The block in Bolton wasn’t a tower, being only six stories, and I don’t know that it had the same kind of cladding. Still: it’s disquieting to see a large residential building go up in flames that fast.
After the Grenfell Tower fire, I studied the cladding issues, but I can’t find my notes, so I’ll write some of this from memory.
The Grenfell Tower cladding was Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) containing polyethylene (PE). I forgot if the Grenfell Tower ACM PE was fire retardant or not, but I do remember it was not approved for buildings over 18 meters, so it violated Building Regulations.
The Bolton Cube fire looked remarkably similar, but the cladding was High Pressure Laminate (HPL), and 6 stories is under 18 meters, so I’ll be interested to see if it complied with Building Regulations.
Either way, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) has some work to do.
Thanks Dave.
I wonder why it varies according to height. Because the taller the building the harder it is to deal with the fire? Or because taller buildings burn hotter and/or faster? Just rhetorical questions; should research it myself.
#2; at a guess it will have something to do with the speed a fire can spread upwards and the speed people can evacuate the building safely. If, for example, a certain cladding burns upwards at a rate of five minutes per storey, the limit on building height will be based on how many floors can be safely evacuated in five minutes.