Des Houghton: Fears Yeronga water pressure not sufficient to fight fire

A leading fire safety engineer has added fuel to fears a Brisbane apartment block poses a fire threat to the home next door, writes Des Houghton.

A leading fire safety engineer questioned whether there was sufficient water pressure for firefighters to successfully contain blazes at Yeronga on Brisbane’s southside.

Stephen Burton’s warning was contained in a peer review assessment of fire safety failures at an apartment block. He said the block posed a “real” fire threat to a home next door.

Burton, the managing director of Ferm Engineering, is national deputy chair and Queensland secretary of the Engineers Australia Society of Fire Safety.

He compiled his report in 2019 for the Queensland Building and Construction Commission following a complaint from surgeon, Shaun McCrystal, who lives next door to the apartments.

McCrystal is rightly critical of the QBCC for failing its watchdog role to ensure buildings are safely constructed.

Fire nightmare: Surgeon Shaun McCrystal near the neighbouring apartment block that experts said was built too close, and without all the fire resistant materials.

Various State Government regulators, including the QBCC and the Ombudsman, fobbed him off even though he warned the apartment block was built too close to his home, and contains materials that are not fire resistant in accord with the Building Code of Australia.

Burton’s report back’s McCrystal’s claim that the QBCC had failed to manage the threat.

“There is a risk of fire spread to this building (McCrystal’s) from the car park or apartment windows due to the geometry of the overhang above the opening,’’ Burton said.

“They push into 2.5m off the boundary, and risk of spread from the neighbour is real.’’

He added: “Fire brigade intervention relies on OOO calls only, so the time for fire spread to the boundary can allow spread, and this with poor water supplies in the Yeronga area adds risk to the fact this can occur.”

Burton criticised the approvals process monitored by the QBCC. He said there was a “significant shortfall’’ in some plans presented for approval, “rendering the document an exercise in opinion without factual evidence to support their claims’’.

Burton went much further: “The whole FER (fire engineer report) assessment process has become a flawed approach after the fact,” he said.

That is an opinion from an expert that should ring alarm bells with anyone in the government or the building trades concerned with safety. Yet the QBCC this week told McCrystal his case was closed, and that it would no longer respond to his letters.

Burton’s report was especially damning because it questioned the skills of those assigned to check and approve safety settings.

“A fire engineer must be skilled in using and supporting engineering judgment under the legislation for a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland and good practice,” he said.

“The skill level applied here has been considerably below that expected.”

McCrystal said the QBCC’s was again burying its head in the sand. And he was critical of the Minister for Housing and Public Works, Mick de Brenni, for failing to intervene. De Brenni declined to comment.

Mick de Brenni declined to comment.

McCrystal said it was disturbing the Palaszczuk government’s “toothless” building watchdog repeatedly tried to block him from receiving Burton’s report. It was trying to hide the truth.

He repeatedly warned the QBCC he had expert opinion the apartments were designed, certified and constructed in breach of the minimum fire safety requirements of the Building Code of Australia.

“My chief concern is the safety of my wife and children,’’ he said.

McCrystal is not going quietly.

This week he asked Queensland’s fire chief to invoke his extraordinary powers which would, in effect, force families to vacate the apartments until they were deemed safe.

Gregory Leach, the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services commissioner said he would respond to McCrystal in early January.

In a pre-Christmas letter, McCrystal reminded Leach of his powers and responsibilities under the Fire and Emergency Services Act “that gives you the power to seek an injunction in the Supreme Court to prohibit or restrict the use of a building if you are satisfied that the risk to persons in the event of fire, or the risk of spread of fire…”

McCrystal also reminded Leach he had the power to seek a court injunction to restrict access “until steps have been taken to reduce the risk to a reasonable level”. He even has the power to ask the courts to halt entry to buildings indefinitely.

He quoted from numerous cases of improper building construction fights that went all the way to the High Court.

“For brevity, both buildings have boundary separation distances of less than 3m, unprotected openings, and predominately least fire-resisting Type C Construction.

“The risk of the spread of fire is clear.”

McCrystal also presented Leach with a Burton’s damning review.

The QBCC, meanwhile, was forced to defend the appointment of Julie Barsha as its Chief Strategy and Information Officer.

A Parliamentary Estimates hearing heard Barsha was appointed months after the QBCC paid her a $339,845 fee for nine months work.

Quizzed about the appointment by shadow works minister, Tim Mander, the QBCC commissioner Brett Bassett said: “Yes, it was a merit-based process.”

Interestingly, Bassett said a number of QBCC board members sat on the committee that appointed Barsha.

I’m told Barsha was initially engaged to tighten building licence eligibility requirements after an unfavourable Auditor-General report to Parliament said found there was a risk that fraud could go undetected.

Des Houghton is a media consultant and a former editor of The Courier-Mail, The Sunday Mail and The Sunday Sun.