Senate inquiry into fire safety highlights absence of sprinklers in Euro Terraces towers in Bankstown
THE scene of a fatal fire in 2012 and a 2016 restaurant blaze, a Senate inquiry into building safety has found no assurance there would not be another devastating fire in Bankstown’s Euro Terraces.
The Express
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IT WAS the scene of a fatal fire in 2012 and another fire that gutted a restaurant last year. Now Bankstown’s Euro Terraces block has been highlighted in a federal Senate inquiry into nonconforming building products.
Chinese student Connie Zhang died jumping from a window to escape a fire in her fifth-floor apartment in the complex in West Terrace, Bankstown, in September 2012.
In April last year a blaze gutted the Rashay’s restaurant on the ground floor.
An inquest last year into the 2012 fire found the building was just 10cm below the 25m height requirement to install sprinklers.
The Grenfell Tower blaze in London, which killed 80 people, has raised concerns about high-rise buildings in Australia and whether our building fire safety standards, compliance and enforcement is strong enough to prevent such a tragedy happening here.
A federal Senate inquiry into the fire safety of building products last month cited the lack of sprinklers in the Euro Terraces building.
It concluded: “the current system provides no assurance that this (fire) will not re-occur’’.
The Express spoke to a resident of Block A of Euro Terraces, next to Block B where the fires occurred.
The mother of two boys, aged 7 and 3, who did not want to be named, said she did not feel safe because of the building’s design and the absence of sprinklers.
“If there’s a fire in the common areas where the lifts and the fire doors are, I’m stuck in the bedroom and can’t get out,” she said.
The fire escape was off the common area inside the building and she said there should be one on the outside of the building.
“Maybe I need to buy some rope so I can get down with my two kids.”
The resident said there had been some extra fire safety measures installed recently but it had been “very slow”.
These included extinguishers, new fire doors, metal strips under apartment doors to prevent smoke coming in and a ventilator valve in the bedrooms to stop fire and smoke coming up from below.
“People are still scared,” the woman said. “When there are false (fire) alarms they come down every time.”
Fire Protection Association Australia chief executive Scott Williams said building laws needed changing.
“We are calling for sprinklers in buildings under 25m — anything over three storeys in height needs to have sprinklers,’’ Mr Williams said.
He said FPA Australia was working with Fire and Rescue NSW on a hybrid, cost-effective sprinkler system for buildings under 25m but it would be too expensive to retrofit buildings.
“We are a developed nation and every Australian has the right to feel safe,” he said.
A FRNSW spokeswoman said it had inspected the Euro Terraces building after both fires and issued orders to the owners corporation in relation to the smoke detection and alarm systems that were complied with.
It had also researched a fit-for-purpose sprinkler system for buildings under 25m and the results would come out later this year.
A Canterbury-Bankstown Council spokeswoman said it had issued orders to the owners after the 2012 fire for fire safety works, which were completed.
“Council officers have inspected the building on a regular basis to monitor the completion of works as required by council’s order.”
Euro Terraces owners said they could not comment because the matter was before the courts.
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