Thousands of buildings have similar ‘dangerous’ cladding to Spencer St high-rise
The Spencer St apartment tower that caught fire on Monday morning had been last year classified a moderate fire risk due to its flammable cladding, it can be revealed.
VIC News
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The Neo200 apartment tower on Spencer St that caught fire on Monday morning was classified as a moderate fire risk due to its flammable cladding and its owners corporation were issued with building improvement notices last year.
Victorian Building Authority chief executive Sue Eddy said a building order to complete “minor works” and install smoke alarms in bedroom’s near the flammable cladding was issued and carried out.
She said cladding was ordered to be removed from balconies and some of the walls.
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Since December 2017, the Victorian Government has audited more than 2000 buildings believed to have flammable cladding.
There are 60 private buildings which are considered to have the highest risk of fire from cladding but work has only one building has started work to partially remove some cladding.
Ms Eddy said owners corporations have the responsibility to inform tenants and residents that there is flammable cladding but a list of high-risk building is not made public.
“We do ask the owners corporation to make sure they are informing the residents of the building as that is there responsibility,” Ms Eddy said.
The government said advice from oversees showed when buildings with highly flammable cladding were made public they became a target for arsonists.
Planning minister Richard Wynne said those buying apartments needed to do proper due diligence on the fire risk of the cladding. He said the government would consider mandating a duty to disclose cladding fire risk in sale contracts.
He said the Neo200 building had a sprinkler system and was only partially clad.
“What we do know is the building performed well, in that everybody was able to leave the building in an orderly fashion.”
Mr Wynne said the body corporates had a crucial role in rectifying dangerous cladding and keeping their building safe.
The Victorian Cladding Taskforce co-char Ted Baillieu said there were about 360 buildings with cladding that was in the higher risk and they were “receiving special attention” from the building watchdog.
“We have been reminded yet again how dangerous this issue is for all those involved.
“We are fortunate indeed we didn’t have any tragedy today and that the systems largely worked well to evacuate.”
He said more than 2000 buildings had been inspected and 1200 had been assessed on its risk.
There are also 21 government buildings, including at least eight hospitals that have aluminium cladding panels with a polyethylene core which have been identified as needing removal.
Victoria will push for a national crackdown on dodgy cladding imports at a national building ministers’ conference in Hobart this Friday.
Planning Minister Richard Wynne first put cladding on the national building agenda in 2015, following the Lacrosse Docklands fire in November 2014.
Mr Wynne wants the federal government to enforce stricter monitoring of building material imports as it’s responsible for the both the National Construction Code and laws governing imports.
“The federal government needs to step up and make sure combustible cladding is detected and stringently monitored,” he said.
“We need tighter building certification laws across the country - this is a national problem and needs national solutions.”
Hayball, which designed the building, said it wanted to acknowledge the efforts of the first responder community, “which acted so swiftly to ensure the safety of the residents of Neo 200”.
“As architect novated to the project builder, Hayball’s role on Neo200 encompassed building design from concept to documentation,” a company statement said.
“Neo 200 achieved certification and approval from the building certifier and relevant authorities at the time.”
“We welcome the opportunity to support any investigation into the incident by authorities.”
WARNING OVER ‘DANGEROUS’ CLADDING
Thousands of buildings across Victoria have similar “dangerous” types of cladding as the Spencer St high-rise tower that caught fire, a building inspector has warned.
The Neo200 apartment building fire broke out opposite Southern Cross Station early Monday morning, forcing over 150 residents to evacuate and halting traffic on the arterial road for hours.
The MFB today said cladding on the building is same as what was on London’s deadly Grenfell Tower, which caught fire in 2017, killing 72 people.
Grenfell’s cladding had been blamed as a significant contributor to the tragedy.
Sahil Bhasin, general manager at engineering firm Roscon, said the Victorian multiagency cladding taskforce did not go far enough in ensuring buildings established fire breaks.
Mr Bhasin said it was up to the State Government, through the Victorian Building Authority, to lift safety standards in a bid to prevent a repeat of Monday morning’s fire.
He said the fast spread of the Spencer St fire could have been avoided if every second balcony had its cladding removed.
“We’ve got too many buildings like this in the CBD where remedial action needs to be taken,” he said.
He said the aluminium composite panels were as combustible as burning petrol.
Independent testing was needed to verify the exact type of cladding used at the Spencer St tower, he said.
Mr Bhasin said that if the fire had spread internally, it would have been contained by the in-built sprinkler systems. However, because it was on the balcony, it caught the cladding and spread rapidly.
Mr Bhasin warned many apartment towers under 25m across Melbourne were “ticking time bombs”.
He said that was because any buildings below that height were not required to have any fire sprinkler systems.
A tweet made by the building’s executive committee in 2017 said that while most of the building is not clad at all, “where any cladding is used it is compliant with VBA (Victorian Building Authority) standards.”
“On April 21, LU Simon were notified by VBA that Neo200 is full compliant with cladding standards,” said another 2017 tweet.
According to the Neo200 website, the executive committee had previously appointed a team to ensure that every resident feels safe, comfortable and enjoys friendly living environment .
“This team includes, Owners Corporation Manager, Building Manager, Concierge Staff...,” said the website.
“The building is maintained to a high standard by a range of professional staff with oversight of the executive committee of owners – including ongoing improvements to the building’s shared amenities and its environmental performance. “
A building permit for Neo200 was granted in August 2004 to Estate Project Developments, with the application lodged on the developer’s behalf by Fulcrum Town Planners.
Simon Martyn, from Fulcrum Urban Planners, said: “At the planning stage we had no involvement in the selection of materials (for the project).”
Owners corporation manager for the tower is Stratagised Concepts Group, but the firm wouldn’t comment on the fire or if there had been previous concerns.
“We don’t have any statement at the moment because the investigation is still going on,” a spokesman said.
“Maybe tomorrow, possibly, but now we don’t have anything to say,” he said.
Builder LU Simon constructed Neo200 with 371 units and was awarded the 2008 Master Builder Association’s “excellence in construction” award in 2008.
A spokeswoman for LU Simon builders said construction of the Neo 200 property was completed in 2007.
“We are not in a position to comment as we have not received sufficient information or any official reports,” she said.
In December 2018, it was announced that LU Simon would replace the combustible cladding at the Lacrosse tower for a reported $5.6 million after extensive legal action.
The builder, who had earlier offered to replacing as a “gesture of good faith”, had argued that it provided a building with cladding that complied with Australian codes.
Construction director Jim Moschoyiannis had said during the case that he did not know about rising concerns about the cladding’s combustible nature.
Similar cladding to that of Neo200 and Grenfell Tower has been found across Victoria, with 12 schools and high-rise buildings in the city found to contain the potentially deadly material.
Ted Baillieu, co-chair of a taskforce looking at tower cladding across Melbourne in the wake of Grenfell, said on Monday that 43 government buildings were still considered high risk, 97 moderate risk, while none were rated extreme risk.
More than 2000 buildings have been inspected and about 1200 given to an expert panel for assessment.
He said the audit was still being conducted.
“My understanding is that the building in question this morning was one that’s been audited by the MCC, the Melbourne City Council, in the first instance and looked again at by the VBA (Victorian Building Authority) and it hasn’t been finally assessed by an expert panel,” Mr Baillieu said.
“But it did receive building notices in July of last year and again in October of last year when the building notice was issued.
“As I understand it was reissued because there was a reconfigured owners corporation and that building notice identified the problem with cladding and was effectively a show-cause notice why the cladding shouldn’t be removed, which is an invitation to the owners corporation to either take remedial action or remove the cladding.”
Fire has broken out at the Spencer St tower on at least two other occasions.
In April 2009, more than 200 people were evacuated from the building and the fire caused a leak which firefighters described as “major flooding”.
Another fire occurred on New Year’s Eve in 2015 when 27 firefighters from 12 trucks fought the blaze on the 29th floor.
It was reported at the time that the tower was among several operating illegal rooming houses, but a City of Melbourne building surveyor said there was no evidence that the flat where the fire broke out was overcrowded.
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