London Fire: Melbourne skyscraper fire, caused by shoddy cladding, may have been a warning for London

A GOVERNMENT report said thousands of homes could have the cladding that burned so ferociously in London. But little seems to have been done about it

Thousands of Australian buildings are at risk of huge London-style fires, according to a government report — but little appears to have been done about it for two years.

THE inferno that killed at least 12 people “is a more serious version” of a high-rise blaze that almost destroyed a Melbourne skyscraper, Senator Nick Xenophon said on Thursday morning.

A ferocious blaze in the Lacrosse Tower in 2014 was blamed on illegal imported decorative cladding.

It took just 15 minutes for a single burning cigarette left on the balcony of the Lacrosse building in Melbourne’s Docklands to send 13 floors of the block up in flames.

The fire used imported cladding from China, that failed to meet Australian standards, to creep up the side of the structure. Similar cladding has been blamed for a series of skyscraper fires and fatalities.

Mr Xenophon has called for all Australian buildings faced with cladding to be inspected in the wake of the London tragedy.

A September 2015 report, obtained by the state opposition under freedom of information laws, identified that up to 2500 buildings in NSW may have the same sort of exterior, reported the Daily Telegraph.

But despite this estimation, the government still appears to have no idea of the precise numbers of buildings that have risky cladding.

The Lacrosse Tower fire was blamed on illegal cladding. Picture: Steve Tanner

The Lacrosse building fire in Melbourne in 2014.

In an eerie echo of what appears to have happened in London, the NSW government report said “The issues with aluminium composite panels primarily relate to multistorey buildings and the potential for rapid vertical fire spread via the facade or external wall where inappropriate products have been used.”

Shadow Minister for Better Regulation Yasmin Catley said the government’s response to the report was “frankly disturbing”.

“We are at this point today where we simply don’t know the dangers that are lurking in some high rise buildings because the Liberal government is adverse to regulation or intervention.”

Fire safety experts are now zeroing in on what role newly fitted aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding played in the Grenfell Tower blaze which engulfed the 24-storey residential building in north Kensington on Wednesday.

One witness told British TV that the building “went up like paper.” Another that “the fire was coming up really fast because of the cladding. The cladding was flammable.”

Mr Xenophon has said an urgent review now needs to be undertaken on all buildings in Australia suspected of containing non-complaint building materials.

“This is a much more serious version of Lacrosse,” he said on Thursday.

“Anyone who lives or works in a high-rise building with some of this cladding, there needs to be an immediate reassurance that the fire is either compliant or fire-retardant, and if it’s not compliant we need to do something about it very quickly.”

Phil Dwyer of the Builders Collective of Australia told ABC’s RN Breakfast how the cladding that burned in Melbourne was constructed.

“Two thin sheets of aluminium are bonded together with a polymer product and it’s the polymer which burns so ferociously — it’s incredible the heat that comes from it.”

An investigation by the CSIRO into the Lacrosse cladding following the fire had to be abandoned after only 93 seconds because the material was so flammable it could have damaged their equipment.

The Mermoz building fire in Roubaix, northern France, in, 2012 was also linked to cladding. Pictures: Reuters/pascal Rossignol

The substandard Alucobest cladding, which it’s thought has been used in thousands of buildings across Australia, sustained extensive “flaming” after 55 seconds and had to be extinguished because of “excessive flaming and smoking”, reported the A ustralian.

“We shouldn’t speculate but indications are the fire raced up building (just) like the Lacrosse fire,” said Mr Dwyer.

He added that safety standards in the building industry were being “handballed” between state and federal authorities and “money was being put before safety”.

Matthew Needham-Laing, an architect at Katten Law UK, said that cladding fires had occurred since 1991.

“This is not a shock, the problems with cladding have been known about and talked about for a number of years and hopefully this will at least make people listen,” he told The Telegraph.

Also talking to ABC’s RN on Thursday morning, UK based fire safety engineer Geoff Wilkinson said the cladding could have played a role in the fire’s spread.

“I’ve been involved myself for over 30 years in building control and fire safety and I’ve never seen a building go up in this way.”

Mr Wilkinson said the building dated from the 1970s and would’ve been constructed from solid concrete with the cladding a recent addition during refurbishment works.

“We’ve seen in the past fires spread up the gap between the external cladding panel and original face of building effectively making a chimney which draws fire up at a higher rate.

Cladding had been attached to the Grenfell Tower in a recent refurbishment. Picture: Jeremy Selwyn / Evening Standard

“I’m sure there have been other minor fires in the building and none have spread in this way, so something seriously has gone wrong here,” he said.

The Grenfell Tower was managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) on behalf of the local London borough council.

Reg Kerr-Bell, the former chairman of the KCTMO said he stood down several years ago over safety concerns.

“This is a scandal. This is one of the biggest scandals in the country — and it could have been avoided,” he told the UK’s Telegraph. “We felt there was a disaster waiting to happen.”

The Grenfell block in West London was covered with ACM — short for aluminium composite material — cladding, building documents seen by The Sun have shown.

Aside from the Lacrosse tower inferno, several others have been linked to similar cladding. One person died and six were injured when the Mermoz Tower in Roubaix, France, went up in flames in 2012.

On New Year’s Eve 2015, cladding was responsible for the spread of a huge fire at the 63-storey Address hotel in Dubai which led to several injuries.

A cladding fire engulfs The Address Hotel in downtown Dubai in the UAE on December 31, 2015. Picture: Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah

The Grenfell Tower is located close to some of the most ritzy districts in London. The Independent reported that the addition of cladding was partly to make the view nicer for the tower’s well-heeled neighbours.

Planning papers from 2014 said, “The changes to the existing tower will improve its appearance especially when viewed from the surrounding area.”

The CEO of the company behind the Grenfell Tower’s refurbishment, Rydon, said the cause of the fire was still unknown.

“We don’t know if there is any direct link between the fire and cladding,” Andrew Goldman told Britain’s ITV.

“There are various different types of cladding and I don’t know the exact specifications. All the materials that we used and the procedures we put in place follow health and safety guidelines.

“These things are signed off by the relevant authorities to make sure they comply,” he said.

According to planning documents, subcontractors Harley were paid £2.6 million ($4.3m) to oversee the cladding installation, reported The Sun.

Fire was seen bursting out of the apartment tower’s windows. Picture by Stephen Lock / i-Images / Media Mode

A firefighter checks damage after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower. Picture: Rick Findler/PA via AP

A spokesman for Harley Facades told the Sun: “Harley Facades Limited completed the refurbishment work to Grenfell Tower. This included the installation of exterior cladding.

“The Aluminium Composite Material panels are a commonly used product in the refurbishment industry. Harley Facades Limited do not manufacture these panels.

“At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower,” the company statement said.

But Mr Wilkinson, who has worked in building safety for years, said while the cladding may have helped the fire shoot up the tower’s exterior, it could not have been the only failing.

“That in itself shouldn’t have caused the fire to spread the way it has.

“It would have had to have broken into the building and somehow managed to go to the escape routes.

“The cladding systems in themselves are not a problem providing that they’re installed correctly and the individual flats are contained as the fire tight units they should be,” said Mr Wilkinson.

The building was last tested for fire safety shortly after the new cladding was fitted in December 2015.