Melbourne blaze: units had smoke alarms covered, residents not allowed back in tonight

Residents of the Melbourne CBD apartment block which caught fire this morning won’t be allowed back in for 48 hours.

The fire raced up six floors of the apartment building. Picture: Twitter.

Residents evacuated from the high-rise Melbourne apartment block which caught fire this morning will be unable to return to their homes for at least 48 hours.

More than 200 evacuated residents are being forced to find alternative accommodation after Melbourne City Council issued an emergency order this afternoon.

Emergency systems including smoke alarms and sprinklers impacted by the fire must be confirmed to be in working order before residents can go back in, the council said.

The emergency order will be extended if required.

The council will give eligible residents financial hardship packages of a one-off payment of $540 per adult and $270 per child.

It comes amid revelations the Neo200 building had the same cladding as England’s deadly Grenfell Tower, that some smoke alarms in the block had been covered up to prevent them sounding, and some of the apartments were over-occupied.

Residents fled the tower this morning as fire ripped through, but firefighters also encountered some residents who defied orders to leave, according to the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.

Meanwhile, after hours being kept outside the apartment, resident Tee Appa, 26, said residents were allowed back in to collect essential items but told they can’t stay there tonight.

Residents with no place to go were told to speak to the critical counsellors at the relief centre at Melbourne Town Hall.

Mr Appa said he was concerned by the cladding on the building.

“It’s flammable, as the owner of the apartment I’m very concerned,” he said.

Mr Appa also said the fire alarms probably weren’t loud enough.

“If I wasn’t awake I’d probably have slept through it.” he said. “There should be at least clearer speakers.”

Evacuations

The 41-storey Neo200 tower containing 371 residential apartments caught fire just before 5am today, with the fire racing up six floors, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate.

After fire alarms sounded, residents were told to go to the bottom of the building where stayed for about two hours while firefighters quelled the blaze.

They were told to go to a relief centre at Melbourne town hall where are being given food and water as well as items like toothpaste and soap.

Many of the apartments in the Spencer St building had their smoke alarms covered up, and MFB Fire chief Dan Stephens said there were “building management issues” that had hampered the rescue response.

“This is one of the buildings that has cladding on it,” he told 3AW.

“There’s no suggestion at this point to say that the cladding has contributed significantly to the fire development. Although that of course will need to be determined conclusively by our fire investigation team.

“There is an understandable focus on the cladding issue, but I think there is another issue for the fire and rescue service that sometimes gets overlooked. And that’s the way buildings are managed. And that is in relation to the way occupants are informed about how to respond, say to a fire alarm as one example.

“It does appear to me that there have been a number of those issues, (that) have been evident today, which have significantly hindered our response.

“Things like isolation of detection systems for example, the residents not responding to actuation of fire alarms, some not evacuating when they should be, when the building protocols dictate that’s what they should do.”

Grenfell Tower cladding

MFB assistant chief fire officer Adam Dalrymple said the building, had undergone recent renovation to mitigate risk after being identified as having the same combustible cladding as Grenfell Tower,

He said the building wasn’t on the MFB’s list of buildings requiring an enhanced response but said the crews recognised the building from inspections as having a percentage of cladding and requested additional resources.

He said initially 45 firefighters attended but it climbed to 80 with 15 appliances.

Mr Dalrymple said the cladding was only on the balconies and the fire stayed in the balcony area.

The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London claimed the lives of 73 people with the building’s flammable cladding thought to be a major contributor to the tragedy.

A resident and a baby flee the apartment tower. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Fire crews at the scene of the blaze. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Mr Stephens said while it was too early to determine if the cladding had caught fire, there were signs the fire had spread externally.

“There is evidence of external fire spread,” he said. “Our fire investigation team will determine how that fire spread.”

Firefighters have rushed to an apartment building in the CBD after a fire broke out. Witnesses say the fire started on a balcony of the building before leaping onto other floors. Spencer Street is closed as firefighters fight the blaze with trams also stopped. @DavidWoiwod #7News pic.twitter.com/V0WRwYRTKa

— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) February 3, 2019

Fears disclosing cladding risk would encourage arson

Meanwhile, Victoria’s building authority has not notified the residents of the 60 buildings it has deemed “highest risk” due to deadly flammable cladding, and the state government has refused to publicly name the buildings out of fears it would encourage arson attempts.

The revelation came after this morning’s Neo200 blaze.

Victorian Building Authority chief executive Sue Eddy revealed her organisation had worked with owners’ corporations once dangerous buildings had been identified, but said it was up to them to pass information on to tenants.

“Through that process, we do ask the owners’ corporation to make sure that they are informing the residents of that building in relation to the fire safety issues because that’s their responsibility,” she said.

Ms Eddy said none of the buildings had been identified as being so dangerous that evacuation was necessary.

Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne said the list of high risk buildings would not be made public due to the risk of arson.

“We have taken expert advice around this and there are significant security concerns, meaning that there is advice overseas of some of these buildings being targeted,” Mr Wynne said.

Ms Eddy said the Neo200 building had been identified as “moderate risk”, with a compliance notice issued last year.

“The municipal building surveyor has made a determination that minor works are required and a show cause notice is required around removal of cladding around the balconies and in some of the walls, so that’s an assessment of the municipal building surveyor,” Ms Eddy said.

Victorian Cladding Taskforce chairman Ted Baillieu said his organisation had inspected 2000 buildings, including government buildings in Victoria.

“Of those 1200 have advanced to the full panel stage for recommendation in regard to risk, and of those there are around about 360 private buildings that are in the higher risk categories and they are receiving maximum attention from the VBA,” the former Victorian premier said.

Mr Baillieu said rectification was underway on the Lacrosse building in Melbourne’s Docklands, where an inferno raced up 13 storeys in 10 minutes in 2014, bringing the issue of deadly flammable cladding to public attention.

“Obviously the Lacrosse building was really important in terms of instigating the sort of activity that has been undertaken by me as a minister at a national level to alert every other state that this is not a Victorian problem,” he said.

“I was very panicked”

This morning, paramedics treated a man for smoke inhalation and Spencer Street was blocked in both directions.

One resident said it was “pretty scary”.

“The alarm just went off. I thought ‘it is within our apartment’ but then I opened up the alleyway and it was the whole building. I just immediately took my cat with me. It was pretty scary. I was very panicked,” she told the Nine Network.

Another resident told Seven News she didn’t know how serious the fire was until a relative phoned her and told her to leave.

Melbourne: Residents have told 7 News that the evacuation message failed them as a fire destroyed apartments in their Spencer Street building this morning. One resident telling 7 News that she was phoned by a relative, and told to leave. #7News pic.twitter.com/n3wVGgMwTg

— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) February 3, 2019

The fire was brought under control just before 7am.

A relief centre was set up at the Melbourne Town Hall, with shuttle buses ferrying evacuees there, with Salvation Army volunteers trolleying in boxes of supplies.

While most of the Building is not clad at all, where any cladding is used it is compliant with VBA standards.

— NEO200 (@Neo200SpencerSt) June 22, 2017

The last tweet on the building’s Twitter account @Neo200SpencerSt in June 2017 said it complied with building standards. “While most of the building is not clad at all, where any cladding is used it is compliant with VBA standards,” it said.

The cause is yet to be established.

Wait to go home

Earlier, resident Alex Yag, 25, said residents were waiting tentatively for news they could return home. “They’re anxious to go back to their apartments,” he said. The barista said firefighters banged on his door this morning and told him he had to evacuate.

He only moved into an apartment on the 31st floor of the Neo building a fortnight ago.

Firefighters at the scene of the apartment building fire on Spencer Street.

Nina Xiao, 17, along with her mother and chihuahua, had been waiting to regain entry to their home for almost seven hours.

Ms Xiao, who lives on the 24th floor, said she could smell smoke from her apartment when fire alarms woke her at about 5.40am.

“You could smell the fumes and we didn’t really know what was happening until we got down.” she said.

Seven-hour wait: Nina Xiao and her pet chihuahua. Picture: Supplied

John Gowans, who is on the building committee as well at living at Neo200, said it was unclear when people would be able to return to the building with residents potentially having to find alternative accommodation tonight.

“They haven’t investigated properly yet, there’s water damage obviously … somebody has to assess and sign off.

“They will be conservative, if anyone’s at risk they’re not going to let them in.”

Mr Gowans was unperturbed by the situation. He said: “It is what it is, nothing you can do about it. Worry about the things you have control over.”

“We may have to organise alternative accommodation tonight, we don’t know.”

The building committee will release a statement on Twitter later today.