Grenfell House fire

The block was not designed to prevent fire entering from the outside, only to prevent fire spreading internally. Once it gained hold vertically, the windows would have failed, curtains and frames caught fire and smoke probably done the worst damage in terms of loss of life.

PS. I have some insight because of 25+ years experience in surveying but I am an expert in this sort of stuff as an brain surgeon is in podiatry.

Fires in high rise blocks are much more common than you think. The blocks are built and designed to contain fires at the source. IE the assumption is a fire will start inside an apartment, and there it must remain. Fire doors, (self closing) stopped and sealed ducting and services, non flammable materials in corridors, The stairwells are not only escape points but in the event of fire they act as chimneys increasing the draft spread and temperature of the fire, but are also required to vent gasses (in a controlled manner) to prevent high temperature flash over. They mostly have it right most of the time, and the advice to stay in your apartment is good.

Except.

The new cladding on the outside, Updrafts up the side of the building, aluminium skin (it burns and burns hot once you get it going, and you cant put the bugger out) plastic inside (it burns) and suddenly you have a roman candle.

and then

I bet the new window frames were plastic............. And we are where we are.

I am a little shocked anything that could burn was used on the outside. How was that allowed? Why would you have designed a block of flats in 2017 let alone 1974 to resist fire from outside.... there was nothing outside that could burn originally.

I know of someone (a relative) that works in the insulation industry. They specialise in Rockwool. Wouldn't that have been a better product for the insulation element of the cladding?

Cladding panels seem to have been this stuff:
www.arconic.com/aap/europe/en/product_category.asp?cat_id=1843
Suggestion on Today that these cost £5,000 less - for the entire building - than the non-combustible alternative.

Interesting that the maker's page shows it on a sports stadium - in Qatar - rather than a residential block, and mentions that they also make a fire safe product.

While I'm wary of the tendency for us all to become instant experts after an event like this, it does sound like the manufacturer made a product suitable for this application but the contractor chose a cheaper one not intended for the purpose.

Good.

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/sixtyeight-flats-in-2bn-luxury-block-to-be-given-to-families-whose-lives-were-devastated-in-grenfell-a3569876.html