15-06-2017, 22:49
I'm not convinced this can be solely blamed on the current government or the current economy. I work in the construction industry here in the US, and over here in most big cities any building over a certain height (80ft in Chicago and most CA cities) must be built with a fire sprinkler system, this law has been in place in Chicago since 1975!!! But even then a lot of these residential towers were built in the 1960s so even here they would not have sprinklers and I would assume that is the case in the UK.
Irrespective of whether these towers are council or privately owned, the reluctance of successive governments to implement mandatory sprinkler systems means these buildings remain death traps when a fire does occur. Retrofitting a sprinkler system in these type of buildings is first of all very difficult from a construction perspective and the cost is enormous, something that neither a council nor private owner would be able to afford. This building also had only one staircase for means of egress, again this is now not allowed by construction codes and in New York for example you will see external fire escapes to meet these codes in older buildings but that is not practical in these type of high rises.
The best solution for these buildings is to demolish them and build buildings that meet the current fire standards, but as these tend to be used for housing of poorer tenants there is no ability on behalf of the council or private owner to pay for this outlay without government money to help cover the cost. Better fire alarms, fire retardant materials, fire rated walls, windows and doors etc certainly help contain fires but when a fire gets hold above the 10th floor in these types of building there is little the fire brigade can do to fight the fire effectively without a sprinkler system being installed, and that will not happen and therefore this potential tragedy will not go away unless these building are pulled down. But who is going to pay for that??
Governments going back to the 1970s must take part of the blame for these events, not just this current one.
Irrespective of whether these towers are council or privately owned, the reluctance of successive governments to implement mandatory sprinkler systems means these buildings remain death traps when a fire does occur. Retrofitting a sprinkler system in these type of buildings is first of all very difficult from a construction perspective and the cost is enormous, something that neither a council nor private owner would be able to afford. This building also had only one staircase for means of egress, again this is now not allowed by construction codes and in New York for example you will see external fire escapes to meet these codes in older buildings but that is not practical in these type of high rises.
The best solution for these buildings is to demolish them and build buildings that meet the current fire standards, but as these tend to be used for housing of poorer tenants there is no ability on behalf of the council or private owner to pay for this outlay without government money to help cover the cost. Better fire alarms, fire retardant materials, fire rated walls, windows and doors etc certainly help contain fires but when a fire gets hold above the 10th floor in these types of building there is little the fire brigade can do to fight the fire effectively without a sprinkler system being installed, and that will not happen and therefore this potential tragedy will not go away unless these building are pulled down. But who is going to pay for that??
Governments going back to the 1970s must take part of the blame for these events, not just this current one.