Second Fire At The Torch Building in Dubai: Lessons Re Grenfell Tower
There has been a second fire in the cladding of the "Torch" residential building in Dubai. The good news is that, once, again, staff and the the Dubai Civil Defence force was able to evacuate the building without loss of life. Although it is clear that the exterior cladding material used on this building (as an afterthought to the original design) hopelessly compromises any fire-containment policy, it appears that the basic structure, layout and evacuation scheme for the building are all very sound: nobody was told to stay in their apartment for an hour or more during the fire, and the policy of evacuating residents immediately was carried out without compromising access to the building by fire crews. (Ie: the architect's access scheme is good enough to allow this.) The second fire is proof that the cladding is a bad thing and should be removed from buildings on a global basis , and also proof that the policy adopted by the emergency services at Grenfell Tower, of keepin...