Grenfell – BBC update

WOBO Governor David Gibson is pleased to provide a link to the BBC’s News article “Grenfell Tower inquiry: 9 things we now know about the cladding” – an interesting read!

Grenfell Tower

Panels made from plastic and aluminium were installed on the sides of Grenfell Tower to make it warmer and drier. But the cladding has been blamed for helping flames to spread when fire broke out in June 2017, resulting in 72 deaths.

Hundreds of thousands of people are living in buildings with similar cladding, which must now be removed at enormous cost, resulting in a crisis in building safety.

The public inquiry has questioned key employees of Arconic, the multinational metals company that made and supplied the cladding sheets for Grenfell.

So, what have we discovered?

 

1. This type of cladding burns easily

2. The cladding consistently failed fire tests for 12 years before Grenfell

3. It didn’t meet building standards in England

4. Arconic ‘misled’ British standards board

5. The Grenfell disaster was predicted, a decade before

6. The company was aware of a ‘Towering Inferno’ warning following fires in the Middle East

7. Cladding sales continued, despite the risk

8. Arconic claimed it wasn’t responsible for how its cladding was used

9. The company knew it was selling to Grenfell

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk

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