Tag Archives: Fire

Britain sends in task force to help run council after tower block fire

FILE PHOTO: Damage to Grenfell Tower is seen following the fire in London, Britain, June 25, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain said on Wednesday it was sending in a task force to help run the local authority struggling to cope with the aftermath of a deadly London tower block blaze which killed at least 80 people.

Kensington and Chelsea council has been criticized by victims’ relatives and survivors for its handling of the disaster in Grenfell Tower on June 14 and its leader quit last week over the response to the fire.

“The scale of the recovery effort needed on the Lancaster West estate in the months to come cannot be underestimated,” Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said.

“Support to survivors, the families and friends of those who lost their lives and residents in the wider community must and will be ongoing. The challenge of providing that support is and will continue to be significant.”

Prime Minister Theresa May promised that all residents from the tower would be offered good temporary homes in the local area within three weeks but, with that deadline due on Wednesday, many remain in emergency accommodation after rejecting as unsuitable the premises they had been offered.

There has also been anger at the failure to provide definitive answers about those who are missing since the fire. Police have said 80 people were dead or missing presumed dead, but say they expect the number to rise amid accusations from locals that the scale of the death toll is being kept low.

“I completely understand their desire for answers and we are committed to providing as much information we can, as soon as we can,” Commander Stuart Cundy said on Wednesday adding that all visible human remains had been recovered.

“In total we have made 87 recoveries, but I must stress that the catastrophic damage inside Grenfell Tower means that is not 87 people. Until formal identification has been completed to the coroner’s satisfaction I cannot say how many people have now been recovered.”

The fire has also thrown a spotlight on the safety of exterior cladding used to provide insulation and improve the external appearance of Grenfell Tower and other high-rise blocks. Since the blaze, the government said cladding tested at nearly 200 sites had failed fire tests.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Tour bus bursts into flames after collision in Germany; 18 killed

Helicopters at the site where a coach burst into flames after colliding with a lorry on a motorway near Muenchberg, Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) – Eighteen people were killed when a tour bus burst into flames after colliding with a truck on a motorway in the German state of Bavaria on Monday, police said.

Thirty people were injured, some seriously, in the crash, which occurred shortly after 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) near the town of Stammbach, around 90 km (56 miles) northeast of Nuremberg, police said. The cause was unclear.

“It’s clear now that all 18 of the missing people on the bus died in the accident,” police said on Twitter.

Forty-eight people were on the bus. They were between 41 and 81 years old and most were from the eastern state of Saxony, police said.

The identities of some passengers had yet to be established, but police do not think foreigners were among the passengers, spokeswoman Irene Brandenstein said. The truck driver was not injured, she added.

Speaking at the scene of the crash, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said two people were in a critical condition.

“The heat’s development must have been intense, because there is nothing flammable left on the bus. Only steel parts are recognizable, so you can understand what that meant for the people in this bus,” he said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel described the crash as “terrible” and said: “Our thoughts are with the victims’ relatives and we wish all of the injured a quick recovery, from the bottom of our hearts.”

 

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; additional reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by Larry King)

 

Firefighters slow Arizona wildfire, allowing some residents to return

Smoke rises from the Goodwin Fire which had prompted the evacuation of the town of Mayer, Arizona, U.S. June 27, 2017. Picture taken June 27, 2017. Arizona Department of Transportation/Handout via REUTERS

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Firefighters gained ground against a fierce, five-day-old wildfire in central Arizona on Thursday, enabling authorities to lift evacuation orders for the largest town that had been threatened, but 2,000 people remain displaced in neighboring communities.

The blaze, dubbed the Goodwin Fire, has charred nearly 25,000 acres (10,120 hectares) and destroyed an unknown number of homes since erupting on Saturday in the Prescott National Forest, 70 miles (113 km) north of Phoenix.

Stoked by high winds as it roared through dense, sun-baked chaparral, the blaze raged largely unchecked for the first few days, but by Thursday firefighting teams had managed to carve containment lines around 25 percent of the perimeter.

“This means that we are really making progress on the fire,” said Tiffany Davila, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire. “Crews are really getting a handle on the fire and all their efforts … seem to be coming into play.”

Residents of Mayer, a town of 1,400 people evacuated on Tuesday, were allowed to return home on Thursday morning, said Dwight Develyn, a spokesman for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.

But Develyn said about 2,000 residents forced to flee from 10 other communities during the week remained under evacuation orders. About 1,400 children at summer camps in the area were also sent home, according to Sheriff Scott Mascher.

A force of about 800 firefighters, backed by airplane tankers dumping payloads of flame-retardant chemicals, benefited from diminished winds and increased humidity in the region that helped slow the fire’s growth and intensity, officials said.

“We’re having better conditions than we’ve had for a while, so I think we’re in decent shape,” fire command spokesman Gerry Perry said.

No serious injuries have been reported.

The Goodwin blaze was one of more than two dozen large, active wildfires reported burning on Thursday across Arizona and eight other U.S. states.

Heavy rainfall in parts of the West over the winter and spring helped delay the onset of fire season, but also spurred the growth of dense vegetation that has now dried out and become highly combustible as summertime heat sets in.

Wildfires have scorched nearly 2.8 million acres so far this year, compared with 2.1 million acres at this point in 2016, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Forecasts called for hot, dry weather and gusty winds across much of the Southwest this coming holiday weekend, posing a lingering fire threat for the region.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien; editing by Jonathan Oatis and G Crosse)

Utah wildfire levels 13 homes, forces evacuation of 1,500 people

An aerial photo of wildfires burning across almost 50,000 acres near the ski resort of Brian Head, about 245 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah is shown in this handout photo provided June 27, 2017. Courtesy Lt. Governor Spencer J Cox/Handout via REUTERS

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – A fierce wildfire that has destroyed more than a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of 1,500 residents raged largely unchecked in southwestern Utah for an 11th day, as an army of firefighters struggled to corral the flames.

As of Tuesday morning, the blaze had scorched nearly 50,000 acres, the bulk of that in the Dixie National Forest, with crews managing to carve containment lines around just 10 percent of the fire’s perimeter, officials said.

The fire erupted on June 17 near the ski resort of Brian Head, Utah, about 30 miles northeast of Zion National Park, and spread quickly as high winds drove flames into dense forests, threatening homes in nearby communities.

The town of Brian Head ordered an evacuation of all residents, and the number of people forced from their dwellings throughout the fire zone has climbed to 1,500, according to U.S. Forest Service spokesman Andrew Jackson.

Local fire spokeswoman Elayn Briggs said at least 13 homes and eight outbuildings have been demolished since the blaze began but no serious injuries have been reported.

The fire was ignited by human activity, but officials said they were still investigating the precise cause.

By Tuesday evening, more than 1,600 firefighters were assigned to the conflagration, backed by an aerial force of 13 water-dropping helicopters. Their efforts were hampered by thick stands of highly combustible dead timber left blighted by bark beetle infestations, Jackson said.

The Brian Head blaze ranks as the largest of 20 major, active wildfires burning across Utah and five other Western states – Arizona, California, New Mexico, Idaho and Oregon. Those fires have blackened a total of 150,000 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Another large blaze in Arizona dubbed the Frye Fire has charred nearly 40,000 acres since it was sparked by lightning on June 7 near Mount Graham, but it was more than 40 percent contained by Tuesday, authorities said.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency on Friday, with more than 20 separate fires burning across the state.

The 1,400 residents of Mayer, Arizona, a town about 75 miles north of Phoenix, were told to evacuate as a nearby wildfire grew to 18,000 acres on Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s burning in an area that hasn’t seen fire for 40 years,” said Tiffany Davila, spokeswoman for the ‎Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. “It’s tough going right now.”

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York and David Schwartz in Arizona; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Bill Trott and Joseph Radford)

Child, 5, named as youngest victim of London tower block fire

Five-year-old Isaac Paulous, who died in the Grenfell Tower fire, is seen in this undated photograph received via the Metropolitan Police, in London, Britain June 27, 2017. Metropolitan Police/Handout/Via REUTERS

LONDON (Reuters) – A five-year-old boy was identified by police on Tuesday as the youngest victim so far of the fire which engulfed a London tower block two weeks ago, killing at least 79 people.

Isaac Paulous was named as one of those who died after fire tore through the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block, trapping many inside their apartments.

“Isaac, our beloved son, was taken from us when he was only 5 years old,” his family said in a statement.

“We will all miss our kind, energetic, generous little boy. He was such a good boy who was loved by his friends and family. We will miss him forever, but we know God is looking after him now and that he is safe in heaven.”

Police have so far identified about 20 of the 79 who are dead or missing and presumed dead, and have warned they might never know how many people died in the inferno.

The British government has faced mounting criticism for its response to the disaster, while police say they would consider criminal charges, including manslaughter, over the fire.

The officer in charge of the investigation has said exterior cladding on the building had failed all fire safety tests and on Monday the government said 75 high-rise tower blocks in England with similar cladding had also failed tests.

U.S. firm Arconic Inc said it was stopping global sales of its Reynobond PE cladding, which was used in Grenfell Tower, for use in high-rise buildings following the fire.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

With housing blocks failing safety checks, UK’s May calls for more tests

Cladding is removed from the side of Whitebean Court in Salford, Manchester,

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May appealed to landlords of high-rise buildings on Monday to allow potentially flammable building material to be tested, seeking to reassure residents after a tower block fire killed 79 people in London.

The Grenfell Tower blaze, which trapped dozens of people in their beds, has become a focus of public anger at the Conservative government’s austerity cuts and the perceived slow response in trying to look after those who escaped.

The government said the number of high-rise tower blocks in England found to have “cladding” – panels placed on the facades of buildings, mainly for insulation or to improve their appearance – that have failed fire safety tests had risen to 75 from 60.

Communities minister Sajid Javid said that all samples submitted had failed the tests, which May’s spokesman had earlier said was “concerning”.

May, who scored a deal with a Northern Irish party to prop up her minority government on Monday, wants to repair her authority by showing leadership in dealing with the aftermath of the June 14 Grenfell disaster, but faces criticism by her political opponents.

“Clearly it’s concerning, concerning for residents who are living in these blocks,” the spokesman told reporters at a regular government briefing.

“That’s why we have put in place a system where testing can be carried out very quickly and whereby local authorities are informed immediately when a positive test comes back and that appropriate measures are put in place,” he said.

Responding to criticism that the testing program was not running quickly enough, he said landlords must get potentially flammable building materials tested as soon as possible.

Material should also be tested in schools and hospitals if there were safety concerns there too.

Some 600 buildings are being tested, showing how widely combustible cladding may have been used across Britain.

“It is clearly of huge concern that this is the case,” the spokesman said.

“What is apparent is that this is on buildings across the country … Obviously the job for the public inquiry will be to find out how and why this happened,” he said, hoping there would be an earlier interim report to cast some light on why such materials were used and whether they met safety requirements.

U.S. firm Arconic Inc said it was stopping global sales of its Reynobond PE cladding, which was used in Grenfell Tower, for use in high-rise buildings following the fire. Shares in Arconic fell around 5 percent.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Alistair Smout; editing by Mark Heinrich)

London tower blocks evacuated as 27 buildings fail fire tests

Residents are evacuated from the Taplow Tower residential block as a precautionary measure following concerns over the type of cladding used on the outside of the building on the Chalcots Estate in north London, Britain, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

By Kate Holton and Jamillah Knowles

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain said 27 high-rise apartment blocks had failed fire safety checks carried out after the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze, including several in north London where residents were forced to evacuate amid chaotic scenes late on Friday.

British officials have conducted tests on some 600 high-rise buildings across England after fire ravaged the Grenfell social tower block in west London on June 14, killing at least 79 people in the capital’s most deadly blaze since World War Two.

The Department for Communities said 27 apartment blocks had failed tests, from London in the southeast to Manchester in the north and Plymouth on the southwest coast.

Prime Minister Theresa May, who was forced to apologize for the government’s initial slow response to the tragedy, said the authorities were now racing to establish what needed to be done.

“In some cases it’s possible to take mitigating action,” she told Sky news. “In others it’s been necessary for people to move out on a temporary basis and that is what happened in Camden last night.”

Some 4,000 residents of the Chalcots Estate in Camden, north London, were told to vacate their apartments on Friday after the Fire Brigade ruled that their tower blocks were unsafe.

Emerging into the streets on a hot night, residents clutched children, pets and small amounts of clothing and food to try to find a bed in a local hotel or with family or friends. Many were directed to inflatable beds laid out on the floor of the local sports hall.

“I know it’s difficult but Grenfell changes everything,” Georgia Gould, Leader of Camden Council, said in a statement. “I don’t believe we can take any risks with our residents’ safety.”

May said the local authority would be given all the means necessary to make sure people had somewhere to stay.

Residents complained of first hearing about the evacuation from the media and getting very short notice to leave from city officials going door-to-door. Not all residents agreed to go, as they felt the evacuation was an over-reaction.

PUBLIC ANGER

“It was farcical communication,” 21-year-old Daniel Tackaberry told Reuters outside a nearby sports center where the local council had laid out air beds. “You don’t get everyone to leave this quickly.”

Several local councils said they were removing cladding from the facades of buildings that had failed the tests. In Camden, however, the London Fire Brigade found a number of faults, including concern about cladding, faulty fire doors and holes in compartment walls that could help a fire to spread.

Gould, the Camden council’s leader, Gould, said it would take up to four weeks to repair the blocks that were evacuated. and that around 4,000 residents were affected.

Police investigating the cause of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower blaze have said the fire started in a fridge but spread rapidly due to the use of external cladding on the building, trapping residents in their beds as they slept.

The cladding has since failed all safety checks and prompted a nationwide review of the materials used on everything from hospitals to hotels and apartment blocks.

The fire has become a flashpoint for public anger at the record of May’s Conservative Party in government following austerity-driven cuts to local authority budgets. Grenfell Tower is located in Kensington, one of the richest boroughs in Europe.

Battling to save her position after losing her majority in a June 8 election, May has promised to do everything she can to protect those residents who survived the fire and to improve the quality and safety of public housing in Britain.

British police have said they are considering bringing manslaughter charges over the Grenfell fire.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Arconic knowingly supplied flammable panels for use in tower: emails

Extensive damage is seen to the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a disastrous fire, in north Kensington, West London, Britain June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

By Tom Bergin

LONDON (Reuters) – Six emails sent by and to an Arconic Inc <ARNC.N> sales manager raise questions about why the company supplied combustible cladding to a distributor for use at Grenfell Tower, despite publicly warning such panels were a fire risk for tall buildings. The emails, dating from 2014 and seen by Reuters, were between Deborah French, Arconic’s UK sales manager, and executives at the contractors involved in the bidding process for the refurbishment contract at Grenfell Tower in London, where 79 people died in a blaze last week.

When asked about the emails, Arconic said in a statement that it had known the panels would be used at Grenfell Tower but that it was not its role to decide what was or was not compliant with local building regulations.

The company manufactures three main types of Reynobond panel– one with a polyethylene (PE) core, one with a fire retardant core and another with a non-combustible core, according to its website.

Diagrams in a 2016 Arconic brochure for its Reynobond panels describe how PE core panels are suitable up to 10 meters in height. Panels with a fire resistant core — the FR model — can be used up to 30 meters, while above that height, panels with the non-combustible core — the A2 model — should be used, the brochure says.

Grenfell Tower is more than 60 meters tall.

The brochure also issued a blunt warning that cladding can be a fire risk.

“When conceiving a building, it is crucial to choose the adapted products in order to avoid the fire to spread to the whole building. Especially when it comes to facades and roofs, the fire can spread extremely rapidly,” the brochure said.

“As soon as the building is higher than the fire fighters’ ladders, it has to be conceived with an incombustible material.” Nonetheless, between May and July 2014, French, who was based at Arconic’s factory in Merxheim, France, responded to requests from the companies involved in refurbishing Grenfell Tower on the availability of samples of five different types of Reynobond aluminum-covered panels, all of which were only available in the combustible PE and FR versions, according to Arconic brochures.

In the end, Arconic said on Friday, the company provided PE panels. “While we publish general usage guidelines, regulations and codes vary by country and need to be determined by the local building code experts,” the company said in an emailed statement in response to the Reuters enquiry.

“The loss of lives, injuries and destruction following the Grenfell Tower fire are devastating, and we would like to express our deepest sympathies to everyone affected by this tragedy … We will fully support the authorities as they investigate this tragedy,” the statement said.

French did not respond to requests for comment.

Arconic, which was known as Alcoa Inc until 2016, declined to say if it knew how tall the tower was and the emails seen by Reuters do not specifically refer to its height. They do, however, refer to “Grenfell Tower” and mention other high rise projects where paneling has been used when discussing the appearance that was being sought for Grenfell Tower.

Arconic also knew the quantity of panels being supplied and thus the total exterior coverage. A source at one of the companies involved in the process said Arconic had “full involvement” throughout the contract bidding process.

Omnis Exteriors, which cut the Arconic tiles to shape and supplied them to the cladding contractor, said it was not responsible for the choice of panel.

“CEP played no part in the selection of Reynobond PE and simply fulfilled the order as directed by the design and build team,” the company said in a statement on Saturday, referring to CEP Architectural Facades Ltd, the Omnis unit which fulfilled the contract.

Harley Facades Ltd., the company which installed the panels, Rydon Group, the overall contractor on the 2014-2016 Grenfell refurbishment, and the local authority, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the tower block all declined to comment.

Rydon previously said in a statement that its work on the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, which was intended to give the building better heat and sound insulation, complied with all building regulations. Harley said last week it was “not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower”.

In the emails, French and representatives of Harley and Rydon also discuss the choice of panel models and colors and how they were inching towards securing the contract with the local authority.

Harris did not respond to requests for comment.

On Sunday, British finance minister Philip Hammond said the type of panels used, which are cheaper than non-combustible panels, were banned for use in high rise buildings in Britain, as they are in Europe and the United States.

Omnis said combustible Reynobond PE material was safe to use on high rise buildings if the insulation material usually put behind the panels was made of incombustible material such as mineral fiber. Some safety experts say the regulations are not black and white. The UK uses a ‘principles-based’ approach to regulation which puts an onus on companies to operate safely, based on common understanding of risks and the technology available.

This differs to the highly specific ‘rules-based’ approach to regulation taken in the United States.

Supporters of the principles-based approach say it avoids the emergence of loopholes and means companies have to take account of new information on risks immediately, rather than wait for a new regulation to be drafted.

The fatal fire was started by a faulty Hotpoint fridge-freezer in one of the apartments, London police said on Friday. Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack said insulation on the building, and the cladding panels, had failed safety tests carried out after the disaster.

The police investigation was considering the possibility of manslaughter and criminal offences in respect of the fire.

(Editing by Catherine Evans and Toby Chopra)

Deadly London apartment blaze began in Hotpoint fridge freezer, police say

Members of the emergency services work inside burnt out remains of the Grenfell apartment tower in North Kensington, London, Britain, June 18, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) – A fire that killed at least 79 people at a London apartment block started in a Hotpoint <WHR.N> fridge freezer, and the outside cladding engulfed by the blaze has since been shown to fail all safety tests, London police said on Friday.

Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack said that in view of the heavy death toll, police were considering manslaughter charges over the disaster.

She said the Hotpoint model, FF175BP, involved was not subject to recall and the manufacturer was doing further tests.

“We now have expert evidence that the fire was not started deliberately,” McCormack told reporters in London.

Britain ordered an immediate technical examination of the Hotpoint fridge model, manufactured between 2006 and 2009, to establish whether further action needed to be taken, but said there was no need for owners to switch off their appliances.

Whirlpool Corp, the world’s largest maker of home appliances, owns the Hotpoint brand in the Europe and Asia Pacific regions. In the United States, the brand now belongs to Haier, following the Chinese group’s purchase of General Electric Co’s <GE.N> appliance business.

“We are working with the authorities to obtain access to the appliance so that we can assist with the ongoing investigations,” Whirpool said in a statement. “Words cannot express our sorrow at this terrible tragedy.”

Police said both the insulation and tiles used in cladding at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block failed all post-fire safety tests.

“Preliminary tests show the insulation samples collected from Grenfell tower combusted soon after the test started,” McCormack said.

Such were their concerns after the tests that the information was immediately shared with government to disseminate more widely.

“Given the deaths of so many people we are considering manslaughter as well as criminal offences and breaches of legislation and regulations,” McCormack said.

The blaze, Britain’s worst since World War Two, has heaped pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May, already fighting for her political survival after her party lost its parliamentary majority in a snap election on June 8.

When speaking about the 79 people dead or missing, presumed dead, McCormack said: “I fear that there are more.”

(Additional reporting by Alistair Smout and Martinne Geller, writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Ralph Boulton)

England has 600 buildings with similar cladding to London blaze tower: PM May’s spokeswoman

Members of the emergency services work inside burnt out remains of the Grenfell apartment tower in North Kensington, London. REUTERS/Neil Hall

LONDON (Reuters) – An estimated 600 buildings in England have cladding similar to that used at the Grenfell Tower block where a devastating blaze killed at least 79 people, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday.

“The estimate provided to us by councils is that there are approximately 600 high rise buildings with similar cladding,” the spokeswoman said.

“We are obviously in touch with all the local authorities to encourage them to urgently send us the samples and then we will carry out the checks that we need,” she said.

She added that cladding on three buildings has so far tested positive as combustible. The estimate does not include buildings in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

(Reporting by William James and James Davey; Editing by Janet Lawrence)