Fire at Bolton student accommodation

  • Thread starter Deleted member 5265
  • Start date


Here’s what I don’t understand, with the way fires can spread why the fuck would you be so close videoing it

Hope no one dies
 
A quote from one of the students (taken from the BBC):

"I heard the fire alarm going off but it kept on going off so I just thought it was a drill at first until one of my flatmates shouted down the corridor that it was a real fire"

I'm glad everyone was safely evacuated but how stupid is this one?
 
It looks like a classic communal stairwell fire. We’ve had a few in this country over the years, the fire which defined the phenomenon was the Kings Cross Fire. Although that wasn’t a stairwell specifically, it demonstrated the chimney effect perfectly I.e air moving along tunnels or up stairwells helps to spread flame incredibly quickly. You may think, yeah but there’s no fuel for a fire in a stairwell what with concrete floors etc (you can hear the footsteps in the video), but it’s the painted walls that are the issue. The inquest into the Kings Cross fire stated that “multiple layers of paint on walls and hand rails contributed directly to rapid flame spread”. Approved Document B of the Building Regs was adapted to solve the problem as there were other fires too (Mostyn Hospital, Gloucester Grove Estate etc). But, as with the cladding at Grenfell; under pressure from less scrupulous manufacturers the regs were changed in the mid 00’s and went from being absolutely specific; that any paint system used in such areas must achieve at least Class 1 of the BS476 flame spread test (developed at Warrington Fire Research Centre) to being vague with the addition of 3 short words... “or similar approved”. That suddenly made it possible for manufacturers to adopt their own tests and rendered the Building Regs useless. That’s what led to the cladding at Grenfell being about as effective as tissue paper and rendering the fire brigade’s totally correct advice, utterly obsolete. We have to go back to building regs that are sound and water-tight before more people die. Hopefully no-one was hurt in this fire. Sorry to be a bit dry on the subject like’, but it’s one I’m quite passionate about obvs.
 
Bakerlooline said:
It looks like a classic communal stairwell fire. We’ve had a few in this country over the years, the fire which defined the phenomenon was the Kings Cross Fire. Although that wasn’t a stairwell specifically, it demonstrated the chimney effect perfectly I.e air moving along tunnels or up stairwells helps to spread flame incredibly quickly. You may think, yeah but there’s no fuel for a fire in a stairwell what with concrete floors etc (you can hear the footsteps in the video), but it’s the painted walls that are the issue. The inquest into the Kings Cross fire stated that “multiple layers of paint on walls and hand rails contributed directly to rapid flame spread”. Approved Document B of the Building Regs was adapted to solve the problem as there were other fires too (Mostyn Hospital, Gloucester Grove Estate etc). But, as with the cladding at Grenfell; under pressure from less scrupulous manufacturers the regs were changed in the mid 00’s and went from being absolutely specific; that any paint system used in such areas must achieve at least Class 1 of the BS476 flame spread test (developed at Warrington Fire Research Centre) to being vague with the addition of 3 short words... “or similar approved”. That suddenly made it possible for manufacturers to adopt their own tests and rendered the Building Regs useless. That’s what led to the cladding at Grenfell being about as effective as tissue paper and rendering the fire brigade’s totally correct advice, utterly obsolete. We have to go back to building regs that are sound and water-tight before more people die. Hopefully no-one was hurt in this fire. Sorry to be a bit dry on the subject like’, but it’s one I’m quite passionate about obvs.
Click to expand...

I much appreciate your very informative post 👍
 
Bakerlooline said:
It’s strange isn’t it... if you look at all the newspaper reports this morning they’re talking about the fire “crawling up the cladding”. Yet in that specific footage there is actually no cladding to be seen at all...
Click to expand...
A lot of people ignore fire stories. Unless it contains the word cladding.
 
Bakerlooline said:
Approved Document B of the Building Regs was adapted to solve the problem as there were other fires too (Mostyn Hospital, Gloucester Grove Estate etc). But, as with the cladding at Grenfell; under pressure from less scrupulous manufacturers the regs were changed in the mid 00’s and went from being absolutely specific; that any paint system used in such areas must achieve at least Class 1 of the BS476 flame spread test (developed at Warrington Fire Research Centre) to being vague with the addition of 3 short words... “or similar approved”. That suddenly made it possible for manufacturers to adopt their own tests and rendered the Building Regs useless. That’s what led to the cladding at Grenfell being about as effective as tissue paper and rendering the fire brigade’s totally correct advice, utterly obsolete. We have to go back to building regs that are sound and water-tight before more people die.
Click to expand...
This.
I’m assuming you work in Building Control btw?
 
janiep said:
Bad one. May have cladding. Hope everyone's OK.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1195502444417028096
Click to expand...
Hope everyone is alright. Wonder who owned them though? I get the distinct whiff of Mederco. The same firm who built the student flats on Manchester road that were ordered shut by the the fire brigade this year after only being built for two years. Might be wrong but i think i remember reading that Stewart Day had a hand in these in Bolton as well
 
Bakerlooline said:
It looks like a classic communal stairwell fire. We’ve had a few in this country over the years, the fire which defined the phenomenon was the Kings Cross Fire. Although that wasn’t a stairwell specifically, it demonstrated the chimney effect perfectly I.e air moving along tunnels or up stairwells helps to spread flame incredibly quickly. You may think, yeah but there’s no fuel for a fire in a stairwell what with concrete floors etc (you can hear the footsteps in the video), but it’s the painted walls that are the issue. The inquest into the Kings Cross fire stated that “multiple layers of paint on walls and hand rails contributed directly to rapid flame spread”. Approved Document B of the Building Regs was adapted to solve the problem as there were other fires too (Mostyn Hospital, Gloucester Grove Estate etc). But, as with the cladding at Grenfell; under pressure from less scrupulous manufacturers the regs were changed in the mid 00’s and went from being absolutely specific; that any paint system used in such areas must achieve at least Class 1 of the BS476 flame spread test (developed at Warrington Fire Research Centre) to being vague with the addition of 3 short words... “or similar approved”. That suddenly made it possible for manufacturers to adopt their own tests and rendered the Building Regs useless. That’s what led to the cladding at Grenfell being about as effective as tissue paper and rendering the fire brigade’s totally correct advice, utterly obsolete. We have to go back to building regs that are sound and water-tight before more people die. Hopefully no-one was hurt in this fire. Sorry to be a bit dry on the subject like’, but it’s one I’m quite passionate about obvs.
Click to expand...
Didn't the Building Regs change in December 2018?
As a result of Grenfell and use of ACM cladding.
 

Back
Top