Grenfell Inquiry: Similar cladding failed fire safety test 16 years before tragedy

Inspectors were forced to cut short the experiment after a ‘very rapid’ fire engulfed the structure

Fire safety experts were forced to cut short a test on cladding in 2001 after flames spread rapidly. Similar cladding was later installed on Grenfell Tower. Reuters

Cladding similar to that used on Grenfell Tower dramatically failed a fire safety test 16 years before the tower block blaze, resulting in 20-metre flames, an inquiry into the disaster has been told.

The experiment caused a “very rapid, very large fire” and “shocked” experts, who were forced to stop the exercise.

The Building Research Establishment, a testing body which certifies combustible building materials, said inspectors carried out the test in 2001 using a mock-up of a building on a 9m test rig — the standard test of its type.

Sarah Colwell from the BRE told the inquiry the results were passed to the government to “alert and identify” the problem. However, the results were not widely shared and similar cladding was later installed on Grenfell Tower.

Seventy-two people died in the tower block fire on June 14 2017, while 223 people managed to escape from the burning high-rise flats in Kensington, West London.

The plastic and aluminium cladding installed on the sides of the tower was cited as the main cause of flames rapidly spreading up the building, the first report of the Grenfell inquiry stated. The fast rising flames caused flats and stairwells to fill with smoke, trapping residents as many tried to flee.

The inquiry was shown test results recorded in 2001 which detailed how flames spread rapidly after a mock-up was set alight. In the first three minutes the maximum acceptable temperature levels had been reached on the outside of the building, while internal limits were met.

Five minutes into the experiment, flames topped 20 metres (65 feet) — twice the height of the rig. This prompted fire safety experts to stop the test instead of leaving it for 30 minutes, the normal period.

“It was very rapid, very large fire growth,” Dr Colwell told the inquiry. She agreed the test results were “catastrophic”, and said they “shocked” observers.

The cladding tested was Reynobond PE55 cladding, made by multinational firm Arconic.

The inquiry continues.

Almost five years after the Grenfell tragedy, residents of more than 1,100 buildings in London continue to rely on 24-hour surveillance due to flammable building materials.

Earlier this month a woman was jailed for posting anti-Semitic messages on social media about the Grenfell fire.

Tahra Ahmed, 51, was imprisoned for writing “virulently” anti-Jewish conspiracy theories on Facebook. She had claimed that the Grenfell victims were “burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice".

Following a trial at the Old Bailey, she was found guilty of two counts of stirring up racial hatred by publishing written material and jailed for 11 months.