When the updated fire code is finally released next month, it will face high expectations. One of the most prominent is to reassure those living in high-rise towers clad with composite aluminium panelling that the risk of a major blaze can be ameliorated.
After three serious fires involving this kind of cladding in the past four years – most spectacularly involving The Address Downtown Dubai on New Year’s Eve – the code is being revised to raise safety standards. The Address fire is part of the reason why the revised fire code, originally scheduled for release this month, will now be released in April.
There has been understandable concern about this issue from tenants in these kinds of high-rise towers, along with the building owners and their insurers. While there is a clear public need for a timely announcement about upgraded fire-safety standards, the need to get it right is even greater. This code will affect the design of all future high-rises so it is entirely appropriate that it should incorporate everything that can be learnt from the Address fire. Civil defence officials said factors from that fire, including the speed at which flames took hold and spread, had resulted in several additions to the code.
The risk of non-fire-rated cladding was already known in the last revision to the fire code in 2012, but the blazes since then show there remain improvements to be incorporated. Since the three buildings involved in major blazes in the past four years were all built before the 2012 revisions, the question of safeguarding existing buildings has been a live issue.
With one change being a requirement on building owners to renew a fire-safety certificate every year from civil defence – in contrast with the current one-time completion certificate issued after construction – a key factor raised at industry meetings is the need to find a cost-effective solution that obviates the need to entirely reclad high-rise towers. Among the answers proposed by experts is the use of retrofitted fire barriers so that only some of the cladding needs to be replaced.
Finding a cost-effective solution to the potential risks is a classic case where industry experts and the market can employ their ingenuity. But ensuring that all high-rise towers are safe is firmly within the remit of the Government.
