In London, a charred husk of a building still stands as a grim reminder of the deadly fire that ripped through Grenfell Tower last June. The tragedy resulted in 72 deaths and left dozens of families homeless.
Three years earlier, fatalities were narrowly avoided when the Lacrosse apartment building in Melbourne’s Docklands — also lined with flammable cladding — caught alight.
The tragedies ignited worldwide debate about the safety of combustible aluminium composite panels (ACP) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) cladding that adorns many high-rise buildings, including here in New Zealand.
Effective passive fire compliance is a key element for property owners and business to ensure fires are contained into a single fire compartment and to avoid catastrophic damage to a building including its early collapse. Ongoing vigilance is required when a building is constructed and throughout its life time to ensure integrity is maintained.
Bryan Tedford, NZI’s National Business Continuity and Asset Protection Portfolio Manager says as a nation we’ve struggled to achieve compliant passive fire protection in many of our new build projects and then maintain it in existing buildings with the life cycle refurbishments that occur over time.
Leaders from the construction industry, insurance sector, fire safety officers and building owners came together to discuss what could be done to change this at a one-day seminar on Passive Fire Compliance.
“There’s been some discussion about whether a specific qualified trade or stricter construction monitoring should be required but we also need to weigh up how much time and money this will cost the construction industry when prices are already running away on some projects.”
But, he says, “the cost to New Zealand in diminishing life safety and loss of our properties is far greater.”
He says NZI felt it was important to be part of this discussion as non-compliance threatens the safety of customers, employees and the broader community.
On top of this, it’s placing upward pressure on insurance premium costs.
“Non-compliance of building design and construction is a hidden risk – if we cannot accurately assess the risk, the uncertainly results in more fires and higher insurance premiums for our customers,” Tedford says.
“Correctly designed, coordinated and installed and inspected passive fire systems are paramount for our populations wellbeing as well as providing trust and confidence in the construction industry.”
Tedford says the seminar was a great first step in looking at a long-term solution to the problem, but now action needs to be taken.
“There’s force in numbers and if all of the industries involved can work together on this, I believe we can improve Passive Fire Protection.”
“If we get this right, we will not only reduce economic loss, but more importantly, we will save lives.”
