We followed the Grenfell Tower disaster (crime) for a time & have revisited it again recently with the anniversary this month. Many of those people are still not rehoused from that shameful gentrification debacle. If you visit the blogs of the Grenfell Action Group you’ll see as is common with these corporate coverups, a long standing battle with landlords/Councils etc over the lack of safety & the fire risk in that tower before & immediately prior to the disaster. I believe also from many reports on the ground that the numbers of fatalaties were also vastly under stated. People were also advised (as is apparently customary) to remain in their apartments, thereby more fatalities occurred. What a crime. Human life – the shameful ‘throw away’ mentality of those who ride on the backs of the poor. The cladding was the cheaper option … it saved money & lost lives. As for NZ, remember the CTV building in the Christchurch earthquake? Nobody has been held accountable for the many lives lost in that building and should have been. And we have similar inflammable fire risk cladding on our buildings? No worries, they have got that all covered we’re told….

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From the NZ Herald

Owners of the buildings have been told about the claddings but McCormick stressed the buildings were not necessarily dangerous to occupy because they had extensive fire protection measures such as sprinklers, alarms and escape routes.

Auckland Council has just released a list of 25 buildings with exterior aluminium composite claddings like the Grenfell Tower in London, where a fire last year killed more than 70 people.

But the council stressed the Auckland buildings with the flammable polyethylene cores in their claddings are not necessarily dangerous because they have other means of fire protection.

The huge Waitakere Stadium at Henderson, certain Auckland Hospital buildings in Grafton, Spark’s four-building campus in Victoria St, large residential blocks in the Viaduct and CBD, the huge PwC building on the city’s waterfront, TVNZ’s headquarters on Victoria St, Auckland University’s Owen Glenn Building and many apartment blocks appear on the list.

After a Herald official information request, the council named 116 buildings it said “appear to utilise ACP cladding to some extent”.

“In some cases the cladding material has a modified fire resistant core. Far fewer cases have cladding with a combustible polyethylene core,” said council building consents general manager Ian McCormick.

“The extent and use of ACP on the buildings varies considerably from the full facade, to decorative features only and many buildings examined did not contain ACP at all,” he said.

Owners of the buildings have been told about the claddings but McCormick stressed the buildings were not necessarily dangerous to occupy because they had extensive fire protection measures such as sprinklers, alarms and escape routes.

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https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?

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