LONDON — At least 11 buildings in Britain are clad in combustible material of a kind similar to the cladding that was used on the exterior of Grenfell Tower, the apartment building destroyed in London’s deadliest fire in decades, officials said on Thursday, as they scrambled to conduct safety checks on at least 600 other high-rise buildings.

Exterior cladding is thought to have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire, which consumed the 24-story Grenfell Tower in West London in just one hour, early on June 14. The fire killed at least 79 people and left hundreds of survivors homeless.

The cladding on the building — sheets of aluminum composite material, encasing a flammable polyethylene insulation — has been associated with high-rise fires in other countries and its use is restricted in the United States and elsewhere. It was permitted under British regulations, even though safety experts have long warned the metal sheets could melt under intense heat, allowing a blaze to race through the combustible material between them.

Over the weekend, the government ordered the local authorities to review records on residential buildings that are more than 18 meters (about 60 feet) in height and are clad with “aluminum-type panels.”