Campaign group wants national emergency to be called over building safety inaction

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Concerns have been raised over the cladding at a student accommodation building in Bolton where a fire spread “extremely rapidly”, gutting the upper floor.

An investigation is under way into the cause of the blaze and calls are growing for an overhaul of UK fire safety regulations. Grenfell United, the group of survivors and bereaved people that formed after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, called for the declaration of a national emergency over the lack of action.

Investigation under way into blaze at Bolton student building Read more

“It brings back memories of Grenfell and we can’t believe that over two and a half years later this is happening. Our hearts go out to all the students affected,” the group said. “Hundreds of people go to bed scared every night in buildings covered with dangerous materials. When will this be treated as a national emergency? This cannot go on.”

Witnesses said what appeared to be a small fire ripped through the upper part of the town-centre six-storey building, which is cladded in high-pressure laminate (HPL) material, “within minutes”.

The government’s response to the cladding scandal has largely been confined to aluminium composite material (ACM) panels, but there could be thousands of blocks with HPL.

Government experts on fire safety demanded in July that HPL panels should be removed “as soon as possible” from housing blocks taller than 18 metres.

At a press conference in front of the building, the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said the form of cladding on the building was concerning and raised “issues that will have to addressed”, although he confirmed it did not have the same cladding that was on Grenfell Tower.

“We know that the prime minister is visiting later and we will be looking to work with him to understand what happened last night and see if we need to go further to remove cladding from these buildings and give families peace of mind,” he said.

Boris Johnson visited the scene of the fire behind the cordon line on Saturday afternoon and briefly met students who had been evacuated.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boris Johnson meets staff and students at the University of Bolton. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/AFP via Getty Images

He hailed the “incredible response” from the community after appeals were made via social media to help students displaced by the fire.

John Healey, the shadow housing secretary, said the government would have “serious questions to answer” if the cladding had contributed to the fire. “As figures released this week show, two and a half years after the Grenfell Tower fire, thousands of tower block residents are still living in homes with deadly cladding,” he said. “This should shame the Conservatives and they must now act to make all buildings safe.”

The mayor of Salford city council, Paul Dennett, said the authority was aware of high-pressure laminate cladding on the building and he would be asking the government for more money to remove flammable cladding from buildings to prevent future incidents.

It appears that the building was re-clad in 2018, according to council records that show the private company Assent Building Control signed off on the decision – though this is normal practice following the privatisation of building control.

Dave Keelan, an assistant chief fire officer with Greater Manchester fire service, did not confirm the cause of the blaze, as the investigation continues.

“The fire spread extremely quickly, that’s why I can’t praise the firefighters enough for initiating a full evacuation as soon as they got here, but the fire did spread extremely quickly throughout those upper floors of the building.”

HPL panels, which can be made of compressed paper or wood fibre, have a variety of combustibility ratings, while combustible ACM panels were banned last year for use on new tall residential and public buildings following post-Grenfell investigations.

Since Grenfell, the government has issued no injunctions on cladding on low-rise residential buildings, instead focusing on high-rise blocks, partly on the basis they are harder to evacuate.

There has been fury among residents about the slow pace at which existing combustible panels are being removed. A year ago, ministers gave councils the power to strip the materials off and reclaim the multimillion-pound cost from the landlords.

However, amid disagreements between leaseholders, freeholders and developers over who should pay, there remain 169 private-sector residential buildings with cladding systems unlikely to meet building regulations.

Last year, it was reported that 54 student residential towers had material similar to that at Grenfell Tower.

The Fire Brigades Union general secretary, Matt Wrack, congratulated crews on their work in “incredibly difficult circumstances” but said the fire highlighted the “complete failure” of UK fire systems.

“It’s deeply troubling to see fire spread rapidly up a building’s exterior again – a shocking indictment of the government’s shameful inaction after Grenfell,” he said. “This is not how any building should react to a fire in the 21st century, let alone a building in which people live.

“We need to end the deregulation agenda and the disastrous cuts to our fire and rescue service. It’s time for a complete overhaul of UK fire safety before it’s too late.”