LONDON: A second cladding blaze at The Torch Tower in Dubai has stunned angry residents who on Friday asked how it could happen twice.
People took to social media to voice their shock and express their support for residents – some of them families forced to re-live the harrowing ordeal for the second time in two years.
Experts say the outbreak of a massive cladding fire twice, raises questions about whether the building’s flammable cladding panels had only been partially replaced.
Video footage taken by passers-by showed burning debris falling from the building onto the streets of Dubai Marina after the fire broke out early Friday morning.
It is almost two and a half years since the first blaze broke out at the 337 meter tower and some interior refurbishment was still ongoing. One witness described the fire as a carbon copy of the earlier blaze but on a different corner of the building.
Costly procedure
“So far, some partial façade replacements have been attempted, but make no mistake — the only way to completely remove the inherent risk of sub-regulatory combustible cladding contributing to the speed and ferocity of a fire is complete replacement,” said Craig Ross, a Dubai-based partner at consultancy Cavendish Maxwell.
“But this is a complex and very costly procedure, not only in material costs but in the method of retrofitting to a confined high rise site, and likely to be far less costly than insurance premium hikes and repair works.
Public awareness about cladding fires has increased since a deadly blaze in in London this summer at the Grenfell Tower claimed at least 80 lives and led to tests being carried out on buildings countrywide.
Dubai has had a spate of major cladding fires over the last five years, most notably at the Address Downtown Dubai hotel on new year’s eve 2015.
But while an updated fire code has been introduced to ensure that new buildings are covered with panels that do not easily catch fire – there are hundreds of buildings across the emirate that remain covered with panels that contain highly flammable plastic material.
Cladding experts contacted by Arab News estimate the cost of replacing panels to be between $120 and $140 per square meter on most buildings — but such costs would balloon on a super-tall building such as The Torch, one of the world’s tallest residential buildings, because of the specialist access equipment required.
Cheap alternatives
Tarek Haddad, CEO Architecture & Display Asia at panel maker Alucobond, said that non-combustible panels only cost $1 or $2 more than cheap flammable alternatives.
“Contractors and developers are the drivers of cost savings in the build phase, especially in towers that are build to sell,” he said, referring to buildings containing freehold residential apartments.
The second fire at The Torch tower now puts other towers where there have been cladding fires in the spotlight, as the scope of refurbishment works come under scrutiny.
That could have implications for both insurers and building owners associations if it emerges that some buildings have simply been partially refurbished.
Residents of the tower and neighboring buildings expressed their bewilderment yesterday as the clean up operation at the site got underway.
One owner who spoke to Arab News outside the building early on Friday said he was also in the tower at the time of the first fire.
The man, who identified himself only as Omar, from Jordan, said he had bought a 1 million dirham ($272,240) two-bedroom apartment in Torch Tower.
“I blame the people who first built the property, the people who made the decision to use the materials that they did,” he said.
“We have received communications since the previous fire that told us that the materials they used on the outside of the building were not fire resistant.
“We were told they had found suitable materials, but there was a delay. They should have done this in the first place.”
An Irish expat, who asked only to be identified as Niall said: “I have lived here for five months. The letting agent did not tell us that there had been a fire in the building previously, it was me who told them when I found out, but only after moving in.
“I think there is an issue with the rate buildings seem to go up here. There must be shortfalls and mistakes made.
Quick response
“There have been so many fires in towers in Dubai that I have told my wife that we are moving out. We will find somewhere — this just isn’t safe.”
British expat Imran Sidique, who does not live in Torch Tower, said: “These things happen, I don’t think you can blame anyone really. But I do sometimes worry about where I live, I think about how I would be able to get out of the building if there was a fire.”
Dubai firefighters responded quickly to the blaze and received praise from residents for bringing the fire under control.
Oman Insurance Company, the building insurer at the time of the first blaze did not immediately respond to questions about the scope of work conducted following the 2015 fire.
The developer Select Group and building manager Kingfield Owner Association Management Services were not available for comment.