More than a million people live in high-rise buildings in the GTHA, so we asked local experts if the deadly London high rise fire could happen here.
Residents who escaped the fire in London described seeing pieces of the exterior fall off as the flames rapidly swept toward the roof.
“From a fire safety perspective, it’s a conflagration that typically should not happen.” Ishwar Puri, McMaster Dean of Engineering.
Officials have yet to determine the cause of the fire. Some observers have been pointing at renovations done last year, when the building was covered with an aluminium composite cladding. Any gap between the cladding and the building can cause a chimney effect.
The same type of cladding has been blamed for other rapidly-spreading high rise fires around the world, like Dubai.
“If the fire did occur in the cladding, or outside the building then the protocols, fire doors, fire separation devices, could not have stopped the fire from going up.”
Hamilton’s chief building official says no one on his team is aware of aluminium composite cladding being used locally, nor had fire officials heard of its use.