In January, "552 firefighter jobs and 14 engines are also being cut from the capital's brigade after seven London boroughs failed last year to legally challenge the closures."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/firefighters-cry-as-10-london-stations-including-clerkenwell-close-due-to-cuts-9050079.htmlAlso there have been concerns over (imported Chinese?) cladding failing tests
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/fears-grow-as-apartment-cladding-debacle-ignites/news-story/22bf66af43cd0c52c91063d8b4b34535Cheaply imported aluminium cladding from Melbourne?s fire-damaged Lacrosse tower was so flammable CSIRO scientists had to abandon combustibility tests after only 93 seconds to avoid damaging their equipment.
A CSIRO report obtained by The Australian reveals that the sub-standard Alucobest cladding ? suspected of also having been used in thousands of buildings nationwide and linked with fires in large buildings around the world ? sustained extensive ?flaming? after 55 seconds and had to be extinguished after 93 seconds because of ?excessive flaming and smoking?.
An MFB incident report into the November Lacrosse fire also reveals there have been seven high-rise apartment fires around the world directly attributed to the unsafe cladding with plastic cores, with more than seven deaths. Four high-rise towers in Dubai including The Torch ? all with aluminium cladding with the plastic core ? have suffered extensive damage from fires spreading up the facade of the buildings.
In France, seven people died in an 18-storey apartment complex in Roubaix, clad in similar aluminium facade as that used at the Lacrosse Tower.
In South Korea, a rapidly spreading fire in a 42-storey fire high-rise apartment complex was directly attributed again to the same sort of cladding used at Lacrosse as was a fire in a 41-storey building in Atlanta City in the US.
Of those international fires, the MFB reports say: ?What is evident is the rapid and extensive vertical fire spread up and down the buildings in direct correlation with the fire (at the Lacrosse tower). Whilst the brand and make of the panels are not identified in the report, they would all appear to be of very similar material and construction to the material installed in the facade at the (Lacrosse building).?
He said there was a growing problem of builders substituting quality products at the last moment for cheaper, dangerous, imported products to increase profits.
He also warned about companies in China selling building products such as cladding with questionable quality control and compliance certificates.
... only an invasive test can determine the difference between non-compliant cladding with a plastic core and the compliant cladding with a fibre core. Otherwise they look, feel and smell exactly the same.
