Author Topic: Combustible: TV Together Channel  (Read 5819 times)

Offline Owain

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Combustible: TV Together Channel
« on: January 19, 2018, 07:26:46 PM »
Combustible: with the dangerous legacy of failed regulation in the building industry, this is a look at the dangers of construction in 2017, including Londonn's Grenfell Tower. 21.00 Fri 19 Jan, Together channel.

FreeviewHD 93 | Sky 539 | Virgin Media 269 | Freesat 164

Excerpt:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIa46O0Q4IE

To add: This is the Australian programme Four Corners looking at polyethylene and polystyrene cladding and the Lacrosse fire; video and transcript available here:

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/combustible/8859420

Quote
TONY ENRIGHT, FIRE ENGINEER: A kilogram of polyethylene will release the same amount of energy as a kilogram of petrol, and it gets worse than that because polyethylene is denser than petrol too, so that's about, a kilogram of polyethylene is like about one and a bit, one and a half litres of petrol.

Quote
STEPHEN GEDDES: I remember some time ago, back in the 2000s, they had an older engineer that worked there who said that a building that had something like 3,000 square metres of panel on contained like three and a half thousand litres of petrol.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2018, 10:45:16 AM by Owain »

Offline lyledunn

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Re: Combustible: TV Together Channel
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2018, 09:08:43 AM »
Thank you Owain, that was an interesting portrayal of the situation in Australia which is obviously being further informed by Grenfell. However, the programme merely points out the age-old issue of safety battling with commercial interest. The fight is prolonged because the regulatory framework is often subjective and enforcement relies, at least in part, on the integrity and competency of the commercial interests.
I suspect that the thrust in Australia will be much the same as that in the UK in that there will be public clamour for prescriptive, government-set regulations along with robust enforcement by inspectors who are directly employed by the local authority. That might suit the Corbyn brigade, but I do not think that it is the way forward. I do not want to return to the days when projects were delayed because the plans had not been marked up in red pen by a well-meaning chap in the fire brigade who had shares in GeorgianWire glass.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2018, 03:26:39 PM by lyledunn »