The Cube building in Bolton caught fire on Friday evening, with the six storey building seeing fire spread ‘extremely rapidly’. Two people were injured in the fire, which began on the fourth floor, saw the top floor ‘gutted’ and the fourth and fifth floors ‘visibly damaged’, with 200 GMFRS firefighters and 40 appliances required to fight it ‘at its height’.
Over 100 students were evacuated, with eyewitnesses stating that the fire was ‘crawl[ing] up the cladding like it was nothing’, had ‘quickly exposed’ the building’s frame, and had been ‘climbing up and to the right’ due to wind, flames ‘bubbling from the outside and then being engulfed from the outside’. It was also described as having grown ‘like crazy’ and spreading ‘so rapidly’, while reports claimed that fire alarms in some flats ‘were not loud enough’.
Students stated that alarms ‘go off almost every day’ in the building, which led to confusion ‘over whether it was a drill or a false alarm’. GMFRS had requested a fire safety assessment in 2018, including a cladding assessment, with ‘unspecified’ works undertaken – according to council records, it was reclad with high pressure laminate (HPL) in 2018.
The NFCC praised GMFRS for its ‘swift and professional response’, with chair Roy Wilsher stating: ‘I would like to thank all firefighters, officers and control staff who worked tirelessly throughout the night with other emergency services to control the fire and evacuate and rescue people from the building to ensure their safety.
‘This large and challenging incident once again highlights how changes to building regulations need to be moved on at a much quicker pace and active and passive fire safety measures are maintained to the required current standard. I have highlighted this time and time again and raised concerns how progress has been woefully slow. I have already been in contact with Government officials to ensure we discuss this incident as a matter of urgency.
‘We have been warning government since the Grenfell Tower fire that urgent action must be taken to protect lives. It is a national outrage that more than 200 buildings still have ACM cladding on them. At this stage we do not know what cladding was on this building, but this will be looked at as part of the investigation along with the whole building structure.’
He added: ‘I recently wrote to government stating that if buildings are not designed, constructed and maintained in a safe condition, fire and rescue services cannot accurately predict the development or lessen the impact of a fire in circumstances similar to those at the Grenfell Tower fire. This leads to the very real risk of another incident involving a similarly large loss of life.
‘We must also continue to consider the ability of fire services to respond to such large scale incidents. The Government is currently consulting on sprinklers and our response will demand that the fitting of sprinklers in this and other types of high-risk buildings becomes mandatory, and in many cases is applied retrospectively.
‘The safety of buildings is the most fundamental element in ensuring the safety of residents. It is imperative that those with a responsibility for the design, construction and maintenance of buildings do not assume that fire and rescue services are able to provide a safety net, whenever those responsibilities are not met.
‘Though the safety of buildings is the responsibility of building developers, owners and managers, we stress that government has the central responsibility for the safety of its citizens and has to take action when these obligations are not being fulfilled.’
The FBU called for a ‘complete overhaul of UK fire safety’, as well as criticising fire and rescue service cuts. General secretary Matt Wrack commented: ‘My congratulations go to the crews on the ground who did amazing work in incredibly difficult circumstances. This terrible fire highlights the complete failure of the UK’s fire safety system. 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.
‘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.’
In turn, FBU north west executive council member Les Skarratts added: ‘Firefighters on the ground have worked tirelessly to contain the fire and rescue residents. There will clearly be some hard lessons to learn as the circumstances become clearer in the coming days. Greater Manchester has lost more than 600 firefighters since 2010 alone and, alarmingly, Andy Burnham is trying to cut another six fire engines, including one in Bolton.
‘We need to stop the senseless cuts to our fire and rescue service before we see another awful incident like this.’