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England's housing developers have been given an ultimatum - commit to repairing unsafe buildings or be banned from operating in the market.
Developers now have six weeks to sign a government contract to fix their unsafe buildings from the past 30 years.
According to the government's new plan, homeowners living in buildings whose construction poses a potential fire risk will be reimbursed, and building companies who installed the unsafe cladding must pay to replace it with a safer material.
— BBC
Speaking to the press on Sunday, UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove admitted “faulty” guidance was to blame for the Grenfell Tower tragedy, stating his opinion that the building industry had gone underregulated for years. Cladding manufacturers like Celotex and Kingspan were not included in the... View full entry
The first phase of preparation work for the rebuild of the Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh Building has been completed. More than 5,500 tons of fire-damaged material was removed from the site, and a thorough evaluation of the building was undertaken. Shortly following a devastating fire... View full entry
On the first anniversary of the Twin Parks fire in the Bronx that killed 17 people, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will announce a new national plan to combat “America’s fire problem” using investigatory muscle granted by federal legislation that President Biden signed last month.
The legislation will give the United States Fire Administration the power to identify the causes of fires like the one at the Twin Parks North West housing complex.
— The New York Times
A year removed from the tragic blaze that took the lives of 17 people in the Bronx apartment complex once lauded by Paul Goldberger for its trend-bucking design, lawmakers in Washington have finally heeded the desperate pleas of public housing advocates who appealed for stricter safety... View full entry
A massive fire was reported in the early hours of Monday morning at the 8 Boulevard Walk Tower in Downtown Dubai.
Located near the Burj Khalifa, the 35-storey tower was ablaze and was extinguished just before 4am. The building seems to have extensive fire damage on the façade spanning through all floors.
— Arabian Business
The cause of the fire is unknown but appears to have been affected by the structure’s cladding, which residents told The Daily Mail was supposed to be replaced following a New Year’s Eve blaze in 2015 that caused significant damage to the nearby Address Downtown Dubai hotel. 1/ #Dubai The... View full entry
A skyscraper in the central Chinese city of Changsha was seriously damaged after a fire engulfed the 42-storey building.
The fire in the China Telecom building was reported at 3.48pm. Thirty-six fire engines and 280 firefighters from 17 stations were sent to the blaze, according to the Hunan Fire Department. By 5pm the fire had been extinguished but firefighters continued rescue efforts.
— The South China Morning Post
Frightening videos are circulating on social media and appear to show the 22-year-old building almost completely burnt through its facade, although the extent of internal structural damage is not clear. It is also unknown what caused the fire, but the incident should highlight the safety concerns... View full entry
Four years after a devastating blaze wiped out the majority of its incredible 20 million-object collection, the rebuilding of Brazil’s fire-damaged National Museum has reached an important construction milestone in Rio de Janeiro. According to The Art Newspaper, local firms Velatura... View full entry
Producing a thick, black smoke plume that was seen throughout downtown Denver on Thursday afternoon, a fire burned in a portion of the club level on the east side of Empower Field at Mile High, which is home to the NFL's Broncos.
A Denver Fire Department spokesman said the fire covered "over 1,000 square feet'' and began on a suite level -- the fourth level -- of the stadium and then spread into seats in the third level.
— ESPN
The fire began in a part of the Fentress-designed stadium that is currently under construction. No injuries were reported. Officials said that the composition of the plastic seats in part helped fuel the blaze, producing a porous cloud of black smoke that could be seen widely across the city... View full entry
Mayor Eric Adams said the city will crack down on buildings with a high number of fire safety violations, two months after a blaze killed 17 tenants of a Bronx high-rise with a history of complaints. As part of a new executive order signed on Sunday, the city will increase information sharing between the FDNY and the city’s housing inspectors “to identify safety violations earlier and increase fire safety compliance.” — Gothamist
As part of what’s called Executive Order 12, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will launch a broad campaign to educate New Yorlers on fire safety. The order will also require the FDNY to conduct more frequent inspections of... View full entry
It has been a month since the deadly space heater-induced apartment fire at the Twins Parks housing complex claimed the lives of 17 people and displaced more than 200 families from a largely Gambian immigrant community in the South Bronx. The incident has turned into a bellwether for the state of... View full entry
On the heels of [the] horrific Bronx fire that killed 17 people, including eight children, Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Ritchie Torres on Tuesday unveiled a "4-point federal fire safety package" that includes addressing sprinklers, self-closing doors, heaters and federal investigation powers. — ABC 7
The pair of lawmakers had recently joined together to push the federal government to include the Cross Bronx Expressway into the infrastructure bill. Their new fire safety plan includes a mandate on automatic space heater shutoff features. The early-January fire that killed 17 at the Twin Parks... View full entry
The fire that ripped through Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh building in 2018 was so fierce and all-consuming that the cause can never be known conclusively, according to a long-awaited report. — The Guardian
The report by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), which involved more than 172 weeks of excavation and examination of hundreds of tons of debris, along with analysis of witness testimonies, CCTV, and photographic evidence, deemed the cause of the fire as “undetermined”. This was the... View full entry
The fire was started by a malfunctioning space heater in the bedroom of a third-floor apartment on Sunday. Fire officials say the door of the apartment did not close as residents fled and that allowed smoke to spread throughout the building. — The New York Times
The deaths and injuries in Sunday’s tragically avoidable accident were exclusively the product of smoke inhalation as the fire itself was contained to the apartment and outside hallway. The blaze came just days after another horrible incident in Philadelphia that claimed the lives of... View full entry
Jennifer Diamond, a spokeswoman for the team fighting the Caldor Fire, wasn’t sure who wrapped the Phillips Tract cabin but said she’s helped cover a historic backcountry building with foil in the past. Aside from historic buildings, firefighters might choose to wrap a remote cabin where property owners have already cut back vegetation, cut down overhanging trees and cleared roofs and gutters of debris. — The San Francisco Chronicle
The cabin was among many in the South Lake Tahoe region to adapt a temporary version of an adaptability approach that has become increasingly popular during a year that has already seen over a million acres scorched in California alone. The ongoing Caldor Fire has destroyed more than 700 homes as... View full entry
Owners of London's Grenfell Tower are expected to announce later this month that the tower will be demolished due to safety concerns. This decision comes more than four years following the fire that claimed the lives of 72 people. UK housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, has been notified... View full entry
Starting today, the Catholic University of America’s School of Architecture and Planning in collaboration with Massachusetts-based nonprofit Handhouse Studio are building a full-scale replica of a truss that belonged to the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. As part of a teaching project by... View full entry
