Challenging the Pancake effect the United Arab towering infernos

[mahalall]

There recently has been a series of fires involving high rise building in the United Arab Emirates.

Tamweel Tower in Dubai last November 2012
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Al Tayer tower in Sharjah April 2012
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Al Hafeet Tower in Sharjah april 2012
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No one died in the fires, but noticeably is that the buildings did not collapse.

The Tamweel Tower was developed by Nakheel. Their corporate solgan is,
Were Vision Inspires Humanity

[Prodigal Son]

Well, you know how expensive it is to build things here in New York, so when they were building the WTC, the Rockefellers cut corners wherever they could. They used inferior steel, a new alloy that mixes iron with clay.... they got the idea from Daniel 2:43 :rolleyes: it's amazing they stood for 30 years, isn't it? I mean they knew they were going to knock down Jachin and Boaz anyway, right?

[Cidersomerset]

I saw this item earlier and thought the same thing and was going to post it.....


http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.44.2/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png

2 May 2013 Last updated at 00:51

.'Towering inferno' fears for Gulf's high-rise blocksBy Bill Law

Gulf analyst, BBC News


http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67353000/jpg/_67353466_ap559293404128.jpg


Tamweel Tower on fire in Dubai (November 2012) There were no casualties in the
Tamweel Tower blaze in Dubai, but the building was gutted Continue reading the

Fears of a "towering inferno" disaster in the Gulf are growing after fires left
residential buildings heavily damaged in the United Arab Emirates cities of Sharjah
and Dubai.The Arab Gulf states are home to some of the most spectacular high-rise
towers in the world. But some building experts say that many of those towers are
sheathed in a highly flammable material that puts occupants at risk.One expert in
the UAE has estimated that 70% of the high-rise buildings there have panel facade
cladding made of a combustible thermoplastic core held between two sheets of
aluminium.When the panel ignites, fire spreads rapidly, racing to the top of the
building and sending flaming debris hurtling to the streets below. "Like a Roman
candle" is how one observer described it.

The initial cause of the fire can be something as simple as a discarded cigarette
butt or a charcoal barbeque left unattended on a balcony.A fire at the Al Hafeet
Tower in Sharjah on 23 April was eerily similar to a blaze that gutted the Tamweel
Tower in Dubai last November. And the 40-storey Al Tayer tower in Sharjah also
suffered a similar fate in April 2012.In all three cases fire roared up the sides of the
building as individual panels ignited and burst into flame. No deaths were reported
from any of the fires.

"[The facades] are good-looking, long-lasting and easy to maintain, but they have
one big problem - they burn rapidly," Thom Bohlen, of the Dubai-based Middle East
Centre for Sustainable Development, told the BBC.

Lack of investigations

Mr Bohlen, the institute's chief technical officer, said that the UAE has passed new
legislation banning the use of flammable facades, but it only applies to new building
construction."That doesn't take care of the problem with current buildings", he said,
adding the costs of refits will be "extremely expensive".Mr Bohlen estimates
that "at least 500 buildings" in UAE cities are sheathed in the flammable panels.

The sheathing has not been used in the UK since the 1980s and codes in the United
States specifically prohibit their use in buildings of more than three or four storeys,
he said.Mr Bohlen is not alone in voicing concerns about the risk of fire in many of
the high-rise towers that pepper every major Gulf city - or about the failure to pin
down what is causing many fires.At a recent health and safety conference in Doha,
the capital of Qatar, another expert spoke of a huge number of fire incidents that
had not been properly investigated.


http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67359000/jpg/_67359860_011068054-2.jpg


Dubai skyline (file photo) The Gulf's high-rise towers pose huge challenges for
firefighters Steve Wood is the safety and health director for the Middle East division
of the giant US technology corporation AECOM.According to a local Qatari
newspaper, Mr Wood told delegates at the Institute of Occupational Safety and
Health (IOSH) meeting that in 2012 alone the causes of more than 1,000 fires in
Qatar remain unknown.

"The reason why it's not known is maybe because they are too busy extinguishing
fires and not resourced enough to investigate them," he is quoted as saying.Qatar,
with its huge gas reserves, is per capita the wealthiest country in the world. It has
spent billions of dollars in recent years on enormous building projects that have
radically transformed the Doha skyline.

But sufficient money for fire investigation appears not to have been set aside.

Like other Gulf countries, Qatar has regulations and legislation on the books,
mostly modelled on the United States and the UK, but at the conference Mr Wood
was quoted as saying codes are open to interpretation.

"Some clients may go for the least strict requirements, thinking 'which ones are the
least I need to comply?' "

Playing catch-up

Mr Bohlen says that the unprecedented growth of Gulf cities has meant that though
the buildings go up with astonishing speed, regulation and adequate enforcement
lag behind.That is because codes are simply adopted from other countries, but the
context and enforcement mechanisms in which those codes developed are often
missing or lacking in comprehensive application.




Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development

"There is not a lot of code depth in the Gulf. Codes are borrowed and it takes a long
time to develop [codes]. They are coming but they haven't caught up," he says.
Mr Bohlen believes that there are still Gulf authorities that need to adopt unified fire
codes based on international standards that are very stringent about the materials
that can be used.And he also believes that the potential risk these buildings pose
should be brought to public attention.Occupants of residential towers that burst into
flames have spoken about the lack of fire alarms at the time of the blaze but most
seem unaware that they and their families are living in potential firetraps.

Although some Gulf governments have expressed concerns and are revising and
updating their practices, safety still appears to be taking a back seat in the
headlong rush to build.

Focus minds

And with huge expatriate populations and acute housing issues, authorities have
more often than not turned a blind eye, allowing contractors and owners to make
decisions that could have disastrous consequences.Mr Bohlen says that what might
serve to focus minds and help to avert a towering inferno tragedy are insurance
companies.

"They will ultimately find and force a solution because the financial implications for
them of a series of fire disasters is not something they will want to deal with," he
says.But whether it is properly enforced tough regulations or expensive refits driven
by insurers, Mr Bohlen is certain of one thing: "This is definitely a problem that
needs to get resolved."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22346184

[mahalall]

"One expert in the UAE has estimated that 70% of the high-rise buildings there have panel facade
cladding made of a combustible thermoplastic core held between two sheets of
aluminium.When the panel ignites, fire spreads rapidly," cidersomerset

With more pyrotechnic towering infernos expected and with no collapsing buildings it's an away goal opportunity.

[Ellisa]

At the moment the city planning council in Melbourne is obsessed with the building of tall buildings. Who will live or work in them no one knows, but apparently rich people from 'overseas' like to buy them and rent them to the native inhabitants (ie, us). It is also a fact that at least some of these monstrosities will be built using this material. It was being boasted as the wonder of the age a week or two ago. It is light and very quick to use, and being clad in aluminium is very easy to maintain. It also can be ignited by a discarded cigarette butt or unattended flame, when the whole thing explodes upwards like a firecracker. Not a good idea.

Today there is a scrambling to explain that our building regs will not allow this type of construction and the various 'world's largest' buildings to be built here will have to conform. I certainly hope so--- at least we do have fairly strict laws about fire and smoke alarms which is more than those people in the UAEs have.