UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Cladding 1: > > >      Clading 2: > > >

Lacrosse Tower, Melbourne

25 November 2014

Grenfell Tower, London

14 June 2017

Flammable Cladding

"Tragically the situation

 is so much worse
than the public are

 being led to believe."

Flammable Cladding and ionization
Smoke Alarms - A Lethal Combination

"With Grenfell Towers' horrific death toll, will authorities

 finally eliminate flammable cladding from high-rise buildings?

Tragically the situation is so much worse than the public are being led
to believe. Australian government (CSIRO) scientific test data shows
the ionization type of smoke alarm, found in millions of homes and
in high-rise apartments around the world, should be banned."

Adrian Butler
Chairman, WFSF

Adrian Butler, Chairman, Co-Founder, Former Firefighter
World Fire Safety Foundation  |  Brisbane, Queensland, Australia  |  18 June 2017

A Small Sample of High-Rise Cladding Fires from Around the World

Floors: 23 | Death Toll: 0

Fitted With:

- flammable external (Alucobest) cladding
- smoke alarms that failed to go off

More > > >

24 December 2014

Lacrosse Tower

Docklands, Melbourne, Australia

Floors: 28 | Death Toll: 58

Fitted With:

- flammable external cladding
- smoke alarm information unavailable

More > > >

15 November 2010

Shanghai Fire

Jing'an District, Shanghai, China

Floors: 16 | Death Toll: 16
Allegedly Fitted With:

- flammable external cladding

- smoke alarm information unavailable

More > > >

19 May 2015

Residential Building

Baku, Azerbaijan

Floors: 16 | Death Toll: 2
Allegedly Fitted With:

- flammable external cladding

- smoke alarm information unavailable

More > > >

28 April 2015

Coal Building

Lingshi County, China

31 December 2016

Address Downtown Dubai Hotel

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Floors: 63 | Death Toll: 0
Allegedly Fitted With:

- flammable external cladding

- most UAE homes have no smoke alarms

More > > >

More > > >

14 June 2017

Grenfell Tower

Notting Hill, London, England

Floors: 24  |  Death Toll: Pending

Local Claims "In the 100s": (as at 21 June 17)

"Police Confirm 58": (updated: 23 June 17)

Fitted With:

- flammable external cladding

- smoke alarms that "failed to go off."

Grenfell Tower: "A Raging, Wind Tunnel of a Fire"

Grenfell's Cladding: Like a Candle Sandwiched Between Two Sheets of Metal

Arnold Tarling - British Fire Protection Specialist

"If I hear another politician say lessons will be learnt, I will scream. It is just sound-bites. It's just meaningless, just saying lessons will be learned when they've never been learned from the past."

After Melbourne's 2014 Lacrosse Building fire it was alleged

that approximately 50% of Australian high-rise buildings may be fitted with

the same type of non-compliant (i.e. illegal), highly flammable, external cladding.

 

In February 2006 it was revealed that Australian Government (CSIRO) scientific test data

 shows ionization smoke alarms do not activate until more than double the maximum

safe limit set for photoelectric alarms. Since 2015 the Commissioner of Fire &
Rescue New South Wales, and other fire department officials and experts around

the world, have repeatedly stated ionization smoke alarms "should be banned".

 

ionization smoke alarms were installed in the Lacrosse high-rise apartments.

 

After substantial repairs, Lacrosse tenants were told their building is "safe to occupy".
The Lacrosse building and countless Australian and other high-rise buildings and homes around the world, are absolutely
not safe if fitted with flammable external cladding,
ionization smoke alarms, or both. See the video and hear ABC radio interview below. . .

Channel 7 News  |  12 January 2016  |  Queensland report below  |  NSW Report here:

ionization Smoke Alarms: Calls for them to be Banned

"Concerns continue to grow over ionization smoke alarms with the

 New South Wales Fire Commissioner now calling for them to be banned."

London Fire: Flammable Cladding on Australian Buildings
"Is Like the Asbestos Problem"

     Stephen Kip, an adjunct professor at Melbourne's Victoria University, said “The similarities between the Grenfell fire and the Lacosse fire are quite striking.”

     In a submission to a Senate inquiry on non-compliant building materials in 2015, the MFB said the use of flammable cladding posed an “unqualified risk”. . .

Calla Wahlquist, Journalist  |  Guardian Australia  |  16 June 2017

Ionisaton Smoke Alarms: Like Asbestos & Tobacco

"Adrian Butler used to sell them, realised the dangers and has spent the past fifteen

years trying to convince authorities to ban them. He likens them to asbestos and tobacco."

Commissioner Greg Mullins, Fire & Rescue New South Wales
In January 2017, after 39 years of service, Commissioner Mullins retired.

ABC-WFSF Radio Interview

Grenfell and Lacrosse Fires - Are Residential,

Low and High-Rise Buildings Safe?

Sunshine Coast, QLD, Australia  |  19 June 2017

Annie Gaffney

ABC Presenter

Adrian Butler
WFSF Chairman

00:43  Annie Gaffney, ABC

"We've been talking now for more than a decade Adrian, you and I, about why
ionization alarms won't go off in time to save your life in the event of a house fire."

01:35  Adrian Butler, WFSF

". . .ionization alarms are not allowed, even a combination photoelectric-ionization
alarm is not allowed."

06:58  Adrian Butler, WFSF

". . .CSIRO test data proves they (ionization alarms) will not activate until more

 than double the maximum safe limit set for photoelectrics. So the government

 needs to tell public the truth; and the truth is that they are not safe."

In 2015 the WFSF wrote to fire and safety authorities and Lacrosse Tower building management about life-safety concerns.

 

After being ignored for months, the WFSF's Chairman visited the Lacrosse Tower in November 2015.

 

He discovered that the building was fitted with ionization smoke alarms.

Adrian Butler, Lacrosse Tower, Melbourne

Australia  |  November 2015

     The builders of the Lacrosse Tower are arguing in court that they should not be held responsible because its design plans had been approved by a building surveyor, fire engineer and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, which "gave approval for the building including variations from specific requirements of the [Building Code of Australia], subject to certain recommendations being satisfied".
     Since those were satisfied, is the builder liable?  After all, the experts such as the building surveyor, fire engineer, fire brigade and council all signed off on it -- and we have those people and safeguards in place precisely because builders are not expert in those areas.

     However, in court, it is usually the people at the bottom of the chain who get punished -- and occasionally a politician has to resign.  But the building owners, builders are not expert, neither is the politician who has the ministry portfolio -- yet the layers of bureaucrats who are supposed to be experts are rarely held to account.  I would like to see the people up the chain get punished.

     The trouble is the whole system is broken.  Standards and regulatory bodies are controlled by those with vested interests. Public safety is paid lip-service but is sidelined by industry interests.  Standards meant to protect, fail the public and

instead become a defence along with 'industry best practice' (never mind that best practice might be absolutely flawed). Even when testing organisations know the standards themselves are faulty, the interests of their paymasters take precedence and nothing gets said.  Information on tests is blocked from being entered into the public domain because commercial interests are outside of the freedom of information act, so even a government department can refuse the request based on commercial sensitivity.

     Even when a standards organisation admits the standard is faulty and brings out a new one, the building  regulatory authorities can ignore the new one, decide they know better, and keep referencing the old one in standards. I know of this issue with standards from smoke alarms, to swimming pool pumps, to laminated beams and more.

     One way or another, we as consumers pay for these standards, we pay for the tests, we pay the regulators salaries, and when the standards, the testing, and the regulations fail, it is we who pay with the pain of injured and broken bodies and minds or even with out last gasping breaths.

     Surely it is time that our interests be accorded pre-eminence.

"The Trouble is the Whole System is Broken"

 

 

A word from:

World Fire Safety Foundation

Co-Founder, Karl Westwell

20 June 2017

Karl Westwell

Have the Fire Industry and the Government Failed in their

Duty of Care to Adequately Warn the Public about the

Scientifically Proven Defects with ionization Smoke Alarms?

'A Special Duty of Care'

"The people and organisations that regulate, legislate, manufacture and promote fire safety products

 have a special contract with implicit responsibilities towards others in society and as such they are

 required to adhere to a standard of reasonable care because their acts could cause harm to others;

 and none more so than the standards, regulatory and fire safety organisations."

Karl Westwell, Co-Founder, World Fire Safety Foundation  |  Tauranga, New Zealand  | August 2009

 

 

"Public safety is paid lip-service but is sidelined by industry interests."

Karl Westwell, Co-Founder, WFSF  |  Tauranga, New Zealand  |  August 2009

GRENFELL TOWERS

The Latest Example of the Incredible Stupidity

and Corruption Within the Fire Safety Regulations

 

     There are serial killers and then there are serial killers. Some kill a few, some kill many and then there are those who kill hundreds of thousands and especially destroy the children.

     Our incredibly stupid and corrupted fire codes are the granddaddy of the killers. When the ways that the fire codes kill are examined the number one killer that comes to mind is the . . .

Richard M. Patton

Fire Protection Engineer, President,

The Crusade Against Fire Deaths

Grenfell Towers: Beware the Culture of

Denial and Institutional Defensiveness

In the immediate aftermath of the terrible disaster

at Grenfell Towers Pete Weatherby QC provides

his view on what urgent steps must be taken next

Pete Weatherby QC

Photo: Grenfell Acton Group

"The key issues the public inquiry will have to determine must include:

 - Why clear warnings by residents and their action group, regarding serious fire safety failings, were

   apparently ignored? . . .

 - Were there fire alarms? If so, why did they apparently not work?  If there were no alarms, why not?"

"Australian Government (CSIRO) scientific test

 data proves the ionization alarm is defective

 in its design, manufacturing and warnings."

LaBarron Boone | Attorney, Beasley Allen ||  28 June 17

Labarron Boone Esq.

Beasley Allen Law Firm Principal Labarron
Boone Discusses Defective (ionization) Smoke Alarms

'The Beasley Allen Report'  |  15 April 2016  |  Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.A.

'Beasley Allen Report', Labarron Boone discuss one of the most disturbing trends right now - defective and inefficient smoke alarms. Boone specifically mentions ionization detectors, which do not detect visible smoke, despite being marked as "smoke alarms." Their deficiencies are not explained on the product's packaging, putting hundreds of thousands of families at risk.

Beasley Allen (BA) Radio Interview
Principal Labarron Boone Discusses Defective (ionization) Smoke Alarms after Winning Significant ionization Smoke Alarm Lawsuit

The Law & You - Smoke Alarm Whistle Blowers: Part 3

Radio Interview with Beasley Allen Law Firm's Attorney Labarron Boone Esq.

24 June 2014 | Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.A.

     A law suit against one of the world's largest ionization smoke alarm manufacturers was set to go to trial in Montgomery, Alabama in April 2014. Three young children had died in a home fitted with working, hard-wired, ionization smoke alarms.

      Australian smoke alarm experts were scheduled to attend the trial as witnesses to testify about Australian Government (CSIRO) scientific test data.

     This was the first time CSIRO test data has ever been deposed in any ionization smoke alarm law suit. World Fire Safety Foundation Chairman & Co-Founder Adrian Butler has stated for over a decade that, "Australian government (CSIRO) test data holds the key to solving the 40 year ionization smoke alarm fraud".

Smoke Alarm Campaigners with Alabama State Fire Marshal

Dean Dennis (Fathers For Fire Safety), Ed Paulk (Alabama State Fire Marshall), Adrian Butler (World Fire Safety Foundation),
David Isaac (Standards Australia Committee FP002)

     BA attorney, Mr. LaBarron Boone, who is also an engineer, has spoken to audiences worldwide about the defects that exist with ionization smoke alarms.  In this landmark case, the smoke alarm manufacturer (one of the world's largest) refused to produce CSIRO test data until the Court compelled its production under threat of severe sanctions.

     The Beasley Allen Law Firm is the only law firm globally to have been able to examine company-specific CSIRO test data. Attorney Boone believes CSIRO scientific test data proves the ionization alarm is defective in its design, manufacturing and warnings.

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