I'm no expert on building construction and fire safety but without knowing the detail that seems plausible that a chimney effect was created. The effect of air currents and winds on high rises is only beginning to become appreciated from a fire point of view. Two firefighters died in Shirley Towers in Southampton because the window gave in while the wind was strong causing a massive inrush of air/oxygen that literally caused a blowtorch effect that engulfed the flat instantaneously in intense fire, this caused the fire service to re-examine our methods and training. Pipework and services breaching fire stopping, fixings failing in fires, the chimney effect, materials considered in combination not just isolation, all need to be looked at.
The importance of proper maintenance of the means of escape. Stairwells that provide positive pressure in the event of fire, keeping the stairwell the most protected part of the building smoke free, sprinklers may have saved lives but all come at a cost and the question is going to be is that a reasonable cost against the human and financial cost when it goes wrong.
Since I started we are gaining a much greater understanding of fire behaviour, we understand the theory better and regularly re-create flashover conditions in firehouses and train entering compartments and using water spray to control the temperature right on the point of flashover so we understand the signs and symptoms in practice but at the same time that our understanding is improving and we know so much more about how fire reacts, we have a background of massive cuts in every aspect of firefighting, we have seen fire safety being deregulated, we've seen fire deaths, which have gone down for years, going back up. Money spent on having a decent fire service and effective fire safety isn't wasted in an advanced society its essential but this generation of politicians seem to have forgot the lessons of the past and have despite warnings continued to see fire safety as something that will be alright.
When people used to talk about money, I used to tell a story about one day where we only had 2 calls, which is quiet, but in one day we saved a fire in a brand new leisure center in a very deprived area, and a multi million pound factory employing 200 people which is still open today, 15 odd years later. In that day I justified my wages over my whole thirty year career but that's only if you look at the benefit to society as a whole rather than seeing things in isolation and not related. Fire can be devastating to peoples lives we can't carry on just winging it and hoping everything will be alright. We need regulations based on proper scientific understanding of how fire spreads in buildings and need to start taking these things far more seriously or it will go wrong again.
