Inferno at The Address Downtown Hotel on New Year’s Eve has re-ignited the debate over fire safety in Dubai. Jason O’Connell reports
As the clock counted down towards the dawn of 2016, Dubai became the centre of the world’s attention when a fire broke out at The Address Downtown Hotel just a few hundred metres from the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, where a spectacular fireworks display was due to herald the arrival of a new year. Live images, beamed around the globe, showed the blaze quickly engulfing much of the 300-metre-tall building. But after barely a delay, the fireworks proceeded as planned while thick black smoke billowed from the nearby hotel.
The high profile incident inevitably reignited the debate over the fire safety credentials of Dubai’s predominantly high-rise building stock, raising all too familiar questions over the type of cladding used in facades. After all, this was the second time in 2015 that a serious fire at a skyscraper in Dubai had garnered unwelcome world headlines, following a similar incident in February at the 79-storey residential Marina Torch Tower. Starting in an apartment on the 50th floor, the fire quickly spread upwards, destroying around 100 apartments and scorching large sections of the building’s cladding.
A carelessly discarded cigarette sparked another inferno in November 2012 at the 34-storey Tamweel Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT). The building was almost entirely gutted by the blaze and has been uninhabitable ever since, though renovations are finally underway after a long delay caused by wrangling over insurance payments.
These are just three of the most high profile incidents to hit Dubai in recent years but there have been others elsewhere, notably in neighbouring Sharjah. And it must be said that this is not the only part of the world to experience issues with this type of ‘flammable’ cladding. Similar controversies are currently raging elsewhere, in China and Australia, following recent fires in high rise towers.
By some miracle, none of these three blazes resulted in any fatalities and, according to various reports, eyewitnesses praised the quick reactions of the emergency services in evacuating the buildings safely. Dubai Police has since pinned the blame on an electrical fault at the 63-storey Address Hotel on New Year’s Eve. Emaar Properties, the developer of the hotel was quick to pour cold water on claims by some guests that alarms and sprinklers had failed to go off.
The company said in a statement: “Our systems, across all properties, are regularly tested by third party entities and cleared. We would like to reiterate that the fire alarms did go off and any information to the contrary is false. We are awaiting the findings and the assessment report. We will take appropriate steps, as needed, after we receive the report.”
Much of the debate about the fires has once again centred on the type of cladding used in the construction of many of Dubai’s tallest buildings. Aluminium Composite Panel (ACP) cladding, which consists of a core of plastic or polyurethane filling between two aluminium panels, is widely installed and has been linked to a number of fires in high rise buildings, most of which were built prior to 2012 before tougher building rules were introduced banning the use of flammable cladding. Experts say the prevalence of this type of cladding explains the speed at which fires appear to spread across the façades of tall buildings. This raises serious question marks over the fire safety of many tall edifices built before 2012, which would constitute the majority of the 250-plus tall buildings in Dubai. Indeed the Dubai-based Centre for Sustainable Development estimates that around 70% of high rise towers in Dubai may have flammable cladding panels.
The composite sheets used in the panels that covered The Address Hotel building were made by Sharjah-based Eurocon Building Industries, a unit of Mulk Holdings International. Shaji Ul Mulk, chairperson of Mulk Holdings, subsequently confirmed in an interview with Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National, that most of the cladding seen on buildings across the UAE are not fire rated and consist of older versions of the panels containing a high proportion of flammable plastic. Newer versions, manufactured since 2012, contain only very small amounts of plastic, he said.
Mulk says his company already produces non-combustible panels in Turkey, where regulations are stricter, and he plans to start manufacturing non-flammable versions of the aluminium panels in the UAE, in anticipation of tighter building safety regulations and increased demand for fireproof materials.
New Fire Safety Code
The UAE Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice that came into force in 2012 drew from sections of international codes and standards as its basis with an overlay of local requirements. Following the Tamweel Tower fire in 2012, the code was amended to include the requirement that all Aluminium Composite Panels (ACPs) or other cladding to be fitted to new buildings must be fire rated, however it did not require older buildings to be retrofitted with fire-rated cladding.
In the wake of The Address Downtown inferno, UAE Federal authorities have moved quickly to address public safety concerns. Plans are in place to introduce a new fire safety code in the spring following a nationwide inspection of buildings. Whereas the previous code had 19 chapters the new one will have 26 chapters. By April, Federal authorities will also release a comprehensive database listing at-risk structures throughout the entire country. It remains to be seen whether the review will compel building owners to invest in replacing facade cladding that does not comply with the new regulations. However some clues have emerged as to what the industry can expect from the new, stricter Fire Safety Code.
Cladding to be restricted?
Officials have suggested that the use of cladding could be restricted in new buildings in the UAE taller than nine storeys because fire fighters struggle to reach floors above that height. Major General Rashid Thani Al Matrooshi, director of Dubai Civil Defence, was quoted by local news as saying that building owners wanting to use cladding above the ninth floor will be required to have sections of the facade without cladding to help prevent fires from spreading so easily. He added that buildings taller than nine storeys will only be allowed to use cladding if they are completely encircled by a road that allows fire trucks easy access to the building.
Prosecution of suppliers
The new code will, for the first time, allow for prosecution of manufacturers who sell building materials not approved by civil defence and municipalities. Current rules against manufacturers from selling material banned by authorities are not legally enforceable.
“Safety is number one, so from manufacturers we will not accept material not on our list. It will be an offence and illegal if found,” Lt Col Jamal Ahmed Ibrahim, director of the Dubai Civil Defence preventive safety department, said recently at the Intersec tradeshow in Dubai.
More vigilance
Another facet of the new code is that building owners will have to renew safety certificates, known as ‘no-objection certificates’ (NOC), from Dubai Civil Defence on an annual basis instead of receiving a one off certificate when building construction is complete. This will ensure that buildings comply with fire safety regulations even after they have undergone significant alterations or renovations post construction.
Liability
The updated fire code will place increased emphasis on the role of building owners and consultants. Pramod Challa, chief of engineering at Dubai Civil Defence, told the media that consultants will be responsible for the overall operations and lifecycle of a building, such as acquiring the design NOC from civil defence bodies, contractor qualification, inspection during construction, and testing and commissioning works.
The updated code will include details highlighting liability in the event of emergencies and incidents. “If the real estate agency is running the building’s operations then liability is transferred from the owner to the real estate company,” Lt Col Ibrahim said. “The company will be responsible to civil defence in matters pertaining to the building’s maintenance and systems.”
What will it cost?
Unsurprisingly, building owners are anxiously awaiting the new building safety regulations in April. The cost of retrofitting a high rise building with all new cladding could become a million-dollar job. Then there is the added confusion over who would have to foot the bill for a potentially costly refit – building owner, developer, designer, contractor, insurer, etc.
Sheena Sood, partner at law firm Beale and Company where she leads the construction, engineering and infrastructure team, said following the Torch Tower fire last year that new measures implemented in respect of existing buildings would “most likely affect building owners and operators. However they may seek to recover costs from designers, inspectors, contractors and their insurers.”
New regulations therefore could have legal and cost ramifications that will ripple through a real estate business already facing a degree of uncertainty due to the economic outlook in the region. But it could also provide significant opportunities for suppliers and consultants specialising in fire safety. The industry will be holding its breath ahead of the announcement in April.