Revealed: how The Address Downtown Dubai hotel fire test was ‘meaningless’

Sean Cronin

DUBAI // A “successful” fire test in 2007 on the exterior wall panels to be used on The Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai was meaningless because it did not test flammability, according to the engineer who supervised it.

The National has obtained the original US fire test for the aluminium composite panels used on the building and interviewed the man who oversaw it.

He says that test measured fire containment and not flammability.

While the distinction may not be immediately clear, fire engineers say there is a critical difference. And an analysis of the original test conducted on the panel system reveals why it is important.

“It is a flame spread issue – not a fire resistance issue,” said the engineer who has since left the Texas laboratory where the test took place. He has requested that his name be withheld.

“This product should have been tested and should have passed the NFPA 285 test to be considered as an exterior facade material on a high rise building.”

The NFPA 285 test measures fire propagation. It was not part of obligatory building codes when the tower was built but it is part of existing codes.

Why such a test was not done, even in the absence of a specific code requirement at the time, is just one of several questions raised by an investigation into the panels used on the building based on interviews with architects, fire engineers, manufacturers and contractors spanning the UAE, Europe and the US.

International experts interviewed by the newspaper agree that a flammability test should have been done rather than one that just measured fire containment.

The reason for this is that aluminium melts at about 660°C degrees centigrade. A testing furnace reaches more than 1,000°C. So an aluminium cladding panel would start to melt within minutes of a test procedure commencing.

• Read the first part of Sean Cronin’s investigation here

The results of that process carried out on the hotel’s exterior wall system reveal for the first time how the manufacturer of that system could claim it survived a furnace for one hour and 42 minutes.

On the evening of December 31, 2015, thousands of revellers had gathered in Downtown Dubai to ring in the New Year. The vast development built by Emaar Properties, the owner of The Address Hotel, has become the home of new year’s festivities ever since the world’s tallest tower was opened there in 2010.

But soon the crowds were watching in shock as the 63-storey building was engulfed in a fire that took just minutes to leap 40 storeys up its exterior walls.

The flames were visible across the city as millions of people around the world watched it live on TV.

So how did the wall panel system that was to be used on that building survive a furnace for ten times longer than it took for The Address to burn?

One explanation can be found on the first page of an 18-page report of that test that has been obtained by The National.

It reveals that the aluminium panels being tested were first attached to gypsum wallboards before being exposed to a furnace.

There is no suggestion that the test process was in any way improper, or the methodology unusual. However fire engineers say that the results tell us nothing about the flammability of the panels and that a different test should have been done instead.

Speaking exclusively to The National, the man who oversaw it agrees.

While The Address cladding was being tested in Texas, some 13,000 kilometres away in Dubai, tower cranes covered the city’s skyline. From the Marina to Business Bay, hundreds of skyscrapers were under construction.

It was a time of unprecedented building activity.

http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/revealed-how-the-address-downtown-dubai-hotel-fire-test-was-meaningless

Ramola Talwar Badam - The National

DUBAI // Cladding on The Address Downtown Dubai facade did not meet fire safety requirements, a preliminary on-site inspection revealed.

Although the cause of the New Year’s Eve blaze has yet to be confirmed, a senior Civil Defence official said the cladding that lined the outside of the 63-storey hotel did not meet standards.

“The cause of the fire and the primary observations can only be confirmed when the final investigation is completed by the Dubai Police. Our primary on-site initial inspection on the fire at The Address hotel was that the cladding does not meet the required specifications,” said Lt Col Jamal Ahmed Ibrahim, director of the preventive safety department for Dubai Civil Defence.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting to announce next week’s Intersec 2016 security conference and exhibition.

The hotel’s developer, Emaar, said it would wait for the final report.

“All our buildings are developed as per the specifications by the concerned authorities. The buildings are tested periodically and cleared for adhering to the regulatory standards,” a spokeswoman said.

“We will await the final and official report instead of speculating.”

Lt Col Ibrahim said the exterior and interior of all buildings would now be surveyed to check if they were fire-safe following The Address fire.

Owners and developers would be allotted a time frame to adhere to recommended alterations, ranging from changing the facade to installing fire protection barriers.

A new fire safety code to be released in March will put responsibility on owners and consultants in the event hazards identified are not fixed.

“The second day after the fire we held meetings so this does not happen again. We will start a survey for all buildings, not just in Dubai, to find solutions. Each building will have a different solution,” Lt Col Ibrahim said, adding more attention would be paid to buildings with cladding.

“We will find out if cladding is approved, installation is OK. The law is very clear that the owner is responsible for the building so after the survey if some issue is found, the owner will have to replace what needs to be replaced. We are focused on saving lives; that is important to us.”

Fourteen people suffered minor injuries, one person was moderately injured, while another had a heart attack in The Address blaze hours before New Year’s Eve fireworks at the nearby Burj Khalifa.

The new safety changes are being relayed through meetings with developers, which took place on Monday, workshops for cladding suppliers yesterday and municipalities today.

The updated code will state the final facade product must be tested and consultants will be responsible for the structure for at least a year after project delivery.

The 2012 Tamweel Tower blaze that left hundreds homeless was fuelled by combustible aluminium panelling.

With the nationwide 2012 Fire and Life Safety code, authorities sought to phase out non-fire-rated cladding, consisting of a combustible thermoplastic core sandwiched between aluminium sheets. But concern remained about structures predating the code.

Citing the Tamweel repair work, Lt Col Ibrahim said Civil Defence insisted that cladding on all four sides be replaced instead of only the fire-damaged section. Refuting expert estimates that between 65 per cent and 70 per cent of UAE buildings had some form of aluminium panels surrounding a thermoplastic core, Lt Col Ibrahim said only 10 per cent to 20 per cent were covered with cladding.

Plans were also announced to improve safety awareness.

“We will train 1,000 fire fighters every year compared with 300 national recruits trained currently,” said Aiad Mushaikh, project director of the Emirates Academy of Civil Defence Sciences.

“Public fire safety courses will be increased to cover 400,000 per year by 2020 from the 120,000 [at present]. We want people to know how to use fire extinguishers and be safety officers.”

rtalwar@thenational.ae