Fire chiefs held talks over hospital cladding

Fire chiefs have held safety talks with county health bosses about the aluminium cladding on Hereford County Hospital.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service chief fire officer Nathan Travis has explained the work they have done to prevent a disaster like the Grenfell Tower fire occurring locally.

The London blaze killed 72 people after it spread from a kitchen of a fourth floor flat of the tower block and raced up the exterior and spread to all four sides in the early hours of June 14, 2017.

In a report to the Grenfell Public Inquiry, fire safety engineer Dr Barbara Lane identified the blaze spreading vertically up the tower columns, and ‘laterally along the cladding above and below the window lines (and) the panels between windows.’

Mr Travis told this week’s full authority that firemen have worked with building owners in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Responding to a question from councillor Bob Matthews, Mr Travis said a tragedy on the scale of Grenfell would not happen locally because there are no high-rise buildings with such cladding in the two counties.

Coun Matthews asked if any action had been taken following the North Kensington disaster and whether local teams had the right equipment to deal with a similar incident.

“Yes. We’ve done extensive work following Grenfell Tower to look at the high-rise properties that are within the two counties,” he replied.

“We have also done extensive work with non-high-rise buildings which have aluminium cladding, particularly Hereford hospital which is one of those we engaged with early doors.

“We’ve worked through with the responsible persons within those buildings to identify if there is anything, we can improve in terms of their own fire precautions.

“In terms of the scale of what happened in Grenfell, it isn’t something that would happen in Hereford and Worcester – we don’t have high-rise buildings that have aluminium clad materials.

“The high-rise building in Worcester that had external cladding is of a completely different nature and we have been working with the responsible persons to identify that and make sure there are no issues.”

A Wye Valley NHS Trust spokesman confirmed that tests have been carried out on the hospital’s cladding and have told the fire service they have no concerns.

He said: “We can confirm that tests have been carried out on the cladding – these have ruled out anything similar happening here at the county hospital.

“On that basis, we have informed the fire service that we have no concerns.”