4 ms·
> each bedroom must be equipped to be fire proof for X minutes This is the kind of absurdly complex regulation that sounds simple, but is a lobbyist's dream. T
by pessimizer 4y ago
> each bedroom must be equipped to be fire proof for X minutes
This is the kind of absurdly complex regulation that sounds simple, but is a lobbyist's dream. Two exits are easy to know when you've implemented, and easy for regulators to check if you've implemented. A "bedroom" being "fire proof" for X minutes will involve 900 pages of nonsense regulations from which lobbyists have carefully removed anything that will affect their bottom line.
"Each bedroom must be equipped to be fire proof for X minutes" was the type of rule that caused the fire brigades to tell people in Grenfell to stay in their apartments, and even more importantly the type of rule that allowed contractors to claim compliance to was sufficient enough that they could use flammable, shit cladding that was illegal in Europe and the US, and install it incompetently (because if the units were "fireproof," who could care?)
- bombcar 4y agoVery good points - and Grenfell is an example as to why these regulations exist; otherwise people would burn to death in "missing middle" housing and nobody would really care much.
- nasmorn 4y agoI live in Vienna and almost all buildings are single staircases with 4-8 floors. Almost all house fires are in old housing stock. In new concrete apartment buildings it is usually a single apartment that burns out. It is an almost absurd fear compared to eg traffic related deaths.
- twblalock 4y agoIt’s one of those things that is rare and unlikely, yet is extremely bad when it happens. Kind of like how airline crashes are much rarer than car crashes, but they are also much worse and always make the news. When you have a 99% chance of things going well, and a 1% chance of things going badly, normally you would feel very safe. But when “things going badly” can mean dozens or hundreds of people dying in a fire, that 1% suddenly looks a lot more serious.
- jaclaz 4y agoBut the article is not about building codes for larger buildings, it is about the building code for small ones exceeding the single family house.
- jaclaz 4y agoHigh-rise buildings are a completely different matter. Besides Grenfell, the same thing (without deaths, thankfully) happened in Milan (very similar issue with aluminium panels on the outside): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvbxTMSM5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvbxTMSM5Y What emerged from both these fires is that some of the "new" materials are far less safe than expected and that the fire brigades simply have no means to pump water at a height more than a few floors (ten-twelve?).