But when you get to the article after the banner headlines, you find hearsay, anecdote and speculation. Clearly the July blaze at the Beaufort Park apartment blocks was catastrophic. One was at an early stage of construction and fully alight in nine minutes. The other was more complete, but missing doors, fire stops and other internal elements and the flames spread quickly.
Building throws a sop to the timber frame sector, stating that it’s “here to stay” and that the fire provides lessons on timber frame site practice. The latter may well be true. But thanks to the article’s hysterical tone, the lesson some may learn is not to touch timber frame with a barge pole, and certainly not for multi-storey blocks.
The headline is a quote from a site worker saying his colleagues “won’t work on timber frame again”. The claim follows that the London Fire Brigade (LFB) has talked “exclusively to Building… about the dangers inherent in multi-storey timber frame sites”.
The trouble is the LFB hasn’t yet released its final report on the blaze. The “exclusive”, therefore, was the uncorroborated view from one LFB fire engineer that the risk of working in high timber frame buildings was “disproportionately great” and comments from one LFB investigator. The latter said workers were alarmed by the fire’s strength and that it “probably” started by accident. Based on this, Building asserts such a fire could “happen to anyone working with large timber framed buildings”.
Such reporting clearly damages timber frame and, by association, the wider timber industry. Fortunately the UK Timber Frame Association has responded with evidence of timber frame’s sound fire record and the advice and training resources it provides in site and fire safety. It also says its members will swiftly take on board any lessons that come out of the official fire brigade report.
It may be a vain hope for the near future, but let’s hope the anti lobby will eventually learn a lesson themselves: that we need timber frame and can’t go on relying so heavily on “traditional” building methods that are so greedy for energy and finite resources.
