In the wake of June’s Grenfell tower disaster in London, which claimed the lives of around 80 people, another high-rise fire has been reported in Dubai caused by similar combustible cladding. From The Australian:
A blaze is engulfing one of the world’s tallest residential buildings in Dubai, but authorities say the tower has been evacuated and no injuries have been reported.
Flames shot up the sides of the Torch tower in the upscale Marina district in the second blaze at the building since 2015, causing burning debris flying down…
Residents and eyewitnesses have been posting images and photos of the 79-storey skyscraper in fire on social media…
Fires have affected several skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates, including a towering inferno that engulfed a 63-storey luxury hotel in Dubai on New Year’s Eve in 2016.
Building and safety experts have cited a popular type of cladding covering the buildings that can be highly flammable.
Last month a Senate Inquiry was told that thousands of apartments in Sydney and Melbourne are potentially at risk from similar flammable cladding.
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
Latest posts by Unconventional Economist (see all)
Meh. If people want to live in a flammable building that is their choice. The market will price the demand accordingly. We live in a free market society and decisions should be left to the profit motive.
Dan
I agree entirely. Non-combustible buildings are far more expensive to build and if policy makers are serious about affordability then we need to offer people the choice of taking their chances in a more flammable, but cheaper alternative.
Joel
Exactly. Such alternatives must include cardboard and polyester tents.
ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER
Well may you ask reusa,…am I my Brother’s keeper?
And the answer is Yes,…we all are,… it’s a kind of foundational requirement for Civilization.
How far would the Greeks have gotten, if they had accepted collapsible columns for their temples or unseaworthy ships!
Wake up man!,…your ilk are burning the place (Civilisation) down!
ColinMEMBER
Nice corollary EP!
casewithscience
You sound like one of those socialist, tort-lawyers. Isn’t there a protest or sit-in that you should be at?
ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER
Well Casey,…I was thinking of going down to bear witness and show some Solidarity with those tent city people at Martin place some time soon.
Wanna come too?
haroldusMEMBER
EP am toying with that idea too.
casewithscience
@EP
Sorry, I live in Brisbane where we keep our homeless outside of the Boundary Road.
BubbleyMEMBER
EP, you are the Ying to Reusa’s Yang or should that by yank because its all about self appreciation if you’re a good looking property investor.
BradleyMEMBER
Hey Case. You are are aware that virtually every Boundary St or Rd was the line where indigenous Australians were forbidden to cross?
ColinMEMBER
Rather live in a tent in Martin Place.
Bubbler
People don’t want to live in these. These buildings are built for investment purposes, not for living in, especially not by the overseas owners.
Mow Y
They are not informed that the buildings will be cladded in the equivalent of napalm on the facade. Back to the good old days of the robber barons and no boundaries, low morality capitalism?
ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER
Yes,…our reusa Wouldn’t have it any other way,…and yet, Inspite of all that he is and represents,..I just can’t help but love the guy.!
I’m hoping that he is going to have an epiphany and embrace his proletarian side, like his fellow aristocratic comrades FDR, Tony Benn and others.
Through all his refined graces and inherited nobleness, I sense a comrade.
😞
ColinMEMBER
No question! No responsibility, no accountability, no duty of care = low grade future thanks to selfishly shortsighted lowlifes.
TimonMEMBER
Yep it’s back to the bad old days like when white phosphorus was used in match stick factories
StatSailor
Aptly named.
Mow Y
Torch Tower. So aptly named. How many of their cousins are out there?
Cornflakes
Might as well call it Inferno Tower.
AlbyMangles
this is the 2nd blaze same building since 2015 lol
PlanetraderMEMBER
I am long marshmallows!
Gustav
It is only a matter of time until ISIS morons use something like Airbnb to find buildings with flammable cladding and then set them on fire.
Joseph
Don’t give them ideas.
AlbyMangles
Our govt wankers or isis, cos sure as shit once this is declared a potential terrorist threat the tax payer will be bent over and asked to provide
Rich
If fitted with sprinklers and fire blocks below windows the fire shouldn’t spread. That said, many many building in Melbourne have this. Even the product they thought was safe isn’t.
Jacob
But they are probably low flow sprinklers. 4L/min or something.
BubbleyMEMBER
“if fitted,,,”
If they are so cheap they are using sub standard flamable cladding, it seems unlikely the developers would have fitted any fire fighting equipment properly. It cuts into the profit margin and doesnt help sell apartments to sexy investors.
jollyrodger
We had the mining boom, now the construction boom and soon we will have the repair boom. This and countless other defects will have to repaired at some stage.
haroldusMEMBER
All adding sweet lolly to the GDP!
Andrew
Ordinary mum and dad property millionaires with taxable incomes of less than 80k trying to get ahead should be able to claim an immediate 100% impairment for any property built within the past decade. Heads they win, tails you lose.
Just add the repair cost to their mortgage. The increase will just be a rounding error on their mega mortgage anyway.
Willy2MEMBER
– Nomen est omen. They couldn’t have picked a better name.
– And I thought the people in Dubai were so wealthy that they could afford those higher priced cladding. Seems the people in Dubai are as greedy as the people here in Australia. And that comes at the expense of the people who live in those buildings.
Kim
I’m amazed there hasn’t been an apartment crash in Oz yet based on this. Who in their right mind would buy apartments in buildings that likely don’t meet fire code?
Meh. If people want to live in a flammable building that is their choice. The market will price the demand accordingly. We live in a free market society and decisions should be left to the profit motive.
I agree entirely. Non-combustible buildings are far more expensive to build and if policy makers are serious about affordability then we need to offer people the choice of taking their chances in a more flammable, but cheaper alternative.
Exactly. Such alternatives must include cardboard and polyester tents.
Well may you ask reusa,…am I my Brother’s keeper?
And the answer is Yes,…we all are,… it’s a kind of foundational requirement for Civilization.
How far would the Greeks have gotten, if they had accepted collapsible columns for their temples or unseaworthy ships!
Wake up man!,…your ilk are burning the place (Civilisation) down!
Nice corollary EP!
You sound like one of those socialist, tort-lawyers. Isn’t there a protest or sit-in that you should be at?
Well Casey,…I was thinking of going down to bear witness and show some Solidarity with those tent city people at Martin place some time soon.
Wanna come too?
EP am toying with that idea too.
@EP
Sorry, I live in Brisbane where we keep our homeless outside of the Boundary Road.
EP, you are the Ying to Reusa’s Yang or should that by yank because its all about self appreciation if you’re a good looking property investor.
Hey Case. You are are aware that virtually every Boundary St or Rd was the line where indigenous Australians were forbidden to cross?
Rather live in a tent in Martin Place.
People don’t want to live in these. These buildings are built for investment purposes, not for living in, especially not by the overseas owners.
They are not informed that the buildings will be cladded in the equivalent of napalm on the facade. Back to the good old days of the robber barons and no boundaries, low morality capitalism?
Yes,…our reusa Wouldn’t have it any other way,…and yet, Inspite of all that he is and represents,..I just can’t help but love the guy.!
I’m hoping that he is going to have an epiphany and embrace his proletarian side, like his fellow aristocratic comrades FDR, Tony Benn and others.
Through all his refined graces and inherited nobleness, I sense a comrade.
😞
No question! No responsibility, no accountability, no duty of care = low grade future thanks to selfishly shortsighted lowlifes.
Yep it’s back to the bad old days like when white phosphorus was used in match stick factories
Aptly named.
Torch Tower. So aptly named. How many of their cousins are out there?
Might as well call it Inferno Tower.
this is the 2nd blaze same building since 2015 lol
I am long marshmallows!
It is only a matter of time until ISIS morons use something like Airbnb to find buildings with flammable cladding and then set them on fire.
Don’t give them ideas.
Our govt wankers or isis, cos sure as shit once this is declared a potential terrorist threat the tax payer will be bent over and asked to provide
If fitted with sprinklers and fire blocks below windows the fire shouldn’t spread. That said, many many building in Melbourne have this. Even the product they thought was safe isn’t.
But they are probably low flow sprinklers. 4L/min or something.
“if fitted,,,”
If they are so cheap they are using sub standard flamable cladding, it seems unlikely the developers would have fitted any fire fighting equipment properly. It cuts into the profit margin and doesnt help sell apartments to sexy investors.
We had the mining boom, now the construction boom and soon we will have the repair boom. This and countless other defects will have to repaired at some stage.
All adding sweet lolly to the GDP!
Ordinary mum and dad property millionaires with taxable incomes of less than 80k trying to get ahead should be able to claim an immediate 100% impairment for any property built within the past decade. Heads they win, tails you lose.
^^^^ heeheeheee …this guy……^^^^
Just add the repair cost to their mortgage. The increase will just be a rounding error on their mega mortgage anyway.
– Nomen est omen. They couldn’t have picked a better name.
– And I thought the people in Dubai were so wealthy that they could afford those higher priced cladding. Seems the people in Dubai are as greedy as the people here in Australia. And that comes at the expense of the people who live in those buildings.
I’m amazed there hasn’t been an apartment crash in Oz yet based on this. Who in their right mind would buy apartments in buildings that likely don’t meet fire code?
Or is it crashing and they’re just hiding it?