Can we talk about the fire standards in new build houses

[AnotherPowerPointSlideDeck]

Iver the past few years within a30 mile radius of me there gave been two huge fires on relatively new build housing estates. Both times the fire has ravaged swathes of houses. Now we are seeing the same in Stourbridge.

The houses near me were all those ones where they basically build the house with wood then add bricks after. All these we are told are safe and should resist fire. Obviously to me they don't.

AIBU to think we need to look at these regulations again??

This is exactly what is needed. Good for him.

That is my point. These bricks are still standing, houses made of wood frames aren't!!

You are speculating here

Can you be honest and tell us what the verdict was for these two estate fires that you are unwilling to actually clarify.

We could bombard you with so many, so very very many, examples of brick built properties that have been decimated by fire over the years.

What do you want done about it What else are they supposed to do? The frames from and all the staircase and everything?

The fires were started by three different people is this really something we need to change building regs for most housefires start indoor

A new build OP. It is a new build.

Sources for this please?

Why don’t you provide the names of the two estates you’re referring to?

So you’re just speculating? Scare mongering really

Fires, can, and do spread between old houses too. We had a house fire spread from
next door when I was a child in our Victorian semi… next door was gutted, we mostly got away with smoke and water damage apart from one upstairs bedroom where the fire had come through the roof space.

Interestingly, In that room, lots of things had ignited due to heat - soft furnishings, cuddly toys, clothes… the only piece of furniture that caught fire was the MDF bed. The old mahogany wardobe which was missing a door and contained singed clothes was nowhere near as damaged…

As a result, My (Victorian terraced!) house as an adult contains a lot of solid wood, second hand/antique pieces because I trust them more!

The floors and the roof will have gone. Rebuilding a house with fire damaged bricks is not an option. They still need to be demolished.

It was discussed here

I think they're worried about TikTok in particularly

I did wonder if that's why the alert happened today

m.youtube.com/watch?v=I9FIITnHnwM&ra=m

That was a manor house, there was a lot of stone because the people who built it were rich, the majority of houses in that area would have been wood framed with an infill of wattle and daub or cob, the roofs would probably have been straw thatch, a construction method chosen because it was cheap. I can assure you they would have burnt well, as did the manor house, though in that case it was arson rather than a grass fire. In practice unless there is some major historical or architectural reason for rebuilding after a fire, you knock down and start again, so it doesn't really matter what construction method was used.

Because weirdly, I don't want to say where I live 🙄

Ok

so turning it over to you…. What was the professional verdict for the cause of these two fires?

Timber framed houses with little to no fire walls!!

Oh dear.

no, that would not have been the actual verdict. If you google, you will find the wording used

I've literally just watched all of that long arse thing and nowhere does it corroborate what you are saying.

Simple question

what was the official verdict following the investigation in to these two estate fires you refer to

no need to name the estates

what was the official cause of these fire that was recorded?

I doubt whether you’ll actually ever post the official verdict for the cause of these two fires because they don’t fit with what you think

The Stourbridge homes were large detached brick homes built many years ago. There are no homes that don’t have any wood in-floor joists, roof joists, stairs. It honestly wouldn’t stop in this case. The fire was intense and jumped from home to home-sometimes missing a house and jumping to the next.

It would appear not.

If you genuinely wanted to discuss this @AnotherPowerPointSlideDeck , you’d have bothered to clarify the recorded verdict for the fire you reference. But you didn’t. Because no doubt the verdict doesn’t support what you wanted to discuss.

Concrete explodes, steel warps, timber joists, rafters and beams burn. The mortar between bricks becomes unviable after a fire rendering the brick structure unsound. The best we can do is mitigate but when it comes to fire any structure will be destroyed.
Timber framed buildings are no more susceptible to the ultimate ravages of fire than any other building, despite how it may look in the aftermath. Interestingly, however, there are examples of very old oak framed buildings catching fire where everything burns around them and the frame remains standing and viable. The outside chars and protects the inner timber. Also it is possible to protect a timber (or any other) building from external fire. In places like Brithish Columbia wooden structured buildings in fire risk areas are clad with a product like Cemboard. Whilst everything around them is destroyed they remain standing. However it doesn't look pretty. What's the chances of getting folk in the Uk to clad their home with a cement type boarding incase of external fire? There are no absolutes in life and sometimes we can't reasonably mitigate against all risks.

I'm trying to work out your point. First and foremost all fire regs are to protect people and give the adequate time to get out, usually 30 mins which also allows for the fire service to arrive and assist with evacuation if necessary. Timber framed or not that is the aim.

Or is your point that if buildings were made of masonry of some sort brick/stone/concrete then they would be salvageable? If that is your thinking then no, most buildings that catch fire and are burned to a shell are not salvageable. Even historic buildings that are 'worth saving' will often require huge amounts of replacement material as particularly stone, but brick and concrete also are effected by heat and fire.

Where there are deaths in house fires it is usually down to smoke though not being woken because of a lack of working smoke detectors.

The transfer of fire between properties is again governed by building regulations, any structure within a meter of the boundary should have fire protection this is rarely enforced and I do wonder if our smaller gardens and the amount of wooden structures people now have in their gardens has contributed to fire jumping between properties.