Ten percent of buildings in Eindhoven may not be fireproof. This is according to a sample taken by Jos Lichtenberg, a retired professor of the Technical University (TU/e).
Lichtenberg used a sample of different residential blocks in the city centre area. Daglad Trouw, a Dutch newspaper, reported the results of his research.
Lichtenberg conducted his research in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London, where 72 people died as flames engulfed the tower block. The flammable cladding used on Grenfell Tower is also used in the Netherlands to insulate buildings. But the extent and scale to which it is still used remains unclear.
So, Lichtenberg went out to find answers. With his company, Off Road Innovations, he examined 79 buildings across Eindhoven, each 13 metres tall or higher. He identified 10 percent of these as a ‘risk building’.
He therefore estimates that as many as 35 buildings in Eindhoven could quickly catch fire. ‘This does not mean that the buildings are definitely unsafe. But in any case, a more in-depth investigation is necessary, and more specific measures must be taken,’ Lichtenberg writes in a research journal.
This research does not only concern Eindhoven. Lichtenberg says that throughout the whole of the Netherlands, there are ‘hundreds, if not thousands of buildings’ that could be unsafe in the event of a fire.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Rachael Vickerman
