Claude Schmidt News Today

Gillian Slovo’s Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors is a chilling reminder for New Yorkers that it could happen here too.

A public inquiry has questioned employees of the metals firm that supplied cladding for Grenfell.

Veteran Pittsburgh filmmaker Chris Ivey has lately shifted his focus from the bulldozed high rises of East Liberty to a burned-out apartment tower in London...

By Tom Lowe2021-03-12T10:56:00+00:00 Hearing told British Board of Agrément supplied certificate for ACM cladding based on incomplete test data The makers of the combustible ACM panels blamed for the rapid spread of fire at Grenfell Tower threatened to cut ties with a testing house unless the panels were approved, the inquiry has heard. Arconic had been in talks with the British Board of Agrément (BBA) to secure a Class 0 rating for its polyethylene-filled Reynobond PE panels to stamp them ...

By Tom Lowe2021-03-12T13:01:00+00:00 Hearing told British Board of Agrément supplied certificate for ACM cladding based on incomplete test data The makers of the combustible ACM panels blamed for the rapid spread of fire at Grenfell Tower threatened to cut ties with a testing house unless the panels were approved, the inquiry has heard. Arconic had been in talks with the British Board of Agrément (BBA) to secure a Class 0 rating for its polyethylene-filled Reynobond PE panels to stamp them ...

Grenfell Tower cladding firm ‘warned blaze could kill 60 to 70’ a decade before deadly fire Samuel Osborne Replay Video UP NEXT The firm that made the cladding used on Grenfell Tower was warned the risks of a fire could kill “60 to 70” people a decade before the fatal blaze. Arconic marketing manager Gerard Sonntag asked colleagues what the costs would be of only selling aluminium composite material (ACM) with a fire-resistant core, rather than the polyethylene (PE) pla...

Arconic – formerly known as Alcoa – provided the ACM PE-cored panels which were installed on Grenfell Tower during its refurbishment.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey will pay out £125 million to replace cladding and improve fire safety on all blocks built in the last 20 years in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.  The money is set to be placed in a fund in order to provide certainty for customers and leaseholders and to avoid them bearing the cost of investment to ensure their buildings are safe, the company said. It comes just weeks after ministers set aside £3.5 billion in funding to help repair or replace cladding more...

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre Featured pages Featured pages Featured pages Opinion Featured pages Article "Arconic HQ was probably told of cladding issues, Grenfell inquiry hears", 22 February 2021 One of the most senior US executives at Arconic was probably told that the company’s cladding panels were unsafe for buildings above 12 metres in height two years before the Grenfell Tower disaster, a public inquiry has heard. The $7bn-a-year-turnover al...

By Tom Lowe2021-02-23T11:44:00+00:00 But firm continued selling Reynobond PE panels in the UK until a week after 2017 blaze A manager at the manufacturer that sold combustible ACM panels to be used on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment warned colleagues two years before the fatal fire that the cladding was dangerous and a safer version should be sold instead. Arconic technical manager Claude Wehrle’s warning came shortly after the firm’s US parent company had sought an assessment of the R...