Stirring trouble 18/03/2008

There is currently great speculation about the possible causes behind the scale of the Atherstone fire disaster. Some of this speculation is both inappropriate and inaccurate and seeks to make commercial gain by linking the untimely deaths of the firefighters with aspects of the building construction which may not in fact have made any contribution to the tragic outcome. We refer in particular to a press release issued by EURISOL, the mineral wool manufacturers trade association.

At this point it is understood that the building’s walls were constructed using Mineral Wool cored insulated panels and the roof was constructed of LPCB* approved PIR insulated panels. It is understood that all processing and storage areas within the building were lined with Mineral Wool cored panels which formed the walls and ceilings of these areas 

It is clear that the fire load inside the building was considerable and the Mineral Wool panels would be the first affected by the fire, the roof becoming involved at a later stage when the fire was fully developed.It has also been reported that some fire doors were not in place and the building did not have sprinklers.

There are still many questions to be answered and information to be gathered on the design and construction of the project. Until all of these questions and more are answered it is irresponsible to point the finger of blame at any one aspect of the construction, premature to call for changes to Regulations until it is proven that it is needful to do so and insensitive to try and gain from such a tragic incident.

**EPIC is disappointed that EURISOL is seeking to use this catastrophe to shake confidence in competitors proven products and thereby benefit from the tragedy. Such behaviour is misleading to outside parties, unhelpful to the construction industry as a whole and to the ongoing investigation. EPIC is awaiting the full results of that investigation and will comment appropriately when they are received.

Back to top