LONDON — When fire broke out at Grenfell Tower in London, the flames were whisked through the 24-story structure with astonishing speed, killing 72 people in Britain’s deadliest housing fire since World War II. Outrage spread quickly when Britons learned the cheap cladding that shrouded the tower had turned it into a death trap. The government did move fairly quickly to strip the dangerous cladding from public housing towers, but people in approximately 8,400 public apartments await a full repair. The ProblemDangerous Cladding and DeregulationA year before the fire, contractors re-clad Grenfell Tower with a form of low-cost aluminum paneling . The cladding was banned in the United States and many European countries because if a fire breaks out, it allows the flames to spread quickly.

Source: New York Times May 29, 2019 09:02 UTC