Thread by @Telegraph

🏙️The Canary Wharf skyline was due to gain another tower – until controversy intervened.

Last month, the London Fire Brigade expressed serious concerns about plans for the Cuba Street development.

It has since been shelved

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🏰 It was pitched as a new “castle in the cluster” for London’s Canary Wharf and would have created 424 homes with a public park at its base.

⚠️ Yet the Cuba Street tower hid what might seem a glaring omission for a 174-metre building: a second escape stair

Plans for new high-rises like the Cuba Street development have reopened a debate about the safety of the next generation of tower blocks, nearly five years after 72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire
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🧑‍⚖️ Britain has some of the world’s most relaxed laws on escape stairs in high-rise buildings.

🌐 Second stairs are required in buildings as low as two storeys in Canada and four in the US, while in Belgium, Poland and Norway, it’s 25

🇬🇧 Even within the UK, there is variation: in Scotland, buildings above 18 metres require a second stair.

In England and Wales, office buildings above 11m must have two escape stairs, yet apartment blocks of any height need just one
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🔴 Most of the UK's high-rises are built to the principle of the "stay put" strategy.

In this strategy, residents should be able to remain in their flats in the event of a blaze whilst firefighters tackle it

But “stay put” has come under intense scrutiny since Grenfell, where people were told to stay in their flats even when the fire became out of control
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⚠️ The London Fire Brigade has called for more research on the “stay put” strategy, but warned that abandoning it would present “considerable” challenges.

Most existing buildings in the UK are not designed for mass evacuations, with no common alarm systems and narrow staircases

The plans for Cuba Street include a staircase, two evacuation lifts, a fire fighting lift and sprinklers – while its external walls have non-combustible cladding
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🔴 The Fire Brigade, however, has criticised the scheme.

It argues the design “does not provide suitable and convenient means of escape for all building users”

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“Grenfell’s single staircase prevented our families from escaping and obstructed firefighters,” said Grenfell United, a group of survivors and families of the bereaved

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