{"id":821956,"date":"2026-11-02T18:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T18:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821956\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T18:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T18:24:11","slug":"hertfordshire-university-to-research-high-rise-fire-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821956\/","title":{"rendered":"Hertfordshire University to research high-rise fire safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A university and construction firm will analyse the &#8220;chimney effect&#8221; that contributed to the rapid spread of smoke and flames during the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The chimney effect is when hot gases, fire and smoke rise rapidly through vertical shafts in a building, spreading upwards, downwards and horizontally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The University of Hertfordshire said its scientists would work with Welwyn Garden City-based Ambar Kelly on &#8220;one of the construction industry&#8217;s most overlooked safety problems&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Alex Bardett, the managing director of the company, said the tragedy &#8220;led to the removal of combustible cladding, but riser shafts remain overlooked, despite their role in vertical fire spread&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/crz98wpqglkeo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">public inquiry<\/a> found the fire in June 2017 that killed 72 people was avoidable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In high-rise buildings, lift shafts, stairwells, service risers, cladding cavities and ductwork can act like chimneys if they are not properly sealed, maintained, compartmentalised and fire stopped, the university said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A university and construction firm will analyse the &#8220;chimney effect&#8221; that contributed to the rapid spread of smoke&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-821956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}