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Jersey's Fire Service is to review local safety standards following the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London which killed more than 79 people.
As part of the review, checks on the cladding around buildings will now be widened to include private developments as well as States housing.
Mark James, Jersey’s Chief Fire Officer, confirmed during a Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel yesterday that none of the Andium Properties have the same type of cladding used in Grenfell Tower. All properties have been inspected and cladding samples have been taken and analysed and none contained the aluminium composite cladding material that allowed the fire to spread.
He said: "We will be widening the scope to include other buildings who are not social housing, such as flats that have been built and private developments. We will also be reviewing our standards to ensure that everyone's safety is being preserved."
Mr James also assured the members of the Scrutiny Panel that Jersey is "entirely up to date with the National Fire Chief Council recommendations."
Pictured: High-rise social housing across St Helier and St Clements were inspected and no highly inflammable cladding was found. (Google Maps)
The Chief Fire Officer also faced concerns about the planned reduction of one job in fire prevention. He explained that the job in question focuses on the community fire safety education program and that the role will be transferred onto operational watches. Fire protection, which is the area that looks after the inspection program, won't be affected as Mr James assured, "We are not planning to reduce people in this team ."
Concerning a backlog in fire service certificates, with a reported 15-month-long wait for applications to be concluded, Mr James said that it resulted from a "large influx of applications for fire certifications which followed a change in the Fire Precautions legislation in 2013."
He explained: "We have been working hard for four years, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. The challenge is that, sometimes, we have building managers that have applied for 20 premises. We are still processing the initial big chunk from when we changed the law. We are looking into seeing if support can be pulled from the UK to try and manage the flow of work. I can confirm that none of the buildings awaiting certification are high-rise ones."
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