Motorola Knowledge Event Series 2015
The challenges of a multi-storey high rise residential fire - Proceedings

May 2015

Melbourne City Council has conceded it is powerless to stop unscrupulous landlords and tenants from creating the same slum-like housing conditions in the CBD's high-rises that contributed to the Docklands apartment tower blaze last year.

"This has been an issue that our firefighters have observed in other buildings and the recommendations we have made in the post-incident analysis to [the Lacrosse] fire are designed to address the public safety issue," MFB chief officer Peter Rau told The Sunday Age. 

The MFB report found the blaze took just 11 minutes to engulf one side of the 23-storey building after a discarded cigarette left on an eighth floor balcony set alight the cheap, fire-prone cladding used on the exterior of the Latrobe Street building.

Extract from The Sunday Age, May 3 2015.

With the support of Motorola Solutions, AFAC was pleased to offer a free professional development opportunity to members. During this seminar Deputy Chief Officer David Youssef of the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, VIC (MFB) explored the challenges of a multi-storey high rise residential fire based on learnings from a structure fire that occurred in Docklands, VIC. In addition to the operational learnings, the incident also raised a number of issues for ongoing consideration including overcrowding within the apartments and the performance of the building in limiting the spread of the fire in relation to the external balconies. As evidenced above, these issues have not only attracted attention from industry but also the media.