Annotated Summary (Draft 1)
McKenna, S.T., Jones, N., Peck, G., Dickens, K., Pawelec, W., Oradei, S., Harris, S., Stec, A.A., & Hull, T.R. (2019). Fire behaviour of modern façade materials – Understanding the Grenfell Tower fire. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 368, 115-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.12.077 In the article, McKenna, Jones, Peck, Dickens, Pawelec, Oradei, Harris, Stec and Hull (2019) claimed that cladding panels used on the external walls of the Grenfell Tower in Kensington consist of the aluminum polyethylene composite material. Polyethylene aluminum composites showed “55 times greater heat release rates (PHRR) and 70 times greater total heat release (THR)” than the least flammable panels. A few drips from the burning polyethylene material is enough to ignite the foam insulation causing fast flame spreading to the other cladding panels. This research article emphasized that the polyethylene material used in the cladding panels on the exterior of Grenfell Tower was an important