Cladding company has covered six other blocks in London
Fears are growing for hundreds of families living in tower blocks after it was revealed the firm which supplied the panels at the centre of the west London inferno has also carried out similar work across the capital.
Grenfell Tower was equipped with overcladding by East Sussex-based company Harley Facades Limited in a contract valued at £2.6 million.
It has since come to light that the firm has used a similar aluminium composite material (ACM) to clad several high rises and public buildings throughout the UK, raising fears for the safety of thousands of other residents.
Four 23-storey tower blocks in Camden, north London were refurbished with the cladding at a cost of £16million, as was Ferrier Point, a 23-storey block with 115 flats in Newham, east London, in 2015.
Six tower blocks in Harrow, northwest London, were given the rainproof cladding when it was refurbished in 2015 in a contract worth £3.5million, as was the 13-storey Merit House, home to 114 flats in Barnet, north London.
Ferrier Point (pictured left), a 23-storey block with 115 flats in Newham, east London, was clad in an aluminium composite material in 2015. Four 23-storey tower blocks in Camden, north London (pictured right) were refurbished with the cladding at a cost of £16million
Castlemaine Tower (pictured left), a 23-storey block in Battersea, south London, was clad and refurbished by the firm in 2014, as was Clements Court (right) in Hounslow, west London
Six tower blocks in Harrow, northwest London (left), were given the rainproof cladding when it was refurbished in 2015 in a contract worth £3.5million, as was the 13-storey Merit House (shown right), home to 114 flats in Barnet, north London
Raymond Bailey is the director of Harley Facades Limited which carried out cladding work on Grenfell Tower in a contract valued at £2.6 million - which later went bust
Castlemaine Tower, a 23-storey block in Battersea, south London, was clad and refurbished by the firm in 2014, as was Clements Court in Hounslow, west London.
The material is set to be at the centre of an investigation into fire safety after witnesses claimed it 'went up like a matchstick', helping spreading the fire from the fourth floor to the roof in just 15 minutes.
Harley Facade's boss Ray Bailey, said last night: ‘This is an incredibly tragic incident. Our thoughts are with the residents and their families who have suffered such a personal loss.'
The father-of-three, 58, added: ‘We will fully support and co-operate with the investigations into this fire. At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower.’
Grenfell Tower was clad last year as part of an £8.6million refurbishment by East Sussex-based builders Rydon, which said yesterday that its work ‘met all required building controls’.
It was made from metal panels and slabs of a polystyrene-like material, separated by a small cavity, fixed to the concrete surface of the outside of the tower.
Together with new windows, the cladding was meant to boost the building’s energy efficiency, protect against the weather and smarten up the look of the 1970s facade.
But it appears to provide a fatal conduit for the flames to leap from one flat to another, with witnesses saying the outside of the block ignited ‘like a firelighter’.
By mid morning, the plastic cladding could be seen charred and melted on the tower in west London
Cladding is a material attached to a building's frame to create an outer wall. The process of applying the rain-proof frontage can create a 25mm-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation behind it, shown between the first two layers
A brave firefighter is pictured inside the burnt remains of the 27-storey building, as efforts are made to investigate what caused the blaze
The material is set to be at the centre of an investigation into fire safety after witnesses claimed it 'went up like a matchstick', helping spreading the fire from the fourth floor to the roof in just 15 minutes
There are fears that hundreds of high-rise blocks across the UK are fitted with similar materials – even though MPs warned of the potential fire risk nearly 20 years ago.
Last night it also was suggested that council penny pinching and accepting the lowest bid was to blame for the blaze according to one former worker.
A woman who worked as a property manager for Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council for 20 years said the deadly blaze could have been prevented if the council had spent money upgrading it.
But Grenfell Tower, run by Tenant Management Organisation for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, was not modernised during the employee's two decades working in the property area of the authority.
Often fire alarms didn't work and a new external fire escape was not installed because it would cost too much, she said.
She claimed new cladding fitted to the outside of the building last year caused the blaze to rip through the block because substandard and cheap materials were used in an effort to save cash.
She said: 'They spent £1 million on cladding the outside of the building last year, and surveyors told the council not to use the cheapest possible materials, but they accepted the lowest possible bid.'
Many residents who gathered outside the smoldering ruins of the building said the fire had been caused by a faulty fridge in one of the flats, but the fire service told MailOnline it could not confirm the reports at this stage
Grenfell Tower before the refurbishment (left) in 2011 and with the new cladding (right)
The trapped, some of whom are still inside, were heard begging for their lives while waving white towels, torches and mobile phones
A drone inspects the top floors of the wrecked tower block, where residents on the highest storeys are all feared dead after being trapped in their homes and then engulfed
Design specifications seen by the Mail suggests Grenfell Tower had 150mm (6in) of Celotex RS5000 insulation and overcladding made from ACM with a 50mm (2in) 'ventilated cavity' in between.
ACM is also potentially highly flammable and rescuers yesterday faced the hazard of blazing metal panels raining down on them as they tried to enter the building.
Arnold Tarling, chartered surveyor and fire expert with property firm Hindwoods, said the air cavity could create a 'wind tunnel [that] traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building'.
Had there merely been one layer of insulation, this could have fallen off and fallen away from the building but the metal cladding meant it was all contained inside.
'Not all insulation used in the process is the more expensive non-flammable type,' he said. 'So basically you have got a cavity with a fire spreading behind it.'
Dr Kostas Tsavdaridis, associate professor of structural engineering at the University of Leeds said: 'The fire seems to have spread inside the building but also outside.
How the fire ripped through Grenfell Tower: At 2.05am, left, the blaze was restricted to one side of the building. By 2.35am, centre, it was spreading fast. And by 4.17am, right, the whole block was in flames
This aerial photo taken hours after the fire ripped through the tower block shows the devastating scale of the inferno
'Some materials used in facades act as significant fire loads: in most cases they are high-temperature resistant instead of fire resistant. But even if they are, smoke and fire will spread through the joints.'
Grenfell Tower was equipped with metal overcladding by Harley Facades Limited, another East Sussex-based firm.
The company, which installed but did not manufacture the panels, said they were a 'commonly used product'. Managing director Ray Bailey said: 'At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower.'
Celotex, which is based near Ipswich, said: 'Our records show a Celotex product (RS5000) was purchased for use in refurbishing the building. We will assist with enquiries from the relevant authorities.'
Plans for the externals works at Grenfell Tower were approved by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
In May 2016, council leader Nick Paget-Brown said: 'It is remarkable to see how the cladding has lifted the appearance of the tower and how the improvements inside people's homes will make a big difference to their lives.'