Re: " (It is already mandatory for new build towers to have sprinklers.)"
"At least 3 (and probably more) things had to fail to turn a fridge fire (WTF makes a fridge catch fire?) into a RL reboot of "The Towering Inferno". :-("
1: Some of them are now using pentane as the refrigerant rather than HFC/CFCs (and of course the insulant burns, so leak + spark = trouble.)
2: The cladding. I was shocked to discover that anything over than rockwool/glass fibre and metal sheeting was regarded as ok in the UK.
3: A _GAS LINE_ installed in the emergency escape stairwell instead of the service risers - yes, that's right, the last place you want anything that might burn and neither the building or fire inspectors picked up on it - that's quite apart from planning permission being given to fit it and the installers not thinking "hang on, this is a fire escape". The planned response was to box it in, but even that's not acceptable given that such boxing is usually wooden and not exactly gas tight.
4: Alarms not working
5: Firestopping and fire doors compromised over the years due to poor maintenance.
6: Dry risers not working when actually needed (when were they last tested?)
7: People told to stay in their flats in case of fire because the original design was to have each flat as a fire-resistant cell - by the time it was obvious they had to get out, that gas line mentioned in 3 had ruptured, ignited and cut off the only way out.
8: And that's quite apart from any non-spec shortcuts which might have been taken during the renovations. If the cladding had been correctly firestopped it shouldn't have acted as a chimney. Cowboys abound.
There had been a number of flat fires in that building prior to the cladding + renovations and the building with its bare concrete halls and walls might have been ugly but it did exactly as designed, containing fires to the areas where they started.
Residents warned that the renovations might have prettified the building but compromised the fire isolation, along with roading changes making it hard for the fire brigade to get access (compounded by lack of fire lane enforcement - 2013 photos show skips obstructing fire engine accesways). The council's response was to sic lawyers on them to shut those (now dead) residents up.
A few people need to face significant jail time for the gas line alone. This isn't aviation and even a bunch of deaths won't stop cowboys repeating the same tactic unless they risk major personal consequences for playing roulette with people's lives.