London’s Grenfell Tower fire forces Hogeschool Rotterdam to shut building

Rotterdam university of applied sciences has shut down the old part of its complex for prevention measures against fire accidents. Thursday and Friday's classes are canceled.

The post secondary school carried out an inspection on the cladding panels in response to the fatal fire at the Grenfell Tower in London last summer. And it resulted that the panels did not comply with applicable fire safety standards.   

In an interview with RTV Rijnmond the principal Ron Bormans explained: "We realize that this might be an unusual decision, but the safety of our students and workers is our priority", and adds: "the risk of fire and fire spreading was so high that I found it irresponsible to keep the building open".

In June last year 71 people lost their lives in a fire in London because the fire spread rapidly through the cladding panels on the outside The Rotterdam university of applied sciences therefore does not want to take any risk and will have the building inspected in the next days.

The classes will be moved to other safer premises. The shut down part of the complex is 30 years old and provides the space to 3500 students of the Rotterdam Business School.

The final results of the inspection are expected for next week Wednesday.