The Irish multinational Kingspan’s Kooltherm K15 insulation boards has been fitted on thousands of buildings, but back in October 2008 a British engineer questioned its safety for taller blocks. Having researched K15, the employee at Wintech, a specialist in tower-block facades, feared that it was not the same Kingspan product that had passed fire-safety tests three years earlier. Kingspan knew Wintech was right, but insisted the insulation was suitable for buildings over 18 metres and said it was already present in more than 200 towers in the UK. The same product was used seven years later in the redevelopment of the 24-storey Grenfell tower in London, which was gutted by fire in 2017, killing 72 people. Kingspan chief Murtagh cashed in shares before the inquiry into the fire at Grenfell Tower BRYAN MEADEThe first phase of an ongoing inquiry into why

Source: The Times December 06, 2020 00:11 UTC