New, fast methods of construction to offset the shortage of housing, and energy efficiency measures such as wall cladding, require a rethink of building regulations, public safety institute NIPV and the fire brigade said on Monday. 

If the risks are not properly analysed, when so much is being done and so quickly, there is a real risk that people could die, the NIPV said in a new report. “In particular, vulnerable people run risks in this sort of housing,’ fire expert Lieuwe de Witte told the AD. “And we won’t solve this with more fire officers”. 

Prefab housing, seen as one way to beat the shortage of homes may meet existing regulations but the rules are no longer fit for purpose, the NIPV says.

 “We are being confronted by different sorts of fire,” fire chief Hans Zuiddijk said. “A fire used to be largely confined to the home in which it started, but we are now seeing fires which affect more housing.”

Energy efficiency measures, such as wall cladding and better insulated windows increase the pressure during a fire, making it more likely to spread. Heat pumps and solar panels also pose risks that need to be assessed the NIPV says. 

It analysed three major fires which took place last year. In Amsterdam, a fire in a converted office complex, which had been given three new storeys, progressed from the seventh floor to the roof and then to other apartments inside the complex and 150 people lost their homes. 

Another Amsterdam fire, in a “container building” held together in a wooden construction, led to the entire complex being demolished while in Arnhem, a fire in an apartment block that had been made energy neutral and had solar panels was able to spread easily. 

“The regulations are based on tradition and that is a tradition dating from another way of building,” said De Witte. ‘The building regulations are now outdated in many ways.”