The devastating Grenfell Tower fire in London on 14 June 2017, in which 79 people have lost their lives, has rekindled the insulation discussion in Germany. EPS insulation materials, already given hard time, have also been targeted, even though German rigid foams manufacturers association Industrieverband Hartschaum (IVH, Heidelberg; www.ivh.de) had already emphasised two days after the misfortune that the thermal insulation material used in Grenfell Tower was not EPS.

Rather, PIR insulation panels with laminated aluminium foil were used in the high-rise. Celotex (Ipswich / UK; www.celotex.co.uk), a unit of French building material company Saint-Gobain (Paris; www.saint-gobain.com), has since announced that its "RS5000" product will no longer be used for applications in buildings over 18 m high. RS5000 is the thermal insulation panel of a rain shelter system found in the building's cladding material – in the case of Grenfell Tower, it was made of aluminium composite panels with a PE core.

According to Celotex, the insulation panels meet the British standards for fire propagation (BS 476) and for fire performance of external cladding systems (BS 8414-2) as well as the fire protection criteria for external thermal insulation in walls of multi-storey buildings (BR 135). However, Scotland Yard have in the meantime confirmed that the building cladding and insulation had failed safety tests. The investigators could consider, therefore, an accusation of criminal negligence.

Investigations into the London high-rise fire are ongoing. A defective fridge-freezer in one flat was identified as the reason for the fire, which within only 15 minutes jumped from the 4th to the 24th floor. In the meantime, British authorities have ordered the evacuation of several other high-rise buildings in London.