U.K. government urges fire safety tests for 600 towers

The office of British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday said about 600 other buildings in England have similar cladding to the London Grenfell Tower that burned down last week, killing at least 79 people. Tests confirmed at least three tower blocks across the country are cladded with combustible panels, the office said. Fire safety officials are running tests on the aluminum composite material after suspecting it contributed to how quickly the Grenfell Tower burned. May called on other owners of high-rise buildings to submit samples for tests, saying the government can complete tests on 100 buildings in a day and have the results in hours. May endured criticism for the government’s poor response to survivors of the fire and on Wednesday apologized publicly for the “failure of the state.” Nicholas Holgate, a local administrator of the west London community, on Thursday resigned amid complaints about local authorities’ slow response to the fire’s aftermath.

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