Around the world, many buildings continue to operate with cladding made from unsafe and combustible materials, which poses a significant and well-documented safety risk. When cladding ignites, or when a small spark makes contact, the exterior of the building can act as a vertical highway for the flames, allowing fire to spread rapidly between levels. These fires are often fast-moving, difficult to contain, and extremely dangerous. They can often block evacuation routes, cause burning debris to fall or be blown across surrounding areas, inflict severe structural damage, and in the worst cases cause serious injury or death to building occupants or people nearby.
Combustible cladding is found on a wide range of buildings, including residential developments. This is particularly concerning because such buildings are occupied around the clock, placing large numbers of residents at risk. In recent years, major incidents in the United Kingdom, Dubai, and China, most recently, have demonstrated just how quickly facade fires can escalate and how devastating the consequences can be.
Despite the seriousness of the issue, action has been slow. Many at-risk buildings have not yet begun remediation because the removal and replacement of combustible cladding is a lengthy, complex, and extremely expensive process. It can cost millions of dollars to rebuild the exterior of a single high-rise structure. As a result, many buildings remain exposed, with owners unable to fund remediation and residents left living in unsafe conditions.
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This is where Blue IoT’s Combustible Cladding Monitoring System provides a practical interim safety solution. Our system uses solar-powered thermal and visual cameras installed across building facades, including in hard-to-reach or difficult-to-observe areas. These cameras operate continuously, ensuring the exterior of the building is monitored at all hours with no gaps.
Each device integrates directly with the building’s fire panel, allowing heat spikes, smoke, or visible flames to trigger immediate alerts. These alerts are automatically escalated to Blue IoT’s Network Operations Centre (NOC), which provides 24/7 human oversight. Trained analysts verify each alert in real time, ruling out false alarms and confirming genuine threats. When a fire is verified, our team promptly escalates the incident to the local fire authorities and on-site facility managers to ensure the fastest possible response. All camera feeds stream directly into Encompass Blue for ongoing analysis, incident archiving, and pattern detection, such as repeated false alarms or unusual temperature trends.
Our approach offers several key benefits. First, the exterior of a building is monitored continuously, reducing the likelihood that early signs of fire will go unnoticed. Second, thermal, visual, and smoke detection creates a robust multi-signal detection strategy that improves accuracy and early-stage identification of risk. Third, NOC oversight ensures that alerts are assessed immediately by trained personnel, providing rapid escalation even when issues are not visible to the naked eye. Fourth, early verification enables swift action from emergency services, which significantly limits structural damage and improves safety outcomes for occupants.
Finally, this monitoring solution has been recognized and accepted by insurance providers as a valid risk-mitigation measure for buildings with combustible cladding. This gives building owners a safe, more affordable option for managing facade risk, whether as a long-term measure or as an interim solution while broader remediation decisions are being considered. It ensures that at-risk buildings remain monitored, protected, and compliant regardless of whether facade replacement occurs. Overall, Blue IoT’s combustible cladding monitoring solution prioritises occupant safety, reduces risk, supports insurance compliance, and provides practical long-term safeguards for buildings seeking an effective and reliable way to manage cladding-related fire risks.
