Cladding spread $5m Melbourne apartment fire: report

Substandard cladding on a Melbourne apartment building helped spread a fire up 15 storeys and could lead to a class action.

The Alucobest cladding on the Lacrosse building in Docklands caught fire in November last year after a cigarette butt accidentally ignited the blaze on a sixth floor balcony.

CSIRO tests found the cladding didn't comply with combustibility requirements for a high-rise building and contributed to the spread of the fire to the 21st floor.

MFB chief officer Peter Rau said the $5 million fire was "challenging" because of the speed in which it spread from floor to floor.

Slater and Gordon lawyer Ben Hardwick said more than 100 owners and residents of the Lacrosse tower have registered their interest in a potential class action.

"The Building Code of Australia requires that building materials used as external walls must be non-combustible," Mr Hardwick said on Monday.

"Owners and residents of this building are rightly asking how an occupancy permit was ever issued for this building.

"They now face the prospect of not only having to deal with the aftermath of the fire, but will potentially be faced with costly rectification works to replace the external walls of the building or make them safe."

The MFB report called for designers and certifiers to use building products with up-to-date safety certificates.

It also called for greater regulation of occupancy rates of apartments, and the possibility of sprinklers on all covered balconies.