📣 Protests in India have grown sharply, and so has 👮 police intervention. We mapped demonstrations across the country, examined the rules for crowd control, and looked at the force now under scrutiny. reuters.com/graphics/INDIA-P…

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Better late than never! Here's our roundup of graphics & visual storytelling from us in 2025. Enjoy 💞! reuters.com/graphics/REUTERS…

The extremely flammable polyethylene in the panels quickly spreads the fire in all directions. The material melts into burning droplets that can also propagate the fire downward, trapping residents and firefighters between the smoke and the fire.

Because ACM polyethylene panels accelerate the spread of a fire along the exterior of buildings, fires can breach an apartment’s fire-safety perimeter from the outside, coming in through windows or balconies.

Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at Imperial College London, said the polyethylene presents an “unacceptable” risk in a fire because “it continues to burn even after the flame source is removed, generates toxic smoke and produces a large number of burning droplets.”

Polyethylene is a petroleum derivative. When it burns, it releases the same heat energy as gasoline. The polyethylene that wrapped the Valencia building is equivalent to covering it with the fire load of 18,000 litres of gasoline.

What appears to be a solid metal panel is actually a sandwich of two thin aluminium sheets bonded to a layer of polyethylene — a petroleum derivative that is like “solid gasoline,” according to David Higuera, an industrial engineering technician.

In Valencia, Spain, a fire in February engulfed an entire building in just two hours. Reuters consulted more than half a dozen experts who said the blaze was fuelled by the use of flammable materials in the cladding.

Our latest by @Mariano_Zafra and @sudev_kiyada explores why buildings are still wrapped in “solid gasoline” years after the London Grenfell Tower tragedy. Read the whole story: reuters.com/graphics/BUILDIN…