The Cathedral Place fire broke out in a fifth-floor unit in H Block on June 9, 2013, triggering the evacuation of more than 1200 people, mostly foreign students and young professionals.

The damage bill ran to almost $9 million.

Cathedral Place opened in 1999 on the block of land fronted by Ann, Gipps, Gotha and Wickham streets.

It was one of the first of the new-generation apartment complexes, bridging the Brisbane CBD and Fortitude Valley, on the block of land originally set aside for a Catholic cathedral.

Now, almost two years after the 2013 fire, a formal fire non-compliance letter from the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services is being circulated to the more than 514 unit owners.

In part, the March 24 ,2015 letter addressed to Archers Body Corporate Management, says: "You have failed to maintain to a standard of safety and reliability a prescribed fire safety installation, namely the 'Penetration through Fire-Rated Construction'."

That formal advice refers to a Cathedral Place fire safety audit report prepared by Stacy Kennedy, completed in June 2014.

That report – seen by Fairfax Media, but unseen by many unit owners – shows major issues of fire "non-compliance" in the eight unit blocks in Cathedral Place.

Resident Todd Raumer said the report shows major fire safety problems, which were slowly being rectified.

"The balconies – only on the top floors - were plasterboard and they were not fire-rated sheets like they were supposed to be," he said.

The report identifies numerous areas of non-compliance in all blocks, each with varying extents occurring between them.

"(These) include balcony ceilings, joints between walls and ceilings, joints between columns and concrete block masonry, electrical cable penetrations, all of which do not provide the required containment protection in accordance with BCA (Building Code of Australia) requirements," it says.

In chapter 12 of the Kennedy report, fire non-compliance issues are broken down in great detail and reveal the fire safety problems in Cathedral Place's blocks A through G.

Restoration work has been completed in tower block H, where the fire started in 2013.

The Kennedy report says the buildings are "relatively dangerous" and do not meet "life safety" standards, and urges rectification works begin as soon as possible.

"It is therefore considered that the buildings are relatively dangerous in terms of life safety and property protection and that measures be taken to remedy the situation," the report says on page 57.

On Thursday morning Brisbane's lord mayor Graham Quirk said he had asked for the files leading to the 1999 approval of the Cathedral Place building to be reviewed immediately.

"We will be investigating the matter to see if there were any in-appropriate approvals in relation to that site," Cr Quirk said.

"We haven't at this stage had the opportunity to go through those files. As you can imagine – 1999 – those files are archived," he said.

Cr Quirk said until a full investigation was finished into the fire safety compliance raised by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services he could not make more detailed comments.

However he said the Cathedral Place body corporate organisations could face fines if they have not managed the properties properly.

"It comes down to whether there is a case of negligence," Cr Quirk said.

"If that is the case they could be in trouble in terms of the law," he said.

"Body corporates, like any other entity, have an obligation to observe the law, particularly on laws around fire safety."

Cr Quirk said he was confident – at this stage – that Brisbane City Council had not signed off – as the certifier – on building works that did not meet "fire safety compliance".

"Well yes I am, and things have changed quite considerably over those years," he said.

Cr Quirk said private certifiers now played a larger role in Council's building approvals and there was "closer interaction" with fire services as well.

"The legislation has tightened over that time as well, so I am quite confident that we are not going to see repeats of what has occurred."

"But I do want to go in – find the circumstances leading to the approval in 1999 and do see if there are any other learnings that Council can adopt to make sure we don't see a repeat of that."

The June 2004, 59-page Kennedy report itemises these problems;

• Balcony ceilings not being lined with a ceiling that gives a resistance to fire of not less than 60 minutes;
• No fire resistant caulking where external wall bulkheads meet balconies; and
• Ceiling fittings not having fire-resistant protection.

Many of these same fire-safety problems were first identified in August 2013 by Mark Catchpole, from Catchpole Building Services, when he first inspected G and H Blocks.

His report for Carter Newell Lawyers in Fortitude Valley summarises the problem with upper-story units.

"Ceilings to patio areas to the upper storey units are not fire-rated with an incipient spread ceiling, as required by the BCA, to protect the loadbearing roof trusses from the spread of fire," it says.

More detailed studies – the Kennedy Report - were then urgently requested.

This month emergency meetings of the six body corporate groups managing the 500 units have been held to approve the expensive rectification works at their expense.

Mr Raumer said the report showed people's lives were at risk and that owners were worried at the costs they faced.

"It's wow that people's lives are at risk, and it's wow that people's futures are at risk, the investors – the mums and dads that have worked all their lives – and have four or five investment units and can lose everything."

The building's insurers, Strata Unit Underwriters, declined to comment on whether they were considering suing council to cover the $9 million in losses for originally certifying the work in 1999.

Teeryn Moregam from SUU confirmed they were insurers of the property at the time of the fire and that they continued to act as the property insurers.

"However I cannot provide any of the policy details," she said.

A council spokesperson said the issue would be urgently investigated in detail on Thursday morning.

Neither Grant Mifsud and Wayne Hewitt from Archer's Strata Professionals – the body corporate company managing the Cathedral Place site – returned calls from Fairfax Media on Wednesday night.

It is understood they may have been at unit owner meetings.