No-one can have watched the terrible
events unfolding in the early hours of Wednesday morning without
feeling the horror of what those poor innocent families have had to
endure. Our hearts go out to them and to the amazing Fire &
Rescue and ambulance services for many of whom this has been the
worst ever they have had to deal with.
My first impression, at 3am in the
morning, was of disbelief at how fast the fire had spread and taken
hold. The whole building was alight apart from a small section on one
side of the lower floors. How, in this day and age of strict building
regulations and health & safety rules could this
happen? Where were the sprinklers, fire doors, fire retardant floors
and ceilings and alternative emergency exits? Apparently, sprinklers
only need to be installed in new buildings and Grenfell Towers was
built in the 1970's. Surely, commonsense should have made it obvious that
this could potentially have saved lives!
According
to tv news reports the building had only recently undergone extensive
refurbishment and cladding had been added to the exterior to improve
the appearance of the building. The Independent Online reported that
this rainscreen cladding may have been partly responsible for the
fast spread of the fire, acting as a chimney and conduit enabling the
fire to creep up the outside of the building.
A few
years ago, when Theresa May's new Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell, was
housing minister, a series of damning reports had been sent to him after a coroner's investigation into the Lakanal House fire in 2009
had revealed that the cladding on the exterior of the building had
not had sufficient fireproofing, and he had promised to review
part B of the Building Regulations 2010, relating to fire resistance
and fire risk assessments. No action was taken. WHY?
According
to the website of Rydon, the contractors who installed the cladding
as part of an £8.6m upgrade, the improvements were intended to
"improve thermal insulation and modernise the exterior of the
building". There is no mention of improving fire safety.
Dr
Claire M Benson,
who is
a fire scientist in the Explosion
& Fire Research Group at London South Bank University has
outlined some areas of the fire safety recommendations included in
part B of the Building Regulations 2010 Act.
- Limiting igniton sources
- Limiting fire spread opportunities - so the fire should not be able to spread through a building quickly. Materials have fire ratings and should be chosen specifically to prevent this. If reports of rapid fire spread in Grenfell are correct many questions will be asked about the materials used, and air flow e.g. were there gaps between floors or in the skin causing a chimney type effect that funnelled the flames upwards?
- Enabling warning to building users as early as possible
Enabling safe and timely escape
Allowing emergency service access into to the building to rescue occupiers and fight the fire
In addition to the above, the Grenfell
Tower managers had maintained a "stay put" rule in the case
of a fire meaning that many residents had stayed in their flats
rather than attempting to vacate the building.
The Grenfell Resident's Asociation had
been complaining that safety concerns had been falling on “deaf
ears” having stated in 2016 that a serious fire in the tower
block with a catastrophic loss of life would be the only was they
could bring the management company to justice. They had also
complained that the fire alarms were not working properly and that
there had been power surges on previous occasions. Why was nothing
ever done about this?
It will probably be some time before
the authorities can complete their investigation into the cause of
the fire and make anyone accountable for it but in the meantime
consider the following:
The Tories, many of whom own multiple
properties themselves, have consistently voted down tenants’ rights
in the last few years, including a bill requiring that landlords
make their homes fit for habitation. In 2016, 72 of these Tory MPs voting
against the measure were landlords.
Grenfell is in the borough of
Kensington, which recently took the seat off the Tories in favour of
Labour. In addition, we now have 7,000 less firefighters than five
years ago due to the Tories austerity cuts and as a result fire
prevention visits to homes have been reduced by 25%.
So, if anyone is to blame for this
dreadful tragedy, surely the answer is glaringly obvious. Let's lay
these innocent victims of austerity to rest in peace first, but then
its time to speak out and say "No more! This ends NOW!!
