NEWS Grenfell building plans ‘could not be found’ during fire
AT THE inquiry into the fire in June 2017, a fire station manager stated that ‘vital’ plans for the tower were not able to be found in the lobby of the building. Evening Standard reported
on the resumption of the inquiry, with the government and London Fire Brigade asked to ‘lay out their actions’ since the fire to help inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick ‘decide whether to recommend urgent fire safety measures’. This comes after calls for Sir Martin to ‘consider urgent recommendations to ensure the safety of communities living in similar tower blocks’. Danny Friedman, representing
a group of bereaved residents and survivors, has also called for senior LFB witnesses to be asked ‘what knowledge they had of any deficiencies regarding policy, training and equipment’. In turn, he also called for these witnesses to be questioned ‘on what changes have already been put in place’ within LFB, and urged the inquiry to ‘consider moving back’ to the Millennium Gloucester Hotel from Holborn Bars. The Guardian also reported
on the testimony of Peter Johnson, Hammersmith station manager for LFB, who stated that detailed design information about the tower ‘could not be found’ on the night of the fire. Mr Johnson stated that the
information should have been kept in a fireproof box in the lobby of Grenfell Tower, and he claimed he had had ‘repeated conversations’ with a council official to obtain the plans on 14 June 2017, as it would have shown the building’s layout and locations of utilities including gas pipes, fire vents and dry rise points. He added that he ‘never saw’ the plans, and that their absence ‘endangered firefighters and residents’.
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The only information
available to crews was a photograph of the tower on mobile data terminals, which showed it before the cladding was added, and Mr Johnson had two phone conversations with the ‘unnamed’ council official, ‘but no plans appeared’. He added: ‘I do remember there were issues concerning the fire box, and the fire box not necessarily being fully stocked with what should be there. I believe that’s the information that we were passed on from the council: don’t worry about it, the plans are in the box.’
On being asked by lead counsel Richard Millett whether the lack of the plans affected search and rescue, he replied: ‘The plans themselves would have fed into the operational plan, it has a vital part and a vital role detailing fixed installations and detailing everything within the building. It would detail the pipeline of gas, of water, where electricity was – it was vital that we needed those plans. ‘I've not looked at the
detailed plans of Grenfell, but I do know there was extensive building work that went on and, if something had changed – if, as you went higher, there were different layouts of flats – that is something that would have
OCTOBER 2018
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definitely aided our crews. If we can’t isolate items, if we can’t operate smoke vents, if we can’t isolate dry risers where the doors are, that is potentially going to make the incident significantly worse.
‘If the incident is getting
significantly worse, that is going to affect our crews, it is going to make response times significantly greater and it is going to put them in greater danger and the individuals inside the property in greater danger.’ When the inquiry last
resumed, hearings focused on the ‘factual narrative’, including ‘existing fire safety and prevention measures’, ‘where and how the fire started’, the ‘development of the fire and smoke’, and how they ‘spread from its original seat to other parts of the building’. Two extra panel members were added, Prime Minister Theresa May changing her mind after ‘originally opposing’ appointing people with ‘the skills to examine the cultural and community reasons behind the fire’. Most recently, the inquiry began looking at the ‘factual narrative’ of the events, with expert witnesses describing the various safety failures in the tower and a ‘culture of non compliance’
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