FOCUS
Different buildings
requirement in codes of practice or building regulations applicable to large concrete panel systems. Yet the forces generated by high winds, gravity, or the structural movements caused by a fire, were exactly the same regardless of the form of construction. Progressive collapse was something known about by engineers building Victorian railway viaducts and going right back to Roman aqueducts. It was calculated after Ronan Point that there was a 2% risk of a gas explosion causing structural damage during the lifetime of the block. There were nine identical blocks including Ronan Point in Canning Town.
What’s changed?
Just over a year has passed since the nightmare of Grenfell Tower, but little has changed since the fire at Lakanal House, nine years ago, which killed three young women, two toddlers and a 20-day-old baby. I persuaded Mr Fairweather in 1968 to
give evidence at the Ronan Point inquiry. He sent his submission to the Treasury solicitor, who made it plain that he did not want him to give evidence. The week before he appeared, it was announced the inquiry would not hear any evidence on fire. At the Lakanal House Inquest, it was announced at the final pre-inquest hearing that no evidence was to be heard on the firefighter’s lift being out of order on the day of the fire. This was the first time the legal team representing the
20 JULY/AUGUST 2018
www.frmjournal.com
families of the deceased knew of this. Ronnie King and I were part of that team. Then five days before the inquest started, the remaining part of s20, which covered the firefighter’s lift, was repealed. Within days of the Grenfell fire, a small
group of tenants on the TWA Ledbury Estate went public. They had grown tired of being ignored by Southwark after pointing out internal gaps in the 14 storey structure where they could see into other tenants’ flats. Minister Sajid Javid instructed Dame Judith Hackitt to change her terms of reference. The 224 flats had an illegal piped mains gas supply. Southwark, backed by Arup, said it was safe. Finally, as we suggested, they checked the H2 joint. They turned the gas off a month later. The Ledbury Estate is not the only TWA estate like this. All the many flats in the seven storey TWA blocks at Broadwater Farm have piped gas, as does the Lethbridge Estate in Lewisham. There are three, 19 storey Bison blocks in Islington with gas. Four years after the Ronan Point fire test, the BRE issued Information Paper IP21/88: Thermal bowing in a fire and how it affects building design in December 1988. In 1983, I had found gaps at skirting and ceiling level in Ronan Point caused by thermal bowing from the sun. These gaps linked flats. David Adler, the chief structural engineer of Hammersmith and Fulham, found them in two TWA blocks – Lannoy and Hartopp Points – and I also found them in Morris Walk, Broadwater Farm and the Ocean Estate. They were a design fault in TWA and many
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
