Grenfell Inquiry: London Fire Brigade’s Water ‘Could Have Reached Top Floor’

London fire brigade did not know how to properly deploy water equipment that could have doused flames all the way to the top of Grenfell tower and potentially saved lives. In what a lawyer for bereaved people and survivors said was “an extraordinary possibility to have to contemplate four years after the fire”, an expert witness has found that water from a ground monitor – a nozzle on a fixed base – beside the tower was capable of reaching the 15th floor and that all the available aerial pumps were capable of launching water to the top of the building. But neither happened “because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the technical features of water supply,” said Danny Friedman QC. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/20/grenfell-inquiry-hears-london-fire-brigade-water-could-have-reached-top-floor 

LFB ‘Closed-Minded And Parochial’ Before Grenfell

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) was “unacceptably closed-minded”, “isolationist” and “parochial” in the years before the Grenfell Tower fire and was beset by a culture that left it unable to cope with an emergency “beyond the normal or standard fire”, lawyers acting for bereaved and survivors said. The claim came as the Grenfell Tower Inquiry heard opening statements for the section of its investigation focusing on the LFB’s actions in the years before the blaze. Speaking for one group, Danny Friedman QC said that the blaze saw the brigade face “the limits of its competence”. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/lfb-closed-minded-and-parochial-before-grenfell-and-unable-to-cope-with-emergency-beyond-normal-fire-lawyers-for-community-say-72584?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60 

Grenfell Landlord Boss Told Colleagues To Ignore Resident’s Warning

The chief executive of Grenfell Tower’s landlord body told colleagues to ignore a resident who warned eight months before the fire that “only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord”. Robert Black, who led the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, told a colleague with responsibility for fire safety “we should do nothing” after Ed Daffarn, a 16th-floor resident, posted on a blog in November 2016 a prediction that: “Only an incident that results in serious loss of life ... will shine a light on the practices that characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation.” Read more on the Guardian website.

Grenfell landlord boss told colleagues to ignore resident’s warning | Grenfell Tower inquiry | The Guardian 

KCTMO Chief Executive ‘Bullied’ Grenfell Councillor Out Of Meeting

Judith Blakeman, an opposition councillor whose Notting Dale ward covers Grenfell Tower, described how she was thrown out of the meeting of the council’s Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee (HSPC), of which she was a member. Held on 11 May 2016 – just over a year before the deadly fire – the behind-closed-doors meeting was due to consider an internal review of the Grenfell Tower project produced by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO). Ms Blakeman emailed fellow members of the HSPC outlining her concerns about the review, including questions over the small number of resident complaints it reported. Read more on Inside Housing.

Inside Housing - News - KCTMO chief executive ‘bullied’ Grenfell councillor out of meeting, inquiry hears

Grenfell Tower Landlord ‘Blocked Staff Access To Residents’ Blog’

Grenfell Tower’s landlord blocked staff computers from accessing a residents’ blog which raised concerns about the building’s refurbishment and warned of a potentially disastrous fire, the inquiry into the 14 June 2017 blaze has heard. The Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) considered the Grenfell Action Group blog “scaremongering and potentially frightening to the residents”. It blocked access to it on its servers so staff working on the project could not view posts from around 2013 onwards. Read more on the Guardian website.

Grenfell Tower landlord ‘blocked staff access to residents’ blog’ | Grenfell Tower inquiry | The Guardian

Manufacturer Changed Grenfell Cladding Without Alerting Certifier

 The supplier of the ACM cladding used on Grenfell Tower changed the composition of one of its products without informing a UK certifying body, the inquiry has heard. Arconic added chemicals to the combustible plastic core of its Reynobond PE panels to change the colour from translucent to black but did not formally update certifier the British Board of Agreement (BBA) about the change. Former BBA deputy chief executive Brian Moore said that he first learned of the alteration when he was told by BBC journalist Tom Symonds in January 2018, seven months after the Grenfell fire. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/manufacturer-changed-grenfell-cladding-without-alerting-certifier-inquiry-hears/5111000.article

Grenfell Cladding Firm A ‘Significant Source Of Revenue’ For BRE

The BRE received a “significant source of revenue” by producing desktop studies for combustible Kingspan insulation used on Grenfell Tower, the inquiry has heard. Tom Lennon, a consultant at BRE, a testing body, claimed the studies could be a “huge source of income” for the BRE in a 2015 email. Desktop studies, allowed under the pre-Grenfell building regulations system, used the results of actual full-scale fire tests on cladding systems to model variations to those specific materials tested, in order to calculate fire performance. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/grenfell-cladding-firm-a-significant-source-of-revenue-for-bre-inquiry-told/5110709.article 

Manager Warned Cladding Firm To ‘Urgently’ Improve Safety Years Before Grenfell Fire

A manager at the manufacturer that sold combustible ACM panels to be used on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment warned colleagues two years before the fatal fire that the cladding was dangerous and a safer version should be sold instead. Arconic technical manager Claude Wehrle’s warning came shortly after the firm’s US parent company had sought an assessment of the Reynobond PE panels produced in France and sold into the UK market. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/manager-warned-cladding-firm-to-urgently-improve-safety-years-before-grenfell-fire/5110570.article 

Grenfell Cladding Firm President Accepts Staff ‘Lied’ And ‘Misled’ Customers

The president of the French firm which sold the cladding panels used on Grenfell Tower has accepted that its staff “misled” and “lied” to customers, as he was grilled about a series of internal emails which showed it hiding serious test failures from the market. The inquiry has already heard that testing from 2005 showed the panels obtained a reasonably high ‘Euroclass B’ rating when fixed to a wall with rivets, but burned 10 times as fiercely and failed “spectacularly” when bent into ‘cassette’ shapes and hung from the wall on rails. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/grenfell-cladding-firm-president-accepts-staff-lied-and-misled-customers-about-fire-performance-69625?utm_source=Ocean%20Media%20Group&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12182125_IH-DAILY-19-2-2021-GR&dm_i=1HH2,793SD,8CKJV9,TEFT6,1 

Grenfell Cladding Boss Denies ‘Deliberate Concealment’ Of Test Results

The president of Arconic has denied that it was “deliberate concealment” not to tell British regulators that its cladding product had burned in a test, the Grenfell inquiry has heard. Claude Schmidt said that the British Board of Agrément (BBA) “could have found out” about the test results of its Reynobond PE cassettes, which were installed as part of Grenfell Tower’s refurbishment. In 2005, the firm had tested two versions of its Reynobond PE cladding. The first had been on a riveted form of the product, which had resulted in a Euroclass B rating, allowing it to be used on the external walls of high rise buildings. The second was on a folded version which had “performed disastrously”, releasing seven times more heat and three times as much smoke than the riveted version. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/grenfell-cladding-boss-denies-deliberate-concealment-of-test-results/5110507.article

New Regulator To Monitor Safety Of Construction Materials

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has announced the establishment of a national regulator to guarantee that materials used to construct homes would be made safer. The construction products regulator will have the power to remove products from the market if they present a “significant safety risk” – and to prosecute companies that don’t follow the rules on product safety. The regulator will be empowered to conduct its own product-testing when investigating concerns. The government explained that establishing the regulator follows testimony at the Grenfell Inquiry which had highlighted “dishonest practices” carried out by some construction material manufacturers, such as altering the results of safety tests. Read more on the Planning Portal.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/news/article/752/planning_news_-_28_january_2021?utm_source=PPQ+Newsletter&utm_campaign=346494a346-Newsletter_11072019_HTML_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_734e0b63a9-346494a346-7266185#one 

Grenfell Cladding Firm President Agrees To Give Evidence At Inquiry

A senior executive at the firm that made the combustible cladding used on Grenfell Tower has agreed to give evidence to the public inquiry after refusing to do so for the last seven months. Claude Schmidt, the president of Arconic Architectural Products, the French company that supplied the plastic-filled panels that were the main cause of fire spread, was one of several witnesses wanted for questioning by the inquiry into the disaster who had refused, citing an arcane French law. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/27/grenfell-cladding-firm-president-claude-schmidt-agrees-to-give-evidence-at-inquiry

'Step Up' And Face Grenfell Inquiry, Minister Tells Cladding Firm Bosses

The UK government has demanded that executives who supplied combustible cladding to Grenfell Tower “step up to the plate” after their refusal to give evidence to the public inquiry into the disaster provoked anger among the bereaved and survivors. Stephen Greenhalgh, the building safety minister, escalated a legal and diplomatic dispute over the position taken by three current and former executives at the French division of the US company Arconic. He told them to stop hiding behind an arcane French law. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/03/step-up-and-face-grenfell-inquiry-minister-tells-cladding-firm-bosses-arconic

Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Government Ministers Called To Give Evidence

Government ministers have been called to give evidence to the Grenfell Tower public inquiry in a move that means senior politicians could be cross-examined about their actions in the run-up to the disaster and its aftermath. Key figures have already been asked to provide written statements and some will face detailed questioning in public. The inquiry has not yet decided which politicians will be asked to give evidence in person. Theresa May was prime minister at the time of the fire that killed 72 people. Others who may be called include the former housing minister Gavin Barwell and the former communities secretary Eric Pickles, both now Conservative peers. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/29/grenfell-tower-inquiry-government-ministers-called-to-give-evidence

Government Watered Down Implementation Of Grenfell Recommendations

The government proposed watering down key recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry, including those relating to the evacuation of disabled people, after an industry lobbying group described them as costly and impractical. Minutes of a meeting held behind closed doors in April show fire and housing sector lobbyists describing evacuation plans for people with disabilties as “totally impracticable” and advising that they should continue to rely on ‘stay put’ advice if there was a fire. The meeting also advised against introducing manual fire alarms for existing high-rises, as doing so was “not cheap”. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/government-limited-grenfell-inquiry-recommendations-for-disabled-people-after-push-from-industry-lobbyists-documents-reveal-69036?utm_source=Ocean%20Media%20Group&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12055886_IH-DAILY-18-12-2020-GR&dm_i=1HH2,76EDQ,8CKJV9,T2NW7,1

Kingspan Manager Belligerent Over Fire Concerns In 2008, Grenfell Inquiry Hears

A senior executive at Kingspan, which made combustible insulation used on Grenfell Tower, said a builder who questioned its product’s fire safety should “go f*ck themselves”, – the public inquiry into the fire has heard. Philip Heath, a technical manager at the company, also said of a contractor trying to check what turned out to be misleading claims about the safety of its foam boards: “If they are not careful, we’ll sue the arse off them.” He also told friends that builders asking questions were mistaking him for “someone who gives a dam [sic]”. The angry responses to the questioning of the material’s safety emerged in emails from 2008 shown to the inquiry. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/30/kingspan-manager-belligerent-over-fire-concerns-in-2008-grenfell-inquiry-hears

Cladding Firm ‘In The Know’ About ‘Dangerous’ Material Used On Grenfell

Senior staff at the firm which manufactured the cladding panels used on Grenfell Tower admitted to being “in the know” about the risk in internal emails which also branded discussion of their fire performance “VERY CONFIDENTIAL!!!!!”, the inquiry has heard. Shocking internal emails discussed by lawyers representing victims of the fire and Rydon, the main contractor on the tower’s refurbishment, appear to show that Arconic was aware of the perils of its Reynobond PE product long before the fire. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/cladding-firm-in-the-know-about-dangerous-material-used-on-grenfell-emails-show-68511?utm_source=Ocean%20Media%20Group&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11963928_IH-DAILY-10-11-2020-GR&dm_i=1HH2,74FFC,8CKJV9,ST641,1 

KCTMO Director Claims He Was Never Told To Hand Over Grenfell Notebooks

A key witness in the Grenfell Inquiry who submitted personal notebooks as evidence just two weeks ago has claimed that he was never advised to hand them over at an earlier stage. it was revealed that Peter Maddison, former director of assets at Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), had submitted personal notebooks to the inquiry covering the period between January 2013 and May 2017, more than three years after the fire. Questioned on why he had not submitted the notebooks earlier, Mr Maddison said that he had told KCTMO’s legal advisors, Kennedys, that he had a number of books in his possession but was not advised to hand them over. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/kctmo-director-claims-he-was-never-told-to-hand-over-grenfell-refurbishment-notebooks-68332

Director At Grenfell Tower TMO Describes How Fatal Cladding Saved £800,000

A director at the landlord of Grenfell Tower has apologised for the “devastating” fire after he described his role overseeing hundreds of thousands of pounds in cost savings relating to combustible cladding installed on the council block. Peter Maddison, director of assets and regeneration at the Kensington and Chelsea tenants management organisation (TMO), was close to tears at the end of his testimony to the public inquiry into the tragedy when he said sorry. “Knowing what I know now there is no way we would ever have clad that building in anything that was flammable,” he said. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/26/director-at-grenfell-tower-tmo-describes-how-fatal-cladding-saved-800000

Police ‘Will Review’ Destruction And Withholding Of Grenfell Evidence By KCTMO

Police will consider whether a crime has been committed after a witness to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry admitted to binning records relating to the building’s refurbishment a year after the fire. Claire Williams, who was project manager for the Grenfell Tower refurbishment at Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), revealed at the witness stand that she had binned the notes despite being aware of the public inquiry and police investigation. She told the inquiry that she was “just clearing her desk”. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/police-will-review-destruction-and-withholding-of-grenfell-evidence-by-kctmo-68255#:~:text=Police%20'will%20review'%20destruction%20and%20withholding%20of%20Grenfell%20evidence%20by%20KCTMO,-News20%2F10&text=Police%20will%20consider%20whether%20a,a%20year%20after%20the%20fire