‘Grenfell cladding more flammable than a match in a barrel of petrol’
INQUIRY: WHO FACES THE BLAME?
THE lethal cladding on Grenfell Tower caused flames to erupt quicker than “dropping a match into a barrel of petrol”.
Stephanie Barwise QC also told the inquiry into the disaster that before the building was refurbished it was “virtually incombustible concrete”.
Kensington and Chelsea council, as well as the tower’s landlords – the tenant management organisation – and contractors have been slated over the revamp.
Danny Friedman QC told the hearing: “In the second decade of 21st century London, governed by a regulatory framework designed to ensure fire safety, a local authority instigated and oversaw the refurbishment of a social housing high-rise tower block in such a way as to render it a death trap.
“[The council] RBKC and the TMO did this, and they did so using public funds, paid to an array of professionals, contractors and sub-contractors, none of whom have yet accepted any responsibility for their part in what happened.
“Residents – some of the people commemorated last fortnight and some of the people here today – told them this could happen. But they were fobbed off.
RAGE
“Certainly not treated as equals, and denied access to the information that they could have used to save themselves or to save others.”
Mr Friedman, speaking on behalf of the bereaved and survivors, said they arrived at the inquiry in a “calm rage”.
He added: “In the end, the fire is an example writ large of how inequalities of political, legal and economic power, can end up killing people.”
Companies involved in the refurb were accused of increasing the “pain and uncertainty” of victims’ families by not fully engaging with the inquiry.
Ms Barwise told the hearing CEP, the sub-contractor which bought and fabricated the cladding panels, Harley Facades, which installed cladding, and architects Studio E all said they cannot yet participate. She added their silence was “inhumane”.
She also said the main contractor Rydon, which has claimed it was not responsible for decisions relating to the cladding, was being “disingenuous”. Ms Barwise said the cladding system had “patently” promoted rather than resisted the fire that killed 72 people. She added her team understands “the ignition of the polyethylene within the cladding panel produces a flaming reaction more quickly than dropping a match into a barrel of petrol”. Gaps in windows were plugged with a material derived from
crude oil, which she said produced “the perfect medium for flame spread at the edge of the window”.
Ms Barwise added: “The combination of this highly combustible material and omissions of cavity barriers amounts to a collection of catastrophic failures in construction safety.”
She said yesterday the polyethylene cladding is “openly described by some in the industry as petrol”.
Ms Barwise, also representing the bereaved and survivors, told the inquiry at Holborn Bars in Central London the danger of using polyethylene near materials such as UPVC window surrounds was “known certainly to government”.
Arconic, the firm that supplied the cladding panels, claimed they did not make the catastrophe inevitable.
In a statement to the inquiry, the company said the panels were just one element of an overall cladding system.
Sam Stein QC asked if the bosses’ claim its panels were only a “contributing factor” made them feel embarrassed. He added it was the decision by the Tory council, the TMO and its contractor “to try to refurbish on the cheap that led to this devastation”.
Mr Stein told the inquiry that Exova Warrington, the fire safety consultants used in the refurbishment, had advised there would be “no adverse impact” on the spread of fire by the refurbishment, which was completed in 2016.
He said Exova had not provided an opening statement to the inquiry, and insulation manufacturer Celotex had taken no responsibility for the tower in Kensington, West London, being clad in flammable material. Peter Weatherby QC said the council and the TMO blamed “defective regulations” and contractors for the fire last June.
He asked whether it could really be true it is “all someone else’s fault?”.
Jeremy Corbyn said yesterday the Government has failed families over the vow to rehouse them within a year.
The Labour leader told the Fire Brigades Union in Brighton, East Sussex: “Promises broken to Grenfell survivors are a national scandal.”