Blaze tragedy at Grenfell Tower should ring alarm bells for all of us
Make sure your family stays safe by installing smoke and carbon monoxide warning devices, says Lesley Mcleod
Ihad been going to talk about something totally different but no organisation dedicated to risk management in construction can ignore the catastrophic fire in the Grenfell tower block.
We all recoil at the infernal loss of life. As a nation we are all immeasurably indebted to the fire fighters, the first responders and all their other blue-light colleagues who both risked their own lives and worked tirelessly to save others. We watch. We mourn. We donate. But nothing can take away the horror or the grief of those who have lost loved ones and seen their homes literally go up in smoke.
Time may diminish the shock. But shock gives way to anger and a terrible fear that human life, particularly those of the poor and the powerless, was valued less than a rich man’s view or skinning a few thousand off the cost of more flame-retardant cladding.
The first priority must be the care of survivors: get them housed, provisioned, settled. But we all need to know if the fire was human error – or greed; regulatory failure – or legislative inertia.
What is certain is that fire safety has never been seen as a sexy government portfolio. It gets the most lowly ministers. The policy is a parliamentary parlour game, hokey-cokeying in and out of the Home Office. Wandering Whitehall to the beat of ministerial musical chairs. Shunted, in some cynical round of permanent secretary pass-the-parcel from one department to another. Gathering up from each successive ministry - like so many twigs in a dirty snowball - its deadwood civil servants. The clever ones are generally new and get out quick.
Policy relating to fire and fire safety has been at the Home Office, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and Department for Communities and Local Government in the term of the last four prime ministers. Is it any wonder nothing gets done?
Add to that a public inquiry – though necessary – and the sand in the hourglass just trickles away.
Public inquiries hardly have a reputation for speed – or much followthrough activity either. What we need is something that moves at more than geological pace. People living in highrises cannot afford to wait for judges, and lawyers and Munros of paperwork. There must be no delay or legislative hold up.
But, even with the best will in the world and a following wind, public inquiries and parliamentary procedure takes time. And no one can know if that’s time we’ve got.
Thankfully major fires are not common but fire still claims many people’s lives. So, instead of waiting for the big stuff, there are little things we can all do now.
Don’t leave candles or naked flames unattended. Avoid the post-pub cigarette in case you drop off and set the sofa alight. More people die from smoke inhalation than fire itself, so have appliances checked. Carbon monoxide kills but it is invisible, insidious and creeping, which is why all gas and solid fuel fires need regular checks.
Install smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms. Despite the irritating bleeping as the battery wears out, or going off when you burn the toast, keep them working – otherwise they’re just more plastic junk. And I’m going to disagree with building guidance on CO alarms and suggest you install them at breath-height. That’s just over a metre high. It’s quite beyond me why the current building guidance says to put CO alarms on the ceiling as the gas is heavier than air and I’d have thought that would be too late by the time it goes off.
Even if you are in rented accommodation don’t wait for your landlord to act. It may be his responsibility but, if North Kensington has taught us anything, it is clear how hard it can be to make your voice heard over the rattle of cash.
As the first pictures of the inferno were hitting the screens I found myself caught between self-accusations of simultaneous prescience and prurience.
It was pure coincidence but, quite
literally at the moment the news broke, the Association for Project Safety was about to launch its autumn training programme majoring on fire safety.
It seemed insensitive to use the fire to promote the course – but absolutely the right thing to do. So, the Association for Project Safety is going to carry on with our next fire safety course. It is the least we can do today. But there will be more we all need to do when the smoke finally clears. Lesley Mcleod, Association for Project Safety.