I BATTLED TO STOP IT HAPPENING AGAIN ... NO ONE LISTENED
required to comply with building regulations that are supposed to guarantee compartmentalisation and fire protection. Regular fire safety risk assessments are required to be carried out and there should be fire brigade inspections that should spot breaches.
Sprinklers could be another factor. The Lakanal House coroner recommended that every local authority should install them in their tower block flats, but Eric Pickles, then minister for communities, failed to make this a legal requirement: he merely suggested it would be a good idea.
It baffles me that in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea – one of the richest areas on Earth, where properties can sell for many millions of pounds apiece – the local authority apparently could not afford to install a proper sprinkler system.
Our building regulations may also not be adequate. We should not be allowing combustible cladding that can spread fires. A promised government review of the regulations after Lakanal House did not happen – an indication of the lack of priority given to health and safety.
After the Lackanal House fire, there was a lack of urgency in investigating and calling to account those responsible. It was only in February this year that Southwark council was fined in a prosecution Kensington alone, never mind the rest of London, there are many more high-density blocks of flats farmed out by the local authorities to private management.
These management companies are carrying out public services for social housing tenants but want to make profits. Local authorities are allowed to farm out their responsibilities to them. In this situation, saving money can all too easily assume a higher priority than safety. It appears the resi- dents of Grenfell Tower were well aware that their building was a fire trap. There was an active action group that issued numerous warnings to the building’s private management company, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation.
ALLour warnings fell on deaf ears,’ the action group said yesterday. ‘ We predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time.’ Why were these residents not listened to?
Fire is a constant hazard in buildings like these. For a start, the tenants are often poor and cannot afford to get their electrical appliances regularly overhauled. Initial reports suggest yesterday’s fire started with a faulty fridge. And it is increasingly common for there to be fire risks even with new appliances. In more than one instance recently, tumble-driers have been recalled because of inbuilt faults.
People need to be armed with much better information and encouraged to carry out checks for themselves. There need to be fire safety drills, as there are in offices, and more information about fire safety given out.
This fire should never have happened, if earlier lessons had been learnt. We fought so hard to prevent this from happening again. It seems the authorities did not hear.
Until they listen, more people will die in needless blazes. It seems unthinkable. But the unthinkable has already happened.