‘We all know the cladding will be gone rather quickly in a fire!’ ‘ ‘
Grenfell worker’s admission 2 years before blaze:
CONSTRUCTION chiefs who refurbished Grenfell Tower ‘openly acknowledged’ the cladding would burn quickly two years before the blaze.
They sent emails to each other in which they predicted a fire would spread rapidly up the outside of the building, the hearing into the tragedy was told yesterday.
Architects, builders and safety experts all agreed there was no point in fire-proofing the new cladding on the Grenfell block in west London, because it ‘ would be gone rather quickly’ in the event of a blaze.
The extraordinary emails suggest that the key firms responsible for the £9million refurbishment knew that the materials being fitted to the building were highly flammable. They were read out by Craig Orr to the second phase of the public inquiry into the 2017 disaster, which claimed 72 lives.
The QC said the companies were ‘openly acknowledging the cladding would fail in the event of a fire’.
He added: ‘ That’s tragically what happened on the night of June 14, 2017. This email exchange shows the risk that eventuated on that night was expressly foreseen.’
All the private firms involved in the disastrous refurbishment have refused to admit responsibility. They were
‘Metal cladding always... falls off’
There is no point in “fire stopping”. As we all know, ACM [cladding] will be gone rather quickly in a fire! Harley employee to Rydon boss Bailey Ray If flames are ejected from the windows, this would lead to failure of the cladding system, with the surface falling away Exova worker to fire safety chief Terry Ashton
Excellent. That looks positive Rydon contracts manager Simon Lawrence’s response to the cladding assessment
accused by Richard Millett QC, counsel to the inquiry, of a ‘merry-go-round of buck-passing’.
The emails were sent in March 2015 between main contractors Rydon, specialist cladding contractor Harley Facades, fire engineers Exova and architects Studio E.
Mr Orr, who represents Celotex, which made insulation materials used in the cladding system, read out the emails to refute claims made at the inquiry that the designers and contractors did not know the products they were using were flammable.
The first was sent by a Harley employee called Daniel Anketell-Jones to Rydon boss Ray Bailey.
It said: ‘ There is no point in “fire stopping”. As we all know, the ACM (aluminium composite material) will be gone rather quickly in a fire! The whole point is to stop unseen fire spreading in the cavity.’ ACM was the flammable component of the cladding.
Four days later Terry Ashton, the fire engineer who prepared the fire safety strategy for the building, emailed Neil Crawford, an architect for Studio E. He wrote: ‘It is difficult to see how a fire- stop would stay in place in the event of a fire where external flaming occurred as this would cause the zinc cladding to fail.’ Mr Crawford replied: ‘ This was my point as well. Metal cladding always burns and falls off.’ On the same day, Mr Ashton received an email from a colleague at Exova called Tony Pearson who wrote: ‘If significant flames are ejected from the windows, this would lead to failure of the cladding system, with the external surface falling away and exposing the cavity, eliminating the potential for unseen fire spread.’
This email was forwarded to Rydon contracts chief Simon Lawrence, along with a comment that fire barriers were widely seen as unnecessary. Mr Lawrence replied: ‘Excellent. That looks positive.’
Mr Orr told the hearing that the ‘absence of any investigation of the fire- safety risks’ of the cladding was ‘all the more striking’ given that the firms appeared to know the panels would fail.
Exova earlier said criticism of the firm was ‘unjustified’, because it was not consulted about the combustible materials.
The public inquiry, which is being held in Paddington, west London, continues.