A 2013 report shows negligence to blame for Grenfell Fire

Causes into the horrific Grenfell fire will be well under way after 12 lives were lost while 66 others were injured at the Grenfell Tower in Kensington, London in the United Kingdom as it still remained unclear what caused the fire. But, a re-look at a report from 2012 suggests there were warning signs of a potential fire which was ignored.

The Grenfell Action Group which was formed in 2010 to oppose the Kensington Academy and Leisure Centre development released a report in 2013 stating that monthly occupier inspections were not being carried out on the Grenfell Tower building which could lead to a fire later.

According to the report, the concerns raised at the time were serious enough to be sent to a number of senior officials. These included, among others, Siobhan Rumble, senior figures at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and the Director of Housing and the Cabinet Member for Housing, among others, whom all did not adequately respond to the concerns raised.

Yesterday, London mayor Sadiq Khan seemed to buttress this 2013 report when he issued a statement later on that he had raised the issue of checks on other tower blocks which have been going through similar refurbishment programmes to Grenfell House.

“And I welcome that ministers have said checks will now be carried out,” he said.

But, while Khan comments have been welcomed concerns over maintenance issues concerning the Grenfell Tower Building were already raised by the Grenfell Action Group 2013 report that went largely unnoticed.

In fact, the action group described it at the time as not “so much as a peep out of Coleridge or his deputy Laura Johnson”.

However, the action group later explained in the report that they did manage to get a reaction from Rumble herself at the time which later proved fruitless.

Further to this, it was only after an earlier failure to provide them with contact details for Steve Cunningham, the Station Manager at North Kensington Fire Station at the time that she responded.

“Unfortunately, and for reasons that we don’t fully understand, we got a very poor response from Mr Cunningham, who seemed inclined to cut Ms Rumble and her cronies rather a lot of slack. He even suggested that we call the police next time we saw vehicles parked illegally in the Grenfell Tower area,” Grenfell Action Group lamented.

“Perhaps someone forgot to tell him that the enforcement authority for fire safety issues is not the Metropolitan Police, but the London Fire Brigade, which has the power to issue an enforcement notice requiring the Lancaster West authorities to comply with their own fire safety rules.”

The group went on to explain in their 2013 report that what later happened was strange in that a fire safety exercise organised by the London Fire Brigade did come but not for Grenfell Tower, but for Trellick Tower a mile up.

Unresponsiveness from relevant authorities later led the Grenfell Action Group to say “ONE THING IS CERTAIN – THEY CAN’T SAY THEY HAVEN’T BEEN WARNED” not knowing how tragically true these words would be four years later yesterday, would prove to be.

The first call for the fire came in yesterday at about 12:54am in the early hours of the morning with the fire fighters responding to the scene of the crisis in under six minutes.

The fire, brought at least 200 firefighters and officers who came to the crisis, with an additional 40 fire engines and a range of specialist vehicles, including 14 fire rescue units on the scene to extinguish the fire.

But, with 12 confirmed dead, many injured and hundreds of families displaced rescuing people was becoming both critical and challenging with each passing moment.

According to reports, 78 people were transported to six hospitals across London for a range of injuries related to the fire, and 20 of them are in critical condition.

To understand why this happened the February 2013 Grenfell Action Group report is very insightful.

In the report, safety concerns were raised after RGE Services who were contracted to do maintenance on the Grenfell Tower Building on a monthly basis were later found to not be doing the work.

This was confirmed in a Fire Risk Assessment of Grenfell Tower conducted in November 2012. There, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) Health and Safety Officer Janice Wray said she had received no test certificates on work done from RGE Services.

RGE Services is a leading independent property service and maintenance company operating throughout the Greater London area.

Under the contract, RGE Services were contracted to KCTMO to provide portable firefighting equipment, testing, servicing and maintenance to the Grenfell Tower Building.

However, the fire extinguisher in the building, the basement boiler room, the lift motor room, the ground floor electrical room plus other areas were found to be out of test dates according to the contractor’s label on the extinguishers.

“The last test date was on the August 8, 2011. Some located in the roof level areas had “condemned” written on them in large black writing with a last test date of 2009 or 2010. This seems to indicate that monthly occupier inspections are not being carried out,” read the Fire Risk Assessment of Grenfell Tower report.

The Fire Risk Assessment of Grenfell Tower went on to further state that it was not known if the caretaker was undertaking the monthly occupier’s tests of the installed emergency lighting system, fire extinguishers and structural items as per the caretakers check list.

“This would include the external stairs and lift checks with the results being kept as a record of testing having been undertaken,” read the Fire Risk Assessment of Grenfell Tower.

As this was the case, the Grenfell Action Group said on the face of it there was alarming evidence of serious negligence over several years.

“It just so happens that one of our members chaired the EMB Property Management Committee in 2004 when that committee received information that the Grenfell Tower emergency lighting system was in very poor condition. Two thirds of the battery packs were completely dead, and the entire system would have failed in an emergency. The committee then fought a protracted battle with the TMO for more than a year, during which time the TMO repeatedly denied that there was a problem, or any negligence with regard to inspection and testing of the system,” the Grenfell Action Group said.

“Eventually the EMB committee succeeded in badgering the TMO into ordering an independent investigation. This was conducted by Peter West of Capita Symonds. His report, when it was published in May 2005, was a shocking indictment of TMO mal-administration and failure of oversight, and of the electrical contractors whose duty it had been to inspect and test the Lancaster West emergency lighting system.”

The Grenfell Action Group later concluded that the implications of the Capita Symonds report went far beyond Lancaster West and led to a wide ranging review of TMO fire safety procedures throughout the borough.

“The lessons of 2004/2005 appear to have soon been forgotten – if indeed they were ever learned at all – and the culture of negligence at the TMO appears to have reverted to type and to have continued unabated to the present,” the Grenfell Action Group said.

At that time, the Grenfell Action Group copied the Grenfell Tower Fire Risk Assessment and all their findings to Councillor Blakeman (and various others including the LFB) and she replied on February 18, 2013, two days before their report.

In her response, Blakeman stated that she would make sure the report and concerns raised would by Grenfell Action Group be an item on the Lancaster West EMB meeting but was the only of the authorities to reply.

The Grenfell Action Group later said on Fire Risk Assessment Grenfell Tower that in the light of this official report, it was strongly suggestive of years of ongoing neglect and criminal negligence of the fire safety systems at Grenfell Tower.

“We would suggest that the managing authorities need to take a long hard look at themselves, and how they manage this estate,” the Grenfell Action Group added.

“We would also strongly suggest that they seriously reconsider their earlier facile dismissal of the concerns we raised regarding their lax attitude to the emergency access arrangements also. And it is rendered all the more alarming when seen in its true context, as part of a history of negligence that in all likelihood stretches back to 2004 and beyond.”

From there, no apparent action took place over the issues raised.

In the morning yesterday, after news of the fire started spreading, Khan had declared the fire at the Grenfell Tower in Kensington a major incident in the a tweet at 5:16am today.

Later on during the day, Khan said he was in talks with Government ministers, including the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, this afternoon, working hard with them and emergency services on the response to the fire.

“Emergency services have now moved from the rescue phase of their operation to the recovery phase. I will remain in regular contact with the London Fire Brigade and our other emergency services,” he said.

“I would like to thank, on behalf of Londoners, our brave fire fighters and other emergency services, who have worked bravely and tirelessly over the last day.”

With this information, all the parties involved will have serious questions to answer.