TECHNICAL BULLETIN
ISSUE 34 MARCH 2019
GRENFELL TOWER WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT FROM PHASE 1 OF THE GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY HILARY GRAYSON BSC EST MAN (HONS) DIRECTOR OF SURVEYING SERVICES, SAVA
In October 2019 Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower report was published by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, convened under the chairmanship of the Rt Hon Sir Martin Moore-Bick. Phase 1 of the inquiry covered the cause of the fire, its subsequent development and the steps taken by the London Fire Brigade and the other emergency services in response to it. In this article, we review the Phase 1 report to summarise what we currently know about the Grenfell Tower fire – how it started, how it spread and how it caused such a devastating loss of life. This article focuses on the building, it’s construction and management, and the learnings the surveying and property management professions can take from the tragedy at this stage. It draws on the findings of the inquiry. It is not within the scope of this article to comment on the response of the London Fire Brigade or the ‘Stay Put’ policy whereby many residents waited to be rescued rather than escaping from the burning building. Introduction
In the early hours of Wednesday, 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in a kitchen in one of the flats of Grenfell Tower. Kitchen fires are not uncommon and in terms of its origin and magnitude there was nothing exceptional about this one.
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However, as we all know, the fire escaped from the kitchen into the external envelope of the building. The fire claimed the lives of 71 people who were present in the tower that night, including a child who was stillborn
