Grenfell
Grenfell: Industry experts form fire safety advisory panel
Industry experts have been named for the government’s new fire safety advisory panel, set up to extract and implement lessons from the Grenfell Tower blaze.
The expert advisory panel will meet for the first time this week say reports, under the chairmanship of Sir Ken Knight, former London Fire Commissioner and former government chief fire & rescue adviser.
Communities secretary Sajid Javid said the panel was being commissioned to advise on any immediate measures that can be put in place to make buildings safe following the Grenfell Tower fire.
Separate inquiry
A separate independent public inquiry will investigate what happened and who was responsible for the disaster.
Other members of the panel will be Building Research Establishment chief executive Peter Bonfield, National Fire Chiefs Council chair Roy Wilsher, and EY partner Amanda Clack, who is president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
At least 79 people were killed on 14 June when the 24-storey Grenfell Tower apartment block on the Lancaster West estate in north Kensington caught fire.
Immediate measures
Sajid Javid said: “It’s absolutely right that there will be an independent public inquiry to get to the truth about what happened and who was responsible for the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
“However, I want to know if there are measures we can put in place now to keep people safe and I want them done immediately. I want the public to be confident everything possible is being done.”
Peter Bonfield said: “It is important that the best expertise from across our industry, the research communities, the professions and the public sector is drawn out to support the government and society at this critical time of need. I look forward to working with Sir Ken and drawing in expertise which will help address the challenges faced.
“I know that the will to positively contribute from professional bodies and others is strong and we will deploy this to support our work.”
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Grenfell: Industry experts form fire safety advisory panel
The government has set up a fire safety advisory panel following the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Alison Fava
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Whilst it is excellent that action appears to be taken swiftly to identify the issues and put forward solutions for future safety improvements; I can’t help but think that at least some of these individuals or organisations are likely to have been involved in developing the original guidance on fire safety in high rise buildings that potentially contributed to the disaster. Apparently Sir Ken Knight is already on record as saying retrofitting sprinklers is not viable in many cases so it hardly seems that he is going to have an open mind from the start.
David, your comment is spot on!
Interesting that there’s no one from HSE when Grenfell apears to have a number of prima facie breaches of CDM 2015
Interesting to note that there is no CDM specialist or any other representative from the health and safety world. The panel are strong experts in their own right BUT it is CDM and Health and Safety professionals in the companies that are supposed to be leading the implementation of systems to prevent this type of criminal “value engineering” from penny pinching designers putting lives at risk.
Would offer a different opinion , If we go back in time we had guides and rules that were written because of previous fires , CDM guidelines , British Standards by being so variable and annually changeable along with the various utilities now being deregulated and the systems they provide having so many stakeholders including the property market that no one wishes to upset. Blame will be apportioned ,it will not be honest.
Yet to see a CDM professional provide design up front that understands maintainence ,use ,or how people and their property fit into their clever schemes.
In reality we all know that time scales change , costs vary , blaming designers when various ” professionals ” can all do their job to correctly as stand alone projects but the sum when put together is wrong. Senior managers discide when and who is at the top of any project not those who try and advise .
I wonder where CDM 2015 and the deregulation of safety for red tape figures in this review and eventually the outcome and root causes.
My thoughts are with all those that have been affected by this incident.
Qustion I don’t really understand why The FSF Chairman and the Chief Fire advisor to the Government was not included in the fire safety advisory team?
Or should I have said in my personal opinion I would have liked to see…. On the team…
Further to Grenfell disaster I signed the petition Rethink Fire safety – most obvious first! at Change.org and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name and spreading the word. To blame the cladding is not enough as fire inspections in similar blocks showed a litany of fire safety failings apart from the cladding, including thousands of missing fire doors. Also, it is reported that just 2 per cent of the 30,296 dwelling fires attended by fire services in England in 2016/17 were in purpose-built high-rise flats above 10 storeys. So, the hope is that while our… Read more »
David Whitelegg hitting the nail on the head with his comment! Very disappointed with the focus being on the cladding to be honest! Seems like a smoke screen! The cladding exacerbated the fire massively but there are multiple systematic failings here! If the ignition point was a faulty fridge then why don’t landlords of the local authority that “wants to keep people safe and wants it done immediately ” offer testing in all white goods And any heat producing appliances, and advise tenants accordingly? Re-assess escapes routes and internal fire stopping! You Don’t need a independent inquiry to tell you… Read more »