Intro

It is the 27th of January 1925 and an old retired field Marshall takes his last breath. Throughout his career death and destruction was a necessary evil, spanning nearly 50 years he has achieved many accolades. With many battles under his belt and the high rank of field marshal it is often customary for the person's legacy to extend beyond their family and be recognised in the naming of roads and buildings. You see the person we are talking about is only linked to this week's video in name, but that name would become a byword for neglect, tragedy and the ever looming specter of brutalist high rise apartment blocks that litter British cities. That man's name was Field Marshal Francis Wallace Grenfell, his name is remembered not for his actions on the battlefields of British colonialism but instead a horrific building fire in the 2010s. welcome to plainly difficult. My name is John and today we are looking at the Grenfell tower disaster.

Background

Background Our story begins nearly 50 years after grenfells death with a need all so common in London. That is housing, a need that would drive the uk to source quickly and easily built residential buildings. No more Requiring social housing arguably was the nation's capital London. One such development was the infamous Ronan point, out towards the eastern end of London’s vast metropolitan area, but another would be out in the west. This would be in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea near Notting hill to the east of Latimer Road tube station, which is around here on a map. In 1964 plans were proposed for redeveloping the slums of nottingdale, into a modern and brutalist social housing estate. These were all the rage in 1960s London, where the city was still redeveloping after the destruction of the war. The plan from architects Clifford Wearden and Peter Deakins was to build a housing estate, shopping piazza and a new latimer road london underground station. To connect all the buildings which would include a couple of tower blocks elevated walkways were planned. The original plans also looked to place decking over the roads for public spaces, thus hiding vehicle traffic from view, these were also dropped after the council, the newly reborn in 1965 Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, (do alien birth through stomach) did not show much interest in creating two story roads. I’m still trying to decide whether this is a good or bad concept, probably bad as history has shown we aren't good at maintaining concrete infrastructure, as anyone who has ever had to rely on the Hammersmith flyover would probably agree with. Thank the satnav gods I never have to drive down there anytime soon! Well long story short the new estate was to be less innovative than the architects envisioned, but that didn't meant that it was a cookie cutter estate, it did have some interesting features. Deakins had previously helped with the designs of the barbican housing estate as well as the golden lane estate, so by now he was a brutalist design veteran. The Plans would end up being scaled back when london transport saw no need of building a new station, but the main tower block was retained, it would be named after a field marshal grenfell. The disaster of Ronan point would directly influence design considerations for the main tower on the Lancaster Road (West) Estate, as such Grenfell would be built with an attention to strength, the idea was for the building to last at least 100 years. To achieve this Grenfell had a central core containing the lift, single staircase and vertical sections; the services like water telephone and electricity, coming out from the core were external perimeter columns. A central boiler room was provided for hot water, this was situated in the basement, and fed the whole development. Construction for phase 1 would begin in 1970 with Grenfell seeing initial works beginning in 1972. The building would be 67.3 m (221 ft) tall and originally contained 120 one and two-bedroom flats. twenty of the twenty-four storeys would be used for residential with the bottom four,, being used for non-residential purposes. These non residential uses were a nursery, offices and a community health centre. To help with flexibility of accommodation, all internal partition walls were not structural, this could allow for re-configuration, something pretty handy for a local authority. Because of this flexibility It was slightly unusual from other tower blocks of a similar vintage, this allowed the amount of flats per floor to be 6 instead of the more common 4. The floors contained a two bedroom flat at each corner which was the standard arrangement for the time, but in between on the east and the west face was a one bedroomed flat. Externally the building comprised horizontal structural concrete spandrel panels, sliding aluminium-framed windows and non-structural white window infill panels. The tower was completed in 1974, and soon after opening its doors, the council started welcoming families to their new homes.

Grenfells Refurbishments

Grenfell and its refurbishments and updates As with most buildings throughout its life it would undergo a number of modifications, one such was In 1985 replacing the front doors of the flats to self-closing fire resistant type. In the 1990’s in an effort to combat rising crime, a key fob system was installed meaning in theory only residents could access the building. Between 2011 and 2013 the fire doors were again replaced with more modern compliant ones. Talking about fire we need to discuss the design theory and thus fire safety theory prevalent in the UK when Grenfell was built. You see there was a glaring issue with high rise blocks, which ronan point highlighted but was known before, and that was of fire. If there's a fire say here, how can everyone get out safely, well how about if you didn't need to get out, in theory if the flat is fire resistant enough then the occupants can sit it out until help arrives, this was mentioned in The 1962 British Standard Code of Practice 3, Chapter IV, Precautions Against Fire: “The assumption should no longer be made that buildings must be evacuated if a fire occurs, and high rise residential buildings should, therefore, be designed so that the occupants of a floor above a dwelling which is on fire may, if they choose, remain safely on their own floor. It may be necessary to evacuate the floor on which the fire occurs, and in some circumstances those floors which are in the immediate vicinity of the fire, but the occupants of these floors should be free to reach safety in any other part of the building via the staircase.” This would be known as the stay put strategy, which, in the event of a fire elsewhere in the building, the occupants are advised to remain within their own flats unless they are directly affected by fire, heat or smoke. All this is fine and all as long as the building is fire resistant, the thinking behind the strategy does have merit as a mass exiting of a building would hinder fire and rescue efforts, as well as risk the potential of a staircase crush event, think a mini ibrox 1971. But again it is really dependent on the actual building, now there were issues with tower blocks of this era, one such is the single staircase. Now the tower block had had a few upgrades throughout its life but after 40 years overlooking latimer road it was time for a major overhaul and refurbishment. This came around with a Planning permission request in 2012, around the same time Leadbitter Construction Ltd, was appointed as lead contractor but before works began in June 2014 Rydon Maintenance Limited (Rydon) was eventually appointed the design and build contractor. The works were to include repurposing some of the previously uninhabited levels of the tower, these were the lower couple of levels; it would result in the creation of nine new flats, this would also include structural work. In addition to this a newer more efficient heating and smoke extraction systems were to be employed, as well as renewed services piping, and upgrades to the tower's lifts. But the main thing at least that any passers by would see was the whole building to be reclad, receive new windows, and generally receive a fresher external appearance. Essentially the tower was to get an entirely new external wall attached to the original concrete facade, this would in theory add to building insulation, thus improving efficiency. The cladding also offered a modernised look to the tower, hiding away the arguably dated brutalist facade, after all it was an eyesore in the line of sight of the trendy and expensive Notting hill. Ok I’m being a bit facetious, but improved external looks were one of the council's official goals. Rydon subcontracted out to Harley Facades Ltd for the external cladding work. Whilst we are on the subject let's look at the cladding in greater detail. The external cladding was made up of several layers firstly directly connected to the original external walls was pir foam insulation, followed by a 2 inch cavity and finished off with another layer of cladding in the form of ventilated rainscreen panels made of aluminium composite material. The composite cladding was made of 3mm thick core of polyethylene bonded between two 0.5mm thick sheets of aluminium These were mounted to the building via aluminium mounting brackets. The new windows would be mounted and glued to the pir insulation, upvc window jambs would be mounted over the original wooden window frame and the insulation. It would create a wider window ledge as it covered the extra layers added to the concrete fascade. This system was more cost effective compared to others available on the market, the trade off was that more expensive options were more fire resistant. The materials used in the refurbishment would be pretty hefty a saving, for Kensington and Chelsea TMO, the organisation formed to manage all of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s social housing. Nearly 300,000£ a pretty big cost reduction on a 8.7m£ refurbishment project, this and amongst other savings were the reason for the contractor change in 2014. Regardless, the refurbishment was signed off, and there it stood tarted up to look pretty, a home for nearly 300 people. A home that should be safe, somewhere to out your stamp on, a place of comfort, family, entertainment, a space for memories and occasional sadness, but not a death trap, well until 2017. The fire.

Fire

It is the evening of the 13th June 2017 and resident of flat 16 on the 4th floor is returning home. The time is 23:30 and Behailu Kebede goes to the living room. The two he is sharing flat 16 are asleep, Kebede goes to sleep on a mattress in the living room. Shortly after he is woken by one of your worst nightmares a fire alarm, he found out that his hotpoint fridge freezer in the kitchen was on fire. He goes to wake up the 2 other residents on flat 16, soon after at 0054 Kebede makes a phone call to 999. Kebede banged on his neighbours' doors to alert them of the fire, and he began to evacuate the building. 6 minutes after Kebede's call the first of the London fire brigade reached the scene, the fire could be seen glowing from the window of flat 16. With 2 engines on-site another 2 more were dispatched, more 999 calls came in and the advice given was for residents to stay in their flats, this was because of the stay put doctrine. There was no central alarm in the building and many higher up in the building were not aware of the fire below. The first firefighters entered Flat 16 at 01:07, at 01:08 the flames started to melt the upvc window frames and fire began licking up the outside of the tower. The flammable cladding caught alight the cavity between the cladding and insulation acted as a chimney sucking the fire up. At 01:14 the fire fighters started tackling the blaze in flat 16s kitchen, but it was too late and the flames had spread. Seeing the unfolding disaster more engines and an aerial appliance were requested. Water nets from the ground couldn’t reach higher than the 4th floor. Smoke had spread to above flat 16 into flat 26, some residents of the 5th and 6th floors started to evacuate. By 01:18, 34 of 293 residents had escaped between 01:18 and 01:38, 110 escaped. The flames spread up further behind the aluminium cladding, by 0130 the fire had spread in a shockingly fast rate and had reached grenfells roof. By now around 20 engines had been dispatched to grenfell, soon after met police officers arrived to create an exclusion zone and London ambulances began to arrive to treat the walking wounded. Smoke had spread into the lobbies of several floors, many were trapped inside their flats by the ever increasing smoke and flames. The onkey staircase had filed with smoke between 0130 and 0158 only 20 managed to escape. The fire continued to spread sideways on the exterior, and by 01:42 had reached the north side. Firefighters were given flat numbers of confirmed trapped residents, however communication via radio had broken down, instead the rescue efforts relied on runners and slips of paper to inform fighters resident locations. This slowing down of communications meant that firefighters by the time of reaching flats found them to be empty as residents had fled the smoke. Although many were still on the phone to 999 dispatch their updated locations couldn’t be passed on to those trying to find them. After 0200 many desperate residents tried to communicate their location by flashing lights in their flats, and sadly as many as 4 had no option when facing the flames but to jump from the building. The final two people to be rescued from the blaze were at 0605 and 0807, but not everyone had managed to escape. The fire would continue to blaze all the way to the 16th June when in the evening it was officially declared over. the rescue efforts changed to recovery and evidence gathering. A total of 151 homes were destroyed by the fire; these were not just at Grenfell alone but also the smaller 3 story blocks adjacent to the tower. The fire caused 72 deaths, including one who died in hospital a day later and another who died in January 2018. Many were children and even a stillbirth was attributed to the fire, needless to say the disaster cut deep into the local community. Tragically only 12 fatalities were actually identified on the actual day of the fire. Needless to say an investigation would follow and this would come in the form of the grenfell inquiry which was announced by then prime minister Teresa may on the 29th June 2017.... And oh boy would it uncover the neglect that went into that tower. The investigation and inquiry.

Investigation

Soon after the disaster on the 29 June, Theresa May announced that Sir Martin Moore-Bick, a retired judge, would take the lead in the inquiry. Grenfell tower was covered in scaffolding and a protective wrap to help to preserve the evidence within. It was pretty clear the start of the fire was the fridge freezer in flat no 16. This melted away the upvc window frames and jambs that covered the highly flammable insulation. Once this was exposed fire was then able to spread into the cladding. The investigation quickly found the cladding to be the cause of the rapid spread but this was not very surprising to many. I’m 2014 the council were warned of their decision to use cladding/ insulation combination. It was known as early as 2012 that Grenfell had serious safety management issues. These included poor emergency lighting, fire fighting equipment was improperly maintained, including out of date extinguishers and other material going unchecked for years. These Issues that were put aside and just ignored, hoping they would just disappear. Some residents had even formed a group called The Grenfell Action Group (GAG) and even created a blog. They had in 2013 published a health and safety report from 2012 raising concerns about the fire safety of the building. The group also pointed out the lack of appropriate escape routes, and that the hallways were allowed to fill with rubbish, blocking off the paths of escape that did exist. In an ever classy move In 2013 the council threatened the bloggers with legal action, saying that their posts amounted to "defamation and harassment". Even more tragically 2 of them Mariem Elgwahry and Nadia Choucair would be amongst those who lost their lives in the fire. Now all of these concerns were apparent in Grenfell way before the refurbishment. It was found during the inquiry that In November 2016, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority served a fire deficiency notice to the Kensington and Chelsea tenant management organisation , listing multiple fire safety issues at Grenfell that required action before May 2017. Many of these were still not fixed in June. Now this would be hard to see as anything other than criminally negligent, and On 27 July 2017 the metropolitan Police issued a public notice to residents saying that they had "reasonable grounds" to suspect that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation "may have committed" corporate manslaughter. However charges have yet to be raised as the grenfell inquiry has only just wrapped up, it is divided into two phases, phase 1 which has been the primary source for this video was released in October 2019, this covers the facts about the refurbishment and the night of the fire. Phase two will try and find out who was at fault for allowing the refurbishment to take place as it did. As such charges are unlikely to materialise until 2023/2024, sadly this means it could be 7 years after the disaster. Some charges were brought for fraud however, in a disgusting effort of profit from others pain 21 people tried to claim compensation for either being in the tower when they weren’t or for family members that weren’t. They were charged found guilty and sentenced for their fraudulent activity. But what if the tower now? Well it’s still there awaiting the end of the inquiry, from there it will be demolished and turned into a memorial for these victims. (Show list) The disaster shows the end result of negligence penny pinching and underinvestment, the some 300,000£ saving would be eclipsed by the estimated 200m-1b in costs associated with the disaster. The disaster would lead to the uk cladding scandal which would financially ruin many as overnight their apartments became worthless due to insurance companies refusing to cover clad buildings. It also caused many residents to be rehomed or even just evicted as some buildings became confirmed. Now there is a whole political social and economic side to the disaster that I haven’t touched here as I don’t feel qualified to speak on, but I recommend reading the inquiry report and phase 2 when it’s released, you will probably be saddened but more likely angered. Now this subject I’m going to give it the rating of outright negligent and a 9 on my legacy scale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTuNTy5zV-c