All the staff at Quest want to send their thoughts to the friends, family and all those affected by the fire that ravaged through the Grenfell Tower housing block on Wednesday 14th June.
We also want to praise the efforts and speed of reaction by the London Fire Brigade and the teamwork of the ambulance, fire services and police who came together to help those poor residents get out in the way they did.
It is totally baffling how a realistically small incident could have escalated into such a horrific unreal scene. Recent refurbishment works were completed in 2016 to the 40-year-old building and yet this type of fire can still be allowed to happen in modern society.
Strict regulations and guidelines are in place that should prevent this sort of tragedy. ‘Approved Document B’ was developed and came into effect in April 2007 with amendments made in 2010 and 2013. The document is designed for building owners to follow to ensure that new buildings and modifications, including refurbishments to older buildings are fire safe when building works are carried out.
We intimated earlier that this should have been a ‘small incident’ because if the building was conforming to the current guidelines then the fire should have been contained within the individual apartment and the evidence suggests that the policy for the tower block was for residents to stay in their apartment until the fire was out, but this was not the case and for those that ignored the advice seemingly chose the right option.
A fire brigade union safety expert suggests that the principle of tower blocks is ‘… that every flat is a fire-resisting box, completely surrounded by fire-resisting construction from the rest of the building…”
As a building owner, business leader or landlord, this brings home the potential consequences of your property if we ignore regulatory information and guidance.
You must have an up to date fire risk assessment, escape routes and stairwells that are built to a fire protection standard that can withstand a fire for at least an hour, fire resisting doors that allow compartments in your building to be protected, appropriate firefighting equipment that is inspected annually and positioned correctly to allow people to use them in the event of an emergency. An appropriate method of alerting everyone to a fire such as an audible and visual alarm system that is tested weekly and heard throughout the property. Well-lit corridors and escape routes and emergency lighting to illuminate the escape point in the event of a power loss. Don’t forget to train your staff, residents and visitors of the fire precautions and evacuation procedures.
Remember we have a lot of electronic technology these days, needing to be charged and where we are not suggesting that this was the cause of the tragedy, a policy on turning off charging points overnight should be adopted to help minimise any fire risk.
A lot of questions will be asked and the investigation by the London Fire Brigade will certainly reveal the truth about what happened at the Grenfell Tower block and who is accountable, we wait in anticipation.
