Part 5: The management of fire safety at Grenfell Tower

Chapter 34: Introduction to Part 5

¶34.1 One of the TMO's most important functions as manager of Grenfell Tower was to take appropriate steps in relation to fire safety. In this Part of our report we examine the nature of the obligations imposed by law on those who manage residential buildings and the steps taken by the TMO to comply with them in the years leading up to the fire.

¶34.2 The Fire Safety Order prescribes the duties imposed on the person who has control of premises such as Grenfell Tower, known as the "responsible person", and on every other person who has, to any extent, control of the premises so far as the requirements relate to matters within his control. In the case of Grenfell Tower it was accepted that both the TMO and RBKC were subject to those duties but for practical purposes we decided to concentrate on the TMO and examine the way in which it went about discharging its duties and the extent to which it did so effectively.

¶34.3 In this Part we have therefore considered the systems adopted by the TMO to discharge its obligations, its discussions with the LFB as the enforcing authority, the steps it took to identify the risks to which the properties it managed were subject and its response to the findings that emerged. RBKC had an important part to play because it was responsible for overseeing all the TMO's arrangements for protecting health and safety. We have therefore also examined the extent to which RBKC fulfilled its responsibility in that respect.

¶34.4 Fire risk assessments play an important part in ensuring fire safety. We therefore examined the steps taken by the TMO to obtain suitable and sufficient fire risk assessments as required by the Fire Safety Order and the way in which it responded to them.

¶34.5 Maintenance of fire protections within buildings are an important element in managing fire safety effectively. One of the most important, but often least regarded, protections against the spread of fire within a residential building is the provision and effective maintenance of fire doors at the entrance to individual flats with working self-closing devices. We have therefore examined the steps taken by the TMO to ensure that the flats in Grenfell Tower were fitted with modern fire doors and the measures put in place to ensure regular inspection and maintenance of the doors and self-closing devices.

¶34.6 When Grenfell Tower was built it included a smoke ventilation system designed to operate in the event of a fire to clear smoke from the lobby of the floor on which the flat affected by the fire was situated. Such systems require regular maintenance as part of managing fire protection, so we examined the extent to which the TMO had maintained the system and whether it was capable of operating effectively. Regrettably, by the time of the refurbishment it was not in working order and could not be renovated. We describe how that situation had come about and, in the next Part, the steps that were taken to replace it as part of the refurbishment.

¶34.7 Finally, we identify certain other matters relating to fire safety that we consider to be important to comment on, including emergency planning, the provision of fire safety information in public parts of the building and arrangements for safeguarding vulnerable residents.