By Danielle Aumord

Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation’s (KCTMO) former head of health and safety, Janice Wray, claimed, whilst giving evidence to the public inquiry, that its failure to deal with a humungous backlog of fire risk assessment actions was “out of [her] control”.

The arm’s length management organisation (ALMO), which managed the tower, also had a backlog of 1,400 fire risk assessments in 2013 and still had hundreds outstanding by the time of the tragedy on 14 June 2017.

The inquiry into the tragedy heard that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which owned Grenfell, rejected calls from the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to implement a fire door inspection programme before the blaze, as it felt the benefit to residents’ safety was “impossible to quantify”.

Ms. Wray also sought a new fire risk assessor after concluding that its existing consultants, Salvus, weren’t prepared to be in cahoots with them.

In an email sent to colleagues by Ms Wray in 2010, she said: “I have some concerns that Salvus are very rule-bound and despite what they say about being prepared to challenge the [London Fire Brigade] and acting on our behalf as we are their client, I believe they have shown some reluctance to challenge the LFB on thorny issues.”

Much to the dismay of Grenfell survivors and bereaved, Ms Wray is still employed by RBKC, which managed KCTMO.

Emma O’Connor, who escaped from the twentieth floor of Grenfell on the night of the fire, told HQN that this is a “kick in the guts. It proves (to me) that RBKC don’t care.”

Fire risk consultant Carl Stokes was also grilled at the inquiry about a smoke ventilation system at Grenfell, which failed during a previous fire back in 2010. The sole trader was procured by KCTMO to carry out the fire risk assessments on Grenfell until the time of the blaze, but the inquiry heard that before his appointment in August 2010 he lied to the ALMO about his professional qualifications.

Under the watch of Mr Stokes, heard the inquiry, the tower was without a functioning smoke ventilation for six years, despite a deficiency notice from the LFB in March 2014 and several risk assessments by the contractor. Although he claims that he didn’t know

that the smoke ventilation was ineffective for quite some time and that it had been deemed “beyond economic repair”, Mr Stokes did actually write this statement in three risk assessments between 2009 and 2012: “There are automatic opening vents on each flat/lift lobby area, it is not known if this system is serviced and maintained.” So why didn’t he just ask KCTMO whether the system had been serviced and was it in good working order?

He said he simply wasn’t given the records: “At this particular point, sir, I had no access to their [KCTMO’s] maintenance records. I literally had to ask each time I went to the building…If I didn’t receive the maintenance records, I would write in that statement ‘I haven’t seen them’.”

In the event of a fire, smoke ventilation systems are designed to extract smoke from lobbies outside flats to protect the staircase.

Grenfell’s system was eventually replaced in 2016 as a part of the wider refurbishment but, again, it failed on the night of the blaze, filling the escape route with thick smoke, which may have prevented more people from being rescued.

Mr Stokes didn’t analyse the external facade as part of his fire safety reviews, much like the majority of risk assessors pre-Grenfell. He said he believed that it fell outside the scope of the work he was legally obliged to do. However, there are several pieces of guidance, including guidance published by the Local Government Association in 2011, which indicated that he should have taken it into account.

Despite this, in emails released by the inquiry the fire risk assessor still assured KCTMO that the cladding system installed on the block “complied with the requirements of building regulations” just weeks before the fire.

Ms Wray will continue to give evidence on Tuesday 15 June 2021, the day after the four-year anniversary of the fire, and it’s been reported that former government ministers, including Eric Pickles, Gavin Barwell, and Brandon Lewis, will be called to give evidence in the autumn.

The inquiry continues.