A 'complex, three-dimensional jigsaw' waiting to be solved

Fire Prevention & Protection

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A ‘complex, threedimensional jigsaw’ waiting to be solved

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In a rare insight into work that has taken place since the Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017, Sir Ken Knight gave this year’s Worshipful Company of Firefighters Lecture. Political Correspondent Catherine Levin reports

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o travel was required for this year’s lecture, as Sir Ken Knight, introduced by Peter Holland, Chief Inspector for the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate, appeared via Zoom in front an audience of over 300 people from across the world.

He spent 40 minutes talking about building fire safety, sharing knowledge and insight drawn from his unique place at the heart of the response to the Grenfell Tower fire as Chair of the Independent Expert Advisory Panel.

“My comments tonight are absolutely my own,” he explained. “They don’t necessarily represent the views of government or indeed the expert panel that I continue to Chair following the terrible tragedy where 72 people died.”

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Jigsaw Puzzle He started his lecture by talking about a jigsaw. He described a process whereby there are many pieces that need to be put into place before the picture on the front of the puzzle box can emerge. Each puzzle piece represents a key player and he spent the lecture talking about those players and how together they will meet the common objective to learn the lessons from Grenfell and put in place robust measures to ensure it never happens again.

He paused before continuing: “People should be safe and feel safe in their homes.

Sir Ken Knight gave this year’s Worshipful Company of Firefighters’ Fire Lecture on response to the Grenfell Tower fire

“Generally, people are safer in their homes than in any time in modern history,” argued Sir Ken. He said that ‘stay put’ strategies have been in place for nearly 60 years and that these work for the vast majority of fires where it is contained to the room of origin. “In fact, less than ten per cent of fires spread beyond the room where the fire started. For that reason, it is very rare for anyone to die beyond the flat where the fire started.

“We somehow thought our buildings were safe and that people knew what they were doing when they constructed them, designed them and when they made additions. We have found that competence wanting.

And of course, to some degree this is affecting the roles and responsibilities of the Fire and Rescue Service as well.”

He referred to high-rise fires in other countries and wondered why there was not considerable loss of life.

“I’ve often wondered why we didn’t learn from those fires at that time.” He then went on to answer his own question. “I have a feeling that there was complacency about low fire deaths and fires reducing and that we hadn’t looked closely enough. If someone had looked at those fires, we would have said they can’t happen here because our building regulations don’t allow for it.”

Moving on to talk about what has happened since the fire in 2017, Sir Ken said: “I am anxious to put into context

“People should be safe and feel safe in their homes” www.fire–magazine.com | May 2021 | 51

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Expert Advisory Panel Recalling the events of 2017 and three days after the Grenfell Tower fire, Sir Ken said he met with government officials to talk about what would happen next and where else might there be at a similar risk. The next day, a screening process started to allow building owners to send in samples of cladding for analysis in a laboratory to determine levels of combustibility. That was the start of a process that would reveal 400 plus buildings in England clad in a similar way to Grenfell that would need remediating to make them safe from fire.

By the end of June an Independent Expert Panel was formed that Sir Ken continues to Chair to this day. It has published 22 advice notes as part of its work and has not just dealt with fire issues.

“I’ve often thought we must not see the tragedy of Grenfell Tower solely through the lens of fire. It’s been a failure of construction, as Dame Judith Hackitt identified in her independent report. To focus solely on fire would actually miss several of the issues that need to be addressed.”

Sir Ken made one clarification about the work of the expert panel. “It’s important to stress that the expert panel has never been involved in the Grenfell investigation itself but the implications of the Grenfell fire for the rest of the built environment.”

He stressed the need to listen to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and went on to consider the order in which the evidence has been heard, starting with the firefighters.

“I can understand entirely why a public inquiry might do that. Seventy-two people were lost and their families wanted to know what happened. They needed to hear what happened and to relive that terrible night. It is my view that it was very reasonable that the Inquiry would start from the incident, hear what happened on the night and the harrowing experiences of the people that were in the fire and escaped and hear of the loss of their loved ones.

Although that was difficult to hear, it was right for that first phase to start at that point.

“It was clear from the way we saw the building burn on that night, that the building, in my view, at that time could not have met building regulations.”

This aligns with the findings of the Inquiry Chair, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, who wrote in his Phase 1 Report: ‘There is compelling evidence that the walls of the building failed to comply with the building regulations in that they did not adequately resist the spread of fire’.

Looking at the work of another key player since June 2017, Sir Ken went on to describe the activity of the Industry Response Group. “It was important to bring together industry to recognise what needed to be done quickly about high-rise residential buildings: to replace cladding and recognise the complexity of the task in terms of the shortages of skills, materials and even scaffolding.”

The Competency Steering Group and Social Sector Engagement Group have also produced useful guidance, with a report from the latter published in March. “The work of these groups is vital,” he said. “They have maintained the momentum of making buildings safe.”

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the incredible amount of work that has gone on since the fire both within and outside of government.”

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The Golden Thread While Dame Judith Hackitt’s independent report is nearly three years old, Sir Ken talked about its continued importance in the building safety world and how some of the recommendations are now starting to emerge as actual changes to legislation. She talked about culture and competency and the necessity to address these issues.

“She made a very important statement, at the heart of the recommendations in my view, of something called the golden thread: the key information that runs throughout the life of the building.”

He made an analogy with the car industry that illustrates the point. “It is interesting that you can build a car and have a failure in one component and that anywhere in the world that component can be recalled and replaced.

But in the case of buildings, we have found it incredibly difficult to track down what is in buildings, how things have been installed and so on.”

For buildings, the development of a digital gold thread will lead to information about the building being embedded in every stage of the process from planning through to build, to the completion stage and the entire life of the building. It will contain who did what, what materials were used, what was the competence of those who did the work.

Moving on to talk about the newly-regulated role of the Building Safety Manager, Sir Ken said that they should have access to this information as well as the Fire and Rescue Service and residents. It is to be a transparent thread.

Giving residents information about the building is part of what Dame Judith called the ‘resident’s voice’. Sir Ken asked: “Shouldn’t residents of those buildings know about their building? Shouldn’t they be able to have someone who will listen to their concerns? Shouldn’t they have information about the place they live, which in Grenfell it sounds like they did not.”

Fire Prevention & Protection

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“I’ve described a very complex, three-dimensional jigsaw with some pieces in place and others being carved out as we speak”

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the wrong way round, that just can’t be acceptable in any modern environment, particularly where safety is at stake.”

Alongside the Building Safety Regulator there is a new body called the Regulator for Construction Products. Sir Ken explained why this is needed. “We’ve seen failures in construction products or at least under-specification, or over-marketing of products through the Grenfell Inquiry.

We’ve seen products for sale or for use not as they should be but as they believe to be by the manufacturer and not meeting the standards and requirements.”

The new body will extend the remit of the Office of Product Safety and Standards, which is already in place under the aegis of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Skills. It already has people in place to inspect under the existing trading standards regime. “It will have a very robust inspection regime and be able to commission testing and withdraw products from the market.”

Sir Ken noted that Dame Judith had said not to wait for legislation before making changes to the existing regime and that the work of the key players described shows that she has been heard.

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Building Safety Bill The Building Safety Bill will deal with many of Dame Judith’s recommendations. It will put in place a new Building Safety Regulator, which currently rests in the Health and Safety Executive in shadow form. Peter Baker was appointed earlier this year as the new Chief Inspector of Buildings and will head up the new Regulator.

The Building Safety Regulator will enforce building safety in high-rise buildings which are 18m plus, a lower threshold than originally recommended by Dame Judith. “It is not an easy task for the new Building Safety Regulator, that amounts to 12,000 plus buildings,” commented Sir Ken. During scrutiny by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Select Committee, there was considerable concern about the amount of unknown secondary legislation that would fall out of the Building Safety Bill.

Sir Ken called this “living legislation” as it can be readily amended to be updated. “This new Bill is very large but it is able to be changed.”

Returning to the issue of the golden thread, Sir Ken said: “Work on it is moving ahead apace. There is already a British Standard formed to set out the requirements of the digital golden thread.”

Dame Judith also recommended extending the existing reporting system to include failures in buildings. At the end of March, the existing Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures arrangements was expanded to include fire safety.

Alongside the golden thread, competence is an issue that runs throughout the post-Grenfell work. “If you listened to the Inquiry, you would be extremely worried, like I am. People were doing things to buildings, specifying things for buildings and taking part in construction who clearly weren’t competent to do so.”

He highlighted the example of cavity barriers. “They were either non-existent or put upside down or put in

Fire Safety Bill He moved on to talk about the Fire Safety Bill, which is, at the time of writing, at the final stage of its passage through parliament. “It makes some important clarifications to the Fire Safety Order. It will clarify for the first time that not only are front doors and entrances to flats part of the common parts of a building and should come under the FSO, so should the external walls at all heights of buildings.”

He did not mention the ongoing campaign to introduce an amendment to the Bill that would see leaseholders not bear the costs of any remediation work arising from the Bill.

Solving the Puzzle Drawing the lecture to a close, Sir Ken returned to his puzzle analogy. “I’ve described a very complex, threedimensional jigsaw with some pieces in place and others being carved out as we speak.” The depth of his understanding and breadth of his experience shone through his presentation and demonstrated the enormity of what is being done in response to the Grenfell Tower fire.

He finished on a poignant note: “There remains a determination to learn the lessons, make people feel safe in their homes and ensure that we don’t witness a Grenfell Tower-type incident again. At the very least, we owe that to the 72 people that lost their lives and the people they left behind.” www.fire–magazine.com | May 2021 | 53