The inquiry heard that Grenfell’s ventilation system was meant to extract smoke in the event of a fire but was faulty at the time of…
The smoke ventilation system at Grenfell Tower was reported to have failed eight days before the fatal blaze claimed 71 lives but a proposal to fix it for £1,800 was ignored, the public inquiry has heard.
The system was meant to extract smoke from lobbies outside flats in the event of a fire and its failure has been identified by experts as a factor in the escape routes from the building filling with thick black smoke that may have
prevented evacuation and rescue. However, the system was not designed to clear smoke from multiple floors at once.
Martin Booth, the managing director of PSB, which made the system, told the inquiry it received a request for help with the failure on 6 June 2017 after Rydon, the main contractor on the refurbishment of the building, was alerted to automatic opening vents not working.
The email was sent by an aftercare administrator at JS Wright, the company that installed the system.
It was stated that JS Wright would like to arrange an appointment for a PSB engineer and an engineer from Direct Control Solutions to attend to investigate and resolve any issues, said Booth in a written statement published on
Tuesday. On 12 June 2017 at 15.52 a response was sent. The proposed cost was £1,800 + VAT. No response was received and no instructions were received by PSB or Witt & Son UK to attend the Grenfell Tower site to investigate the potential fault report.
Dr Barbara Lane, a fire engineer appointed by the inquiry said in a report that the system installed failed to meet building regulations.
Booth said it had been designed to meet regulations and could only operate on one floor at a time, and could not have prevented smoke from fires on multiple floors impacting lobbies and the common stair on multiple levels.
However, Lane said: Had the smoke control system operated correctly and the fire service been able to take control, they might have used the system to sequentially vent smoke from the lobbies on each floor of Grenfell Tower.
Booth also revealed that an earlier proposal for a 12-month maintenance contract involving six-month maintenance visits for the system, costing £3,600 plus VAT, was ignored.
The proposal was sent to JS Wright on 5 May 2016 by Witt & Son UK, the contract servicing and maintenance arm of the Witt UK Group of which PSB is a member.
The proposed cost was £3,600 + VAT, Booth said. The proposal for a maintenance contract was not taken up.
JS Wright and Rydon have been contacted for comment.