THREAD Yesterday and this morning we heard the evidence of Claire Williams of the KCTMO, who was the project manager of the redevelopment of Grenfell Tower. What we heard was a catalogue of indifference to fire safety.
There was the issues with the smoke clearance system (Automatic Opening Vent, the 'AOV') which meant it was left broken for over a year, without anyone being told it was not working, they told it was partially functional. Residents were not told of this, even when they asked.
Many fire safety concerns were not followed up on, including the lifts which were not controlled in the event of a fire and went to the bottom of the tower, which was controlled by Rydon during the redevelopment and was no longer an exit.
A lot of the KCTMO's attitude towards these issues derived from the work of Carl Stokes, who did Fire Risk Assessments (FRA) for the company. We learned he was not qualified to do so and copy and pasted paragraphs from other jobs. These errors should have been picked up upon.
We were also told of the KCTMO being warned of the poor quality of their fire doors, without taking action. And one of the most concerning revelations was that the LFB had requested an information box for Grenfell to be created, which was not actioned.
Despite all of this being revealed, when Williams was asked what she would have changed, she simply spoke of wishing to be more considerate about the movement of boilers.
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