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Grenfell survivor left with part of fire door missing
A Grenfell survivor had the safety of their new home’s fire door “compromised” after the bottom of it was trimmed off during works last year, Inside Housing can reveal.
A development on Hortensia Road, jointly built by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and Grainger, has been used to rehouse a number of survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire.
One of the survivors living in this development was left with a gap under their front door, a letter from an RBKC caseworker to Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad – seen by Inside Housing – reveals.
According to the letter, sent in February, a contractor trimmed the bottom off the door while fitting the carpet. The letter from the council acknowledged the resident’s concern that “the gap compromised the fire safety of the door”.
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Fire doors are supposed to prevent smoke and fire from spreading through a building and so should not have any gaps. The door has now been fixed, a source close to the resident told Inside Housing.
A letter sent from Altin Smajli, head of housing options at RBKC, to Ms Dent Coad on 21 January, reveals that the resident reported the issue before Christmas last year. The February letter sent to Ms Dent Coad confirmed that it had still not been fixed at that point.
According to Mr Smajli’s January letter, there was also a hole in the wall at the time, which RBKC promised to fix. Rats were coming into the flat through this hole and under the door, the letter indicates.
Mr Smajli wrote: “With regards to the rat infestation, we can advise that a pest control programme is currently under way with respect to [the resident’s] flat in Hortensia Road. The treatment in the courtyard is ongoing, and the contractor is due to return on three separate occasions over the next two to three months in order to renew the baits.”
Commenting on the fire door works and the rodent issue, the RBKC spokesperson told Inside Housing: “In terms of fire safety in the specific block, it is important to stress that strong measures are in place – including a sprinkler system and modern fire alarms.
“We are reviewing fire doors across the borough and installing 60-minute doors instead of 30-minute doors wherever we can for families from Grenfell Tower and Walk.”
They added that it would be “disingenuous to describe the homes of families from Grenfell as rat infested”.
The resident moved out of the flat while contractors resolved these problems. The source close to the resident said the works were completed in May but did not know the specific date the fire door issue was resolved. The spokesperson for the council did not reveal the date of completion when asked by Inside Housing.
The spokesperson claimed initially that the problem was not reported until 29 January and did not respond when asked about the discrepancy between this date and the date reported in Mr Smajli’s letter.
The spokesperson instead said that it had made alterations to a large number of homes to help 180 families settle into their new homes and held their contractors to the “highest standards” and aimed to fix issues “straight away” when raised.
