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KCTMO received multiple warnings about competency of fire risk assessor before fire at Grenfell

The health and safety manager at Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) received multiple warnings about the quality of the work carried out by the fire risk assessor employed by the organisation, including one complaint just weeks before the fire at Grenfell.

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LFB fire safety team leader Rebecca Burton giving evidence to the inquiry (picture: Grenfell Inquiry)
LFB fire safety team leader Rebecca Burton giving evidence to the inquiry (picture: Grenfell Inquiry)
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The health and safety manager at KCTMO was told by multiple people that its fire risk assessments were “unsuitable” and “insufficient” #UKhousing

Today the Grenfell Tower Inquiry heard from Rebecca Burton, a fire safety team leader at the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

Ms Burton told the inquiry she was made aware of “concerns about the competence” of KCTMO’s fire risk assessor, Carl Stokes, from the moment she took up the team leader role at the LFB in 2014.

She said that the concerns included “general observations that he may not be competent for his role” and that LFB figures had disagreed with Mr Stokes over the issue of flats’ front doors.

We know from previous evidence that in 2015 Ms Burton raised concerns about the fire risk assessments (FRAs) being produced by Mr Stokes to Janice Wray, who was the health and safety manager at KCTMO at the time.

The inquiry was shown an email Ms Burton sent to a colleague that summarised the issues she had raised with Ms Wray, including the “suitability of fire risk assessments particularly regarding approach to flat front doors and self-closers” and “fire risk assessments not demonstrating an understanding of the strategy for the building and how persons will be kept safe in event of fire”.


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Today Ms Burton told the inquiry that she had expected Ms Wray to “take the concerns to Carl Stokes… and if there wasn’t a change in his approach then I would have hoped that she would have looked for somebody else”.

The inquiry also heard that one of Ms Burton’s colleagues at the LFB, Matthew Ramsay, had said that Ms Wray and Mr Stokes could be “economical with the truth” in their dealings with the LFB, however Ms Burton said she had always found Ms Wray to be “open” and did not have direct dealings with Mr Stokes.

Earlier in the day the inquiry finished hearing from Ms Wray, who had been giving evidence for the past five and a half days.

The inquiry heard that in May 2017, one month before the fire at Grenfell, a KCTMO employee had reviewed Mr Stokes’ FRAs for two buildings, neither of which were Grenfell Tower, with two health and safety advisors.

Ms Wray was sent a document which stated that the FRAs were not “suitable” or “sufficient” and recommended that a “new FRA is completed as soon as possible”.

“Did you take any action at that point to reconsider Carl Stokes’ suitability as a fire risk assessor for the TMO?” asked Richard Millett, lead counsel to the inquiry.

Ms Wray said that she “would have looked in detail at the criticisms”, but that she cannot recall taking any action to ensure the other FRAs carried out by Mr Stokes were reviewed.

Yesterday the inquiry heard that an independent consultant hired by one of the residents of Grenfell Tower in 2016 had warned Ms Wray that the FRA carried out by Mr Stokes for the Grenfell Tower was “unsuitable and insufficient as the elementary fire safety deficiencies have not been identified by the fire risk assessor”.

At the end of giving evidence last month, Mr Stokes was asked if he would do anything differently. Responding to Andrew Kinnier, counsel to the inquiry, Mr Stokes said he believed he had carried out the assessments “to the best of my ability” and “within the requirements of the fire safety order”.

The inquiry continues.

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