As the enquiry starts to make its way through the labyrinth of material to try to understand what has gone wrong and how to prevent such disaster happening again, I tried to clarify what some of the problems are and how we arrived at this state of confusion with the regulations and if there are any bigger lessons that can be learnt especially the underlying reasons for the fire including
- A lack of management control or understanding of what was happening when the cladding was being installed;
- A lack of understanding of the building regulations and their requirements; what the product tests were and their implications;
- A lack of understanding as to the role and limitations of the Fire Risk Assessment process and what it tells the occupier;
- A lack of understanding of “stay put policy” and when not to apply it; and
- A failure to understand how altering one aspect of a building’s fabric can lead to unforeseen consequences.
Click on the link below to read the full article published in Fire magazine in August 2017