This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Engineers working on Grenfell Tower set out to “massage” the fire safety strategy to get it past official checks, and privately admitted plans to refurbish the building were making “a crap condition worse”, the inquiry into the disaster that killed 72 people has heard.

A senior fire engineer working on the refurbishment for consultant Exova Warrington Fire said in an internal email that the proposal to add additional flats around a single staircase in the 1970s block was “not great”.

The email revealed that after having spoken to the architect, Bruce Sounes, about the plans in August 2012, Cate Cooney, a senior consultant at Exova, told a colleague: “Basically I have told him we can massage the proposal to something acceptable, with separation, lobbies etc, but that there are approval risks in the project on the ff shaft/MOE front.” FF normally means firefighting shaft, while MOE is used to abbreviate means of escape.

The email was sent four years before the refurbishment works were signed off by the building control department at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which also owned the 120-home block. The inquiry chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, has already ruled that the building was refurbished in breach of safety regulations. Several of the people who died perished on the single staircase that served the building and became smoke-logged. Others realised they could not survive an attempt to escape the building and died in their flats.

Cooney continued: “They are making an existing crap condition worse so it’s a matter of working the worse [sic] bits outs and making the new stuff work. No sprinklers wanted.”

Timeline Key events since the Grenfell Tower fire Show Hide

The fire breaks out in the early hours of the morning, prompting a huge response from emergency services, who are unable to bring the fire under control or prevent a severe loss of life. The then Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, visits the scene and orders a full inquiry into the disaster, and the government promises that every family will be rehoused locally. The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, orders an emergency fire safety review of 4,000 tower blocks across Britain, and it will emerge that 120 tower blocks have combustible cladding. Scotland Yard launches a criminal investigation into the Grenfell fire. The chancellor, Philip Hammond, says the cladding used on Grenfell Tower was banned in the UK. The retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick is appointed to lead the public inquiry. Kensington and Chelsea council’s first meeting since the disaster is abandoned after the council fails in a bid to ban the media from attending. Survivors have their first official meeting with the police and coroner. The inquiry formally opens. As the final death toll is confirmed to be 71 people, it is revealed that hundreds of households are still living in hotels. In defensive testimony at the inquiry, London fire brigade commissioner Dany Cotton said she would not change anything about the way the brigade responded to the Grenfell disaster, provoking anger from both survivors and the bereaved. Grenfell survivors and the bereaved expressed frustration at Scotland Yard after they admitted no charges were likely until 2021. The public inquiry report concludes that fewer people would have died had the fire brigade been better prepared. Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg is forced to apologise after stating that victims of Grenfell did not use "common sense" and leave the burning building. Grenfell cladding firm Arconic reveals it has spent £30 million on lawyers and advisors defending their role in the disaster. The second phase of the Grenfell Tower inquiry begins. Stacee Smith and Grace Mainwaring

She asked if Exova had any contacts at the building control department at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea that would be responsible for approving the works’ compliance with building regulations.

She signed off, apparently about to go on holiday, saying: “Muchas grassy ass (got to start practising!!).”

The email to her colleague Andrew Martyn at Exova emerged during the third day on which Sounes was cross-examined about his role as the project architect for Studio E Architects.

He was taken ill after two hours of questioning on Wednesday after appearing close to tears. It was the third consecutive day on which the architect had been called to give evidence.

The hearing was due to resume at 12.15pm but Moore-Bick did not take his seat again until around 12.50pm, when he told the hearing: “I’m very sorry to tell you that Mr Sounes has been taken ill and it’s not going to be possible for him to continue giving evidence today or even tomorrow.”

On Tuesday Sounes had admitted not reading the building regulations guidance relating to fire spread and that when Studio E Architects was told it was working on the job, none of its architects had experience of over-cladding projects.

Before he fell ill on Wednesday, Sounes had told the inquiry that the Exova email “raises a level of concern I was not aware of”.

Asked whether Studio E had considered installing sprinklers in the 24-storey block, he said: “It wouldn’t be something we would hold a view on.”

He added: “We would have expected the fire consultant to recommend, or building control to advise any requirement. I don’t recall sprinklers being discussed or raised as something that may be needed.”

Exova was recruited by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) to give fire safety advice on the Grenfell refurbishment.

The inquiry continues



