Grenfell Inquiry: Two Hour Firebreaks Scrapped Over £12,000

THE GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY has heard that 30-minute, rather than 120-minute, cavity barriers were specified because of the possibility of on-site delays and an increased cost of £12,000.

The inquiry has continued this week to hear evidence from refurbishment project architects, Studio E, including Associates, Neil Crawford and Bruce Sounes, as well as former employee and architect, Tomas Rek.

According to Crawford, there was frequent confusion over the use of the terms firestop and cavity barrier.

Cost of increased protection

At the Inquiry, on Tuesday 10 March, a 2015 email from Simon Lawrence of cladding contractors, Rydon, sent to Neil Crawford was submitted in evidence.

The email read: “Hi Neil. Following Tuesday’s design meeting, Harley via their supply chain are questioning the rating of the cladding firebreaks. Apparently by going to 2hrs as we discussed has a cost increase of around £12k. Their supplier is saying it only needs to be 30mins everywhere as per the Regs extract below.

“Could you take a look to see what you think and discuss with John Hoban please?”

The reply from Crawford read: “Hi Simon. Have spoken with John and he wasn’t happy with Harley’s email as we are talking about fire stopping as opposed to cavity barriers . I have explained again the specifics of our scenario and he will have a conversation with Paul Hanson to see if there is a reduced spec they can agree to and will then speak with Harley’s directly.”

Richard Millett QC, Counsel for the Inquiry said: “Now, I’ve shown you the whole of that email string, so my questions on it are this: do you accept that the long and the short of this email exchange is that if you were talking about cavity barriers as opposed to firestops, then 120 minutes was not necessary and that the upgrade to 120 minutes for cavity barriers would be to increase cost and possibly delay?

To which Crawford replied: “Absolutely.”

Deliberately misleading

Crawford also accused Celotex of misleading specifiers based on what the average architect would understand of their product and its classification.

“It’s deliberately misleading. It’s masquerading horse meat as a beef lasagne, and people bought it. All I can say is the totality of what was written there made me understand that this product was compliant in that use, and for me to verify that, knowing the technicalities that are involved in limited combustibility testing, was to confirm that with Exova [the project’s fire consultants], which I did.”

Former Studio E employee, Tomas Rek, now working in Copenhagen, also gave evidence.

Rek stated there was pressure on the firm to specify cheaper ACM cladding despite a preference for Zinc panels from the council’s planning department, and that he had never previously specified ACM cladding on a project.

The Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017 claimed 72 lives. The inquiry continues.