The GTI resumed on Monday 19 April after the Easter break. For the next three months, the inquiry will hear evidence about the complaints and communication with residents, the management of the building, compliance with the Regulatory Reform Order 2005 (RRO), the fire risk assessments and active and passive fire safety measures internal to the building.
The majority of this week was dedicated to residents’ complaints to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC) and the Tenants’ Management Organisation (TMO), how these were dealt with and the adequacy of the fire safety advice, with a particular focus on the period in which the tower was being refurbished.
Residents ignored
The witnesses all spoke about how their safety concerns were ignored by RBKC/TMO. Lee Chapman, who lived on the 22nd floor of the tower, reported that the lifts were constantly breaking down and that his worries about the dangers of installing gas pipes in the stairwell were not properly addressed.
Another resident, Betty Kasote, explained that in 2014 her flat entrance door would not close automatically, but the problem was never fixed. Emma O’Connor, who is disabled, was housed on the 20th floor of the tower, despite needing a trolley for support and balance in order to walk. She explained that when she moved into Grenfell Tower, there was no discussion about how she would get out in the case of an emergency or fire safety in general. She relied on the lifts at Grenfell, and complained ‘constantly’ about their condition.
Another resident, David Collins, reported that he did not feel safe in the Tower and would have left the building in the event of a fire. He set up Grenfell Community Unite with Edward Daffarn and other residents in March 2015 to act as a collective voice for residents. He spoke of the dangers of the TMO’s renumbering of the floors during the refurbishment and his concerns that visitors to the building, including firefighters, would have found it more difficult to locate individual flats.
Eddie Daffarn gave an extraordinary account of the fight for the safety of the Grenfell community. Mr Daffarn was a founder of the Grenfell Action Group in 2010. In 2012, he started writing a blog to give the community a voice around issues relating to the nearby Kensington Academy and Leisure Centre project, adjacent to Grenfell Tower. As a result of residents’ concerns being ignored during the refurbishment, he set up the Grenfell Compact. He explained that residents preferred to come to the Grenfell Compact or to local councillor Judith Blakeman directly rather than using the TMO complaints process because going to the TMO was ‘a complete waste of time’ – he described the TMO as a ‘non-functioning, self-serving organisation’.
The testimony of Mr Daffarn and the other residents who gave evidence this week is remarkable. Their accounts - their expert knowledge of their unsafe homes - sit in stark contrast to the months of evidence from building and industry ‘experts’, who all, in their different ways, claimed ignorance about fire safety.
The Inquiry also heard from representatives of the TMO and their responsibilities around equality and diversity and the fire risk assessment process. In the coming weeks, more witnesses from the TMO and RBKC will be giving evidence, and this will cover their legal duties under the RRO. They will be followed by witnesses representing the companies connected with the lifts, fire doors, gas works and dry riser/water supply at the Tower.
