Fire brigade ‘fully accepts’ Grenfell Tower Inquiry report recommendations

London Fire Brigade said it accepts in full the recommendations directed towards the service from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report, exactly a month since its publication.

The capital’s fire chief acknowledged that while positive changes have been made in the years since the 2017 fire, which claimed 72 lives, “there is still much more to do”.

The final report from the lengthy inquiry into the west London tower block blaze concluded that London Fire Brigade (LFB) had failed to make the appropriate changes after a deadly fire in the capital almost a decade earlier.

While the report said the 2009 Lakanal House fire in Camberwell, south London, “foreshadowed” the Grenfell Tower blaze, it concluded that LFB failed to “implement any effective response” to the earlier fire, in which six people died, despite understanding its lessons.

The report said that failure had many causes, including a “chronic lack of effective leadership”, combined with “undue emphasis on process and a culture of complacency”.

Among 13 recommendations relevant to the fire service, the inquiry team called for LFB to “establish effective standing arrangements for collecting, considering and effectively implementing lessons learned from previous incidents, inquests and investigations”.

LFB said it “fully accepts this recommendation” and “will continue to be a learning organisation, building on the change implemented since Phase 1 of the inquiry”.

In March, the brigade announced that it had completed all recommendations made to it by the first stage of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which reported in October 2019.

On Friday, exactly a month on from the second and final report being published, LFB Commissioner Andy Roe said those initial recommendations had been “central to driving lasting institutional change” across the service.

The brigade said an August Bank Holiday fire in east London, at a building where unsafe cladding had been in the process of being removed, was evidence of the effective changes which have been made since the Grenfell fire.

On that occasion in Dagenham, 100 residents were either rescued or safely evacuated from the building under what LFB described as “the most extreme of conditions”.

In the wake of that fire Mr Roe said there were some 1,300 buildings across London which need remediation work to remove unsafe cladding done “as a priority”, a figure he said gives an idea of the scale of the challenge the fire service is facing to hold building owners to account.

LFB said new equipment in recent years such as fire escape hoods have saved more than 200 lives since their introduction.

The brigade said it supports the Phase 2 recommendations to establish a College of Fire and Rescue to set national standards, and a recommendation for the National Fire Chiefs Council to review national arrangements for how firefighters carry out instructions during a live incident.

The outcome of an inspection of LFB by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) carried out in June is expected to be published in November.

Mr Roe said: “Our thoughts are, and will always be, with the 72 people who tragically lost their lives, the survivors, their families, and the entire Grenfell community. The comprehensive recommendations outlined in the Phase 2 report reflect not only the depth of this tragedy, but also the complexity of its causes.

“We fully accept the recommendations of the inquiry directed towards LFB and fire and rescue services. In recent weeks, I have been working closely with relevant community groups and key stakeholders to form our response, ensuring we continue on our path towards meaningful change. I am also committed to ongoing discussions with the Government to address the broader recommendations aimed at improving building safety standards.

“This year, we have delivered against all the recommendations directed at us from the inquiry’s Phase 1 report. These recommendations have been central to driving lasting institutional change across the brigade.

“We have introduced important policies, new equipment, improved training and ways of working, particularly in how we respond to fires in residential high-rise buildings. I expect the upcoming HMICFRS report will reflect the changes we have made, though we are far from complacent and know there is still much more to do.

“We will take the same approach to learning the lessons from Phase 2. We owe it to the bereaved, the survivors, the community and our own staff to continue learning and changing the way we work to ensure that whatever situations we face ahead of us, we are equipped, trained and ready to respond effectively.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “It’s right that London Fire Brigade accept all the recommendations set out for them in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report.

“This is an important step, and I welcome the brigade’s plans for delivering the further changes needed at pace and continuing to protect and serve London.”

Asked about the timing for the recommendations to be implemented, Mr Roe said it would be a “mix of different timescales depending on what the recommendation says”.

He added: “But for the majority of them, we have already started or have delivered much of what Sir Martin Moore-Bick is rightly asking for.”