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London has come close to 'other deadly Grenfell tragedies' several times, fire chief tells LBC
4 October 2024, 16:00
London has come close to suffering another Grenfell tragedy several times since 2017, the capital's top firefighter has told LBC.
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Andy Roe said it was "unacceptable" that 1,300 buildings in London remain unsafe and that he gets anxious about what could happen.
He called on building owners to take more responsibility, and for construction processes to be improved, as more high rises are built.
The commissioner said it would be months before they know what started the latest high rise tragedy in Dagenham, east London, on a block where unsafe cladding was in the process of being removed.
Speaking to LBC on Friday at Old Kent Road fire station in south London, the fire brigade chief said: “I’m afraid until we sort out the built environment, that risk of catastrophic building failure and extreme incidents, is alive and present in the capital.
“Whether it was Richmond House, where a block of flats burnt to the ground or the case of a more serious fire in Wembley where cladding had become involved or at Dagenham – where, yes, a lot of the cladding had come off, but many other defects were revealed in that building.
“I know I’ve got this immense responsibility to both the people and London and thousands of firefighters who put their life on the line on a daily basis, that’s a huge responsibility.
“That should cause me anxiety and it’s why as a service we will be both relentless in driving forward the changes still needed.”
Seventy-two people were killed in the Grenfell Tower fire in London’s North Kensington in June 2017.
The final report into the disaster found that the fire was a “culmination of decades of failure” by the government and members of the construction industry.
The long-awaited conclusion of the inquiry last month found that there was a “complacent and defensive attitude to fire safety” within government, with ministers repeatedly failing to act on warnings about the dangers of the flammable cladding.
The report gave 34 new recommendations - including 13 which relate to fire and rescue services.
The London Fire commissioner said his service will accept them all and is already working to implement them.
But Mr Roe again hit out at building owners who are failing to take responsibility for the safety of their tenants.
Matthew Wright & guests on the Grenfell Inquiry
He said: “We do enforce and inspect [high rises] regularly but actually, until building owners take their responsibilities seriously, and proactively seek to make to make those buildings safer, it is a huge challenge.
“We need to see an improvement in construction and the skills that underpin that, but we’ve got to see better moral behaviour from builders and developers and it’s clear that there is more to be done with regulation and ensuring the legislation and guidance works.
“If we make them safer and build them safer, then there will be less reliance on our response in what can be very high risk and extreme circumstances.”
Last month, a major flat fire at a private block in Dagenham saw 80 residents having to be evacuated and 20 others rescued with new smoke hoods, introduced by the London Fire Brigade since the first Grenfell report.
The commissioner told LBC it will be months before they know what started it, as unsafe cladding was in the middle of being removed.
