Grenfell Tower Inquiry start date confirmed

The inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick will provide an opening statement to set out the approach to the and how it will operate. The opening will take place at 10:30am at The Connaught Rooms in London and is expected to last one hour. A public screening of the opening remarks will be held at The Notting Hill Methodist Church and a live stream will be available at www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk

The Prime Minister announced a public inquiry into the fire on 14 June and the inquiry will report directly to the Prime Minister. The purpose of the inquiry is to discover what happened at Grenfell Tower and to make recommendations to prevent a similar tragedy happening again. The Inquiry’s terms of reference include:

1. To examine the circumstances surrounding the fire at Grenfell;
2. The immediate cause or causes of the fire and the means by which it spread to the whole of the building;
3. The design and construction of the building and the decisions relating to its modification, refurbishment and management;
4. The scope and adequacy of building regulations, fire regulations and other legislation, guidance and industry practice relating to the
   design, construction, equipping and management of high-rise residential buildings;
5. Whether such regulations, legislation, guidance and industry practice were complied with in the case of Grenfell Tower and the fire safety
   measures adopted in relation to it;
6. The arrangements made by the local authority or other responsible bodies for receiving and acting upon information either obtained from local residents or available from other sources (including information derived from fires in other buildings) relating to the risk of fire at Grenfell Tower, and the action taken in response to such information; and
7. The fire prevention and fire safety measures in place at Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017;
8. The response of the London Fire Brigade to the fire; and
9. The response of central and local government in the days immediately following the fire;

FSM will be hosting a webinar on 2 October, which features key industry figures talking on the subject of tall building fires and what needs to be changed after the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

The webinar is completely free to attend and takes place between 10:30am-11:30am on 2 October and will include presentations from Association for Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP) chief operating officer Niall Rowan, former general secretary of the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association (BAFSA) Stewart Kidd and convenor of the Tall Buildings Fire Safety Network Russ Timpson.

It will focus on the lessons that need to be learned not only from the Grenfell Tower fire but also numerous recent tall building fires around the world. Russ Timpson will share his views on what needs to be considered in the upcoming Building Regulations review and will also put the spotlight on evacuation procedures and suitable cladding materials for use in tall buildings.

Niall Rowan will explain why it's vital that skyscrapers have adequate passive fire protection installed and will provide tips on how this can prevent fire spreading through a building. While, Stewart Kidd will detail how sprinklers could have saved lives in the Grenfell Tower fire and why it's essential that all new tower blocks have sprinklers fitted and existing buildings have suppression systems retrofitted. 

The webinar is free to attend and open to anyone and is being supported by both BAFSA and ASFP. Attendees will not only enjoy three informative powerpoint presentations but will also be able to submit questions live, which FSM managing editor Mark Sennett will pose to the panel. You can register to attend at http://events.streamgo.co.uk/tall-building-fires/register?redirect=%2Ftall-building-fires