Arconic, the manufacturer of the Reynobond aluminium composite material (ACM) panels that were on Grenfell Tower, has blamed other materials on the building for creating the conditions for the disaster.
In his closing submission to the first phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the firm’s counsel Stephen Hockman QC said: "It was only the use of ACM PE in combination with other materials used in the refurbishment of Grenfell, together with the configuration of those materials and the absence of other fire safety features in the building that created the conditions for the catastrophe.
“If the refurbishment of the interior window surrounds and the external envelope of the building had been carried out in a different way, it would have been possible for the firefighters to extinguish the fire in flat 16 [where the fire originated] before the fire even reached the cladding system.”
He claimed that expert evidence from Arup’s Dr Barbara Lane, Professor Jose Torero, a fire expert from the University of Maryland, and Professor Luke Bisby, chair of fire and structures and the University of Edinburgh, accepted that “the materials with which and the way in which the interior window surrounds and the external envelope of the refurbished building were constructed meant that an internal fire in one of the apartments would penetrate rapidly into the cladding system”.
Hockman added: “The use of PIR insulation immediately outside the window structure, a material which has a low thermal inertia and, therefore, catches fire relatively quickly, meant that not only did the fire exit from the flat much more quickly than anyone would’ve expected, but it contributed to an increase in temperature within the cladding system cavity, thereby providing optimum conditions for the ACM PE panels to catch fire.
“This sequence of events was entirely avoidable if a different approach to the refurbishment had been adopted, irrespective of the type of rainscreen panelling which was thereafter superimposed.”
He also blamed other internal features of the building such as the fire doors, the ventilation and the absence of sprinklers, and argued that had the design and construction of the building been different, the fire would have penetrated the building “much less rapidly”.
Following the Grenfell Tower disaster, the government has banned the use of combustible materials on all new schools, hospitals, care homes, student accommodation and residential buildings in England above 18m in height.
Rydon, the contractor that refurbished Grenfell Tower had been due to make an oral submission to the inquiry yesterday but ultimately decided not to do so, however, it did provide a written closing statement.
Now that phase one of the Grenfell Tower inquiry has concluded, phase two is set to focus on the construction and refurbishment of the building and the decisions which enabled the disaster, in which 72 people died. Hearings are not expected to start until 2020.
