Summary_Readers Response (Draft 2)

In the news release, “Eight failures that left people of Grenfell Tower at mercy of the inferno”, Knapton and Dixon (2017) reported the eight failures of the Grenfell Tower’s fire incident. Until 1986, all buildings in London adhered to the London building act which demanded that external walls have a minimum of at least 1 hour of fire resistance. However, during the Margaret Thatcher’s government, the law was changed which removed the critical time stipulations. Also, a coroner’s report in 2013 following a 2009 fire in South London was responded by Community Secretary Eric Pickles who reassured that a government review on building regulations would be published in 2016/17. Till today, there is still no updated regulation. The physical aspect of the Grenfell tower was also a vital cause to the fire incident. Firstly, the claddings were thought to be made out of a flammable plastic core, and the position of the claddings also acted as wind tunnels to spread the fire upwards. Secondly, there was no central sprinkler system in the building, and some of the front doors were not fireproof doors. Also, the Grenfell Tower only had one staircase which made escaping and rescue difficult and lastly, no regular inspection was being conducted for the building.

All in all, the Knapton and Dixon (2017) news release provides information regarding the eight failures of the Grenfell Tower’s fire incident, however it fails to mention the critical factor that leads to the other failures. From my perspective, if regular inspection was conducted on the building, it could have prevented this terrific incident from occurring.

"No regular Inspection" was the most vital failure which leads to the other failures. Should regular inspection be conducted, the chances of other failures occurring are minimal. From the article, the Grenfell Tower had many fire issues that were brought up to the relevant authorities, however nothing was done to address those issues. This could be supported with another article, "Grenfell fire warnings issues months before blaze, documents show" (Busby, 2018) where it stated that in June 2016, there were warnings issued by the independent assessor and actions were recommended on more than 40 "high-risk" issues within two to three weeks. It is essential and important for planning any maintenance actions to improve the condition and functionality of a building. The main purpose of an inspection is to acquire useful information about the technical performance of a building which includes “structural, physical, and well-functioning building equipment”(Bortolini, Forcada, 2018).

From my standpoint, if regular inspection was conducted for the Grenfell Tower, it would have been known to install a fire pumping system in the building which Grenfell Tower failed to do as stated in the article. The presence of a fire pumping system is very important when an undesirable fire event occur. They would emit fire containment substances like foam, in addition to water. In the article “Availability of fire pumping systems under periodic inspection” (Sobral, Ferreira, 2016), it stated that whenever a fire occurs, and something goes wrong, the operability of the fire pumping system is one of the first issues to be analysed by insurance companies. This proves how imperative the presence of a fire pump system in a building is. It could have saved more lives in the tragic event of Grenfell Tower Inferno.

In conclusion, these failures could have been avoided with regular reviews and better-fireproofing standards. Regular inspections are essential to a building’s general maintenance and it should have been carried out for Grenfell Tower. Knowing the existing and potential issues is crucial to ensuring the safety, aesthetics and value of a building. If the potential failures of Grenfell Tower were predicted with regular building inspections, corrective measures or actions could have been implemented, preventing other failures from occurring. It is also crucial to have mentioned the importance or severity of each failure to allow future engineers or designers to delve into and learn from them, preventing such incident from happening again in the future.



References

M. Busby. (2018, August 08). Grenfell fire warnings issued months before blaze, documents show. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/08/grenfell-fire-warnings-issued-months-before-blaze-show-documents

Rafaela. Bortini., & Nuria. Forcada. (2018, October 05). Building Inspection System for Evaluating the Technical Performance of Existing buildings. Retrieved February 03, 2019, from https://ascelibrary-org.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/doi/full/10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0001220

J. Sobral  & L.A Ferreira (2016, December). Availability of fire pumping systems under periodic inspection. Retrieved February 3, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352710216301693