The official inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire is being re-staged in theatres in London and Birmingham next month
The terrible fire at Grenfell has led to one of the most important public inquiries in the last twenty years!
Phase one of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry pointed the finger at fire doors in particular, in its discussion of why ‘compartmentation’ of the building failed so drastically, allowing smoke to fill many of the lobbies and eventually the stairwells.
In short, it came down to a couple of specific failings.
One being- ‘self closers on flat entrance doors were broken or missing in many instances, meaning that when some residents fled, the door stayed open behind them. Smoke then billowed out from burning flats into the communal areas.
The extraordinary new play -Grenfell: Value Engineering - is a verbatim reconstruction of the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry.
It is aimed at giving the public an overview and access to some of the most important evidence from the inquiry, which has been running for the last 4 years.
The play uses only the words spoken at the Inquiry and deals predominantly with Part 2 of the Inquiry - modules 1-3 between January 2020 - July 2021.
According to ADB volume 2, a self-closing device is required on a fire door if:
subdividing escape routes to separate two or more storey exits
subdividing corridors every 12m in length
subdividing a dead-end condition in a common corridor exceeding 4.5m in length
protecting a staircase enclosure from a circulation space
doors opening onto external escape stairs
In ‘residential’ type buildings (care homes, hotels, student accommodation, etc), all fire doors should be fitted with a self-closing device, minus those such as cleaner and service riser cupboards, which will be closed behind and generally locked by the user. Buildings housing flats will also require self-closing devices to be fitted to the front door of each flat, separating the flat from the communal areas.
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