Grenfell Inquiry day 56: relations with contractor were ‘toxic’

News10.10.185.30 PM by Gavriel Hollander

The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire has heard that the relationship between residents and the contractors carrying out refurbishment on the block was “toxic”.

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Samuel Daniels, who lived on the 16th floor of the tower, told the inquiry today how the relationship with Rydon, the firm carrying out refurbishment in the years before the fire, had deteriorated.

Mr Daniels said the refurbishment work was supposed to last 18 months but in fact took two years to complete and “was a nightmare for tenants from the beginning”.

“We were living in a building site all the time,” he said. “There were builders everywhere and constant noise and dust through the windows.”

He added: “The relationship with Rydon was toxic. Residents resented them being there and the disruption to their lives. The builders were rude to residents and we were rude back.”

Mr Daniels also criticised the new front doors that were fitted as part of the renovations.

“They were much thinner than the previous doors and I have no idea why we were forced to take them,” he said. “We used to have thick, heavy fire doors that would close themselves if they were left open. The new ones were flimsy and the locking mechanism on my door kept breaking.”

Mr Daniels recalled how the front door of his flat broke a few months before the fire. He called the tenant management organisation, who sent someone to fix it.

He was told that a booking to replace the door would be made, but this had not happened before the fire broke out last June.

“This meant that even though they were supposed to be self-closing, mine was not self-closing at the time of the fire,” he told the inquiry.

Earlier this week, two Notting Hill Housing Trust tenants also told the inquiry that their front doors were not self-closing.

The inquiry also heard how Mr Daniels was forced to leave his father, who had limited mobility and suffered from dementia, facing a “wall of fire” in the flat they shared.

In a harrowing evidence session, Mr Daniels, who was a full-time carer for his 69-year-old father Joseph, described his desperate attempts to help him escape the blaze.

“I shouted at my dad to forget his shoes and to leave with me, but he was disoriented and frozen in a daze,” Mr Daniels continued.

“I grabbed him and tried to pull him out with me. I told him we had to go now; I was shaking him and pulling him but because he used to be a body builder, he was still strong.”

Mr Daniels said he knew “he was not strong enough” to move his father so went to get help.

Joseph Daniels was one of 72 people to die in the fire.

His son also told the inquiry that he already had concerns for his father’s safety in the event of a fire, especially as lifts in the block were often out of service.

“In the event of a fire, he wouldn’t be able to escape seeing as he can’t use the stairs,” he said.