Grenfell Inquiry day 76: ‘stay put’ should be dropped when blaze moves across floors, says expert

Earlier in the day, Professor Torero submitted a report that called for the “early and significant failure” of the compartmentalisation in the Grenfell Tower to be further investigated and clearly understood.

He submitted evidence looking into the reasons behind the spread of the fire, alongside the inquiry’s other expert witnesses Dr Barbara Lane and Professor Luke Bisby.

Dr Lane said in her updated evidence that the certificate given to show the cladding used on the tower complied with building guidance was “factually incorrect”.

Professor Lane criticised the certificate provided for the panels provided by the British Board of Agrément (BBA) saying the body relied on “out-of-date reports”.

Professor Bisby, who is a professor of fire and structures at the University of Edinburgh, submitted updated evidence which highlighted survivor evidence about flames entering flats through extractor fans.

He commented in his evidence that in many cases the extractor fans were the first components of the windows to fail and fall away.

He also said there was some visual evidence to suggest that the first external part of the building to ignite was the extractor unit outside Flat 16.

As part of Professor Torero’s submitted evidence, he suggested that the inadequate performance of self-closing doors could have been a contributory factor to the early spread of the fire.

The professor fielded questions from the inquiry throughout the day on his report.

Asked by inquiry head Sir Martin Moore-Bick whether the lobbies of the tower were compromised by doors not closing after residents left their flats, Professor Torero said: “Absolutely, that is a possibility.”

He added: “That would imply self-closing mechanisms were not working and that people didn’t close the doors. Clearly that is a possibility that needs to be evaluated very carefully.”

Nevertheless, when asked how significant the lack of self-closers in terms of the compromise of the lobbies with smoke.

He said: “That is a difficult question to answer, obviously if the door doesn’t close the effect on the lobby is significant.

“Unfortunately, self-closers are not the most reliable of systems.”

Professor Torero used the example of the door between the coffee room and inquiry room at the Holborn Bars, where the inquiry was being held, and pointed out that the self-closing mechanism had been removed.

He said: “Having an enormous reliance on self-closing mechanisms is probably asking too much of a system that is a secondary means of protection, in principal if the fire would have not emerged from compartment of origin, then all these secondary elements would not been truly significant to the fire safety strategy.”

He added: “The problem is when everything else fails, these are the only thing that can pick up the pieces and then they acquire a significance they were never intended to have.”