It’s a bit of a bugbear of mine and I’ve got too much else on my desk to really go into it now but the 1971 Fire Precautions Act basically required the local fire service to sign off on fire safety and escape plans for any new builds and gave the local FRS the power to prohibit>>

>> the inhabitiation or use of premises that were deemed to be at risk of fire. This was also an opportunity for local fire crews to familarise themselves with the building, plans, escape routes, particular risks, risks in the vicinity, etc. (Ask me about the 1000 folders of >>>

stuff we had to practically memorise to pass ‘competency’ in the FRS and you’ll understand why a decade out of service I can still tell you exactly which appliances to mobilise to a fire at Coryton or a petroleum tanker over turned on the M25 or a high rise flat alight in the >>

vicinity of a power station or a full emergency at stansted airport, etc etc). ANYWAY. In 2005, following extensive lobbying by MPs (a great proportion happened to also be landlords) the FPA1971 - the pre-emptory, safety-first, comprehensive fire risk assessment, was abolished>>

>>and replaced with the Regulatory Reform Order 2005. Instead of a comprehensive sign off from local fire and rescue experts before a premises was deemed safe and habitable, the RRO2005 simple required a ‘responsible person’ to carry out a risk assessment. The onus switched from>

>>those with no interest other than to serve and protect their community; to those with a profit margin to protect and a pecuniary interest. It became a remedial legislation rather than a pre-emptory one. And I. The process, the local ground intel for individual buildings and >>

their unique risks were lost to the fire and rescue services that depended on this granular intel to respond as quickly and accurately as possible to each individual incident.

When a 999 call is put through to fire control, we have on average 20 seconds to retrieve the >>

>> nature of the incident from a normally insensible/hysterical caller, 15 seconds to ascertain a full postal address, 10 seconds to identify the nearest appropriate fire appliances and send them the incident sheet to mobilise them. They have six minutes tops to get to the >>

>> address - in which time someone is pulling up the building plans and risk profile to inform the crew how to tackle whatever lies ahead. If they don’t have that information, because shoddy building crews have refused to provide it or buried it or whatever; they literally do >>

>> not know what they’re walking into. Which is how erroneous ‘stay put’ messages end up being sent out.

There were half a dozen fires at Grenfell in the years preceding the 2017 fire; and because of the concrete structure and crew ground knowledge, every one was contained >>

>>and extinguished with no major incidents.

This has turned into a long thread and I guess I’m just frustrated - we need a return to the FPA and to give fire crews back the power to sign off on buildings, to ensure corners aren’t cut and lives aren’t needlessly at risk for the>>

>>sake of profit margins and shareholder bonuses. And three and a half years after Grenfell I cannot believe this hasn’t happened already, and I cannot believe this isn’t really fucking obvious. And it’s a bit of a nerdy topic of mine but Christ, someone has to shout about it.