NFPA Journal - Winter 2024 - 45

a full evacuation and training firefighters to implement
them was an essential aspect of fighting fires
in high-rise buildings.
One significant shortcoming was a failure to recognize
the possibility that in the event of a fire in
a high-rise residential building, a large number of
calls seeking help, both from within and outside the
building, might be generated. The LFB failed to take
any steps to enable it to respond effectively to that
kind of demand. As a result, when faced with a large
number of calls about people needing to be rescued
from Grenfell Tower, both those in the control room
and those responsible for handling that information
at the fireground were forced to resort to various
improvised methods of varying reliability to handle
the large amount of information they received.
Afterword:
The ecosystem challenge
In June 2022, five years after Grenfell Tower burned,
the government announced building regulation
changes throughout the UK that banned the type
of ACM panels that had been used on the building's
exterior. The revised regulations took effect in
December of that year.
Many observers wondered what had taken so long;
some pointed out that the use of combustible walls
and roofs had been banned in England since the
Great Fire of London in 1666. The 2010 UK building
regulations stated that " the external walls of the
building shall adequately resist the spread of fire over
the walls and from one building to another, having
regard to the height, use, and position of the building. "
In fact, the UK's " Fire Safety: Approved Document
B " allowed for combustible materials to be used on
the exterior of buildings provided the materials met
certain criteria when exposed to fire in a large-scale
test-a process that the Grenfell investigation demonstrated
was weak and easily compromised.
" The Grenfell Inquiry has revealed gaping holes
in the procedures for ensuring building safety, from
product manufacturers, test laboratories, third-party
certifiers, builders, architects, and even regulators, "
wrote Richard Hull, a professor of chemistry and
fire science at the University of Central Lancashire,
on theconversation.com in 2022.
In addition to ACM, high-pressure laminate-also
used on the exteriors of many types of residential
buildings-was identified as a fire risk. Some experts
have estimated that tens of thousands of residential
buildings in the UK alone are sheathed in some kind
of combustible exterior material, with perhaps a half
million people living in those buildings. According
to Reuters, ACM panels containing polyethylene
are now banned in at least seven countries-Britain,
France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and
Finland-for buildings taller than 18 meters (59 feet).
NFPA .ORG/JOURNAL * NFPA JOURNAL | 45
Sir Martin MooreBick,
a retired
judge appointed
to lead the public
inquiry into the
Grenfell Tower fire.
The findings of
the inquiry, seven
years in the making,
described a neartotal
collapse of the
fire and life safety
ecosystem.
PHILIP TOSCANO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
http://www.theconversation.com http://nfpa.org/journal
NFPA Journal - Winter 2024

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