Grenfell Tower fire was 'entirely predictable' and could have been prevented, expert says

Sam Webb says the Parliamentary All Party Fire & Rescue Group has been pressuring ministers to ensure sprinkler systems were installed in refurbished and new towers

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An architect and fire expert who presented a damning report to the Home Office about the safety of high rise apartments, has described the Grenfell Tower fire as “entirely predictable”.

Sam Webb, surveyed hundreds of residential tower blocks across the country in the early 1990s and found that half of those buildings didn’t meet basic fire safety standards

He presented his findings in a report to the Home Office.

“We discovered a widespread breach of safety," he told The Guardian. "But we were simply told nothing could be done because it would ‘make too many people homeless’."

Mr Webb also investigated 2009's fatal Lakanal House fire in Camberwell, south London, which claimed the lives of three women and three young children.

He said both tragedies could have been prevented if his recommendations had been followed.

Cladding panels underneath windows at Lakanal House, a fire that claimed six lives, had caught fire within four-and-a-half minutes – something Mr Webb highlighted.

“This tragedy was entirely predictable, sadly,” Mr Webb said in a separate interview with the Architects Journal. “What we saw at Lakanal House should have been enough to make people think about what was going on with the outside of our buildings in terms of cladding.”

Mr Webb sits on the Parliamentary All Party Fire & Rescue Group and said they had been pressuring ministers to ensure sprinkler systems were installed in refurbished and new towers.

“We provide people with water in their homes, why can’t we provide sprinkler systems – it’s not rocket science,” Mr Webb said.

“Ron Dobson, the then chief fire officer of the London Fire Brigade, concluded at the end of the Lakanal House inquest that these would have saved those who died.”

Police have said the death toll from the Grenfell Tower fire has risen to 30, including at least one person who was taken to hospital but later died.

More than 70 people are believed to be unaccounted for since the blaze, which police fear was so devastating that some victims may never be identified.