The Mayor of London has published an update today showing the progress that the Brigade has made on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations.
As the first anniversary of the inquiry’s Phase 1 report approaches it is clear that significant changes have been made. We are now on track to complete 21 of the 29 recommendations directed at the Brigade by March next year.
To mark the anniversary, the Mayor of London visited Old Kent Road fire station today where he met the Commissioner. He was shown examples of some of the new equipment the Brigade has put in place, such as the new drone and 32 metre turntable ladder.
Commissioner of London Fire Brigade, Andy Roe, said: “Earlier this year I met with members of the Grenfell community, I am humbled by their courage and dignity in the face of what they suffered and their determination to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. I echo their determination and I am committed to completing all of the Inquiry’s recommendations so that Londoners, particularly those living in a high rise building, can feel safe in their homes.
“In the last 12 months we have been working to implement those recommendations directed at the LFB or fire and rescue services. We have made changes including introducing new equipment, such as fire escape hoods and new drones. We have developed new procedures to help firefighters tackle fires in buildings that fail and are training for our firefighters and officers in these.
“This has been a challenging year for everyone and the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in some of our improvement activities taking longer to implement than planned. Everyone affected by the Grenfell Tower fire deserves to see progress being made on all recommendations as quickly as possible and minimising any delays is a priority to me.
“I share the Mayor’s concerns that faster action is needed by the Government, housing and building industries and that urgent changes do need to be made to building safety regulations. Everyone has a right to feel safe in their homes and we need to work together to make sure a similar tragedy is prevented.”