GRENFELL TOWER FIRE: A Review of the Public Inquiry Report

GRENFELL TOWER FIRE: A Review of the Public Inquiry Report

Program Description

The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire was the deadliest residential fire in the United Kingdom since the bombings of World War II. The final report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry, released in September of 2024, detailed the results a 7-year comprehensive investigation hoping to answer the question: “How was it possible in 21st-century London for a reinforced concrete building, itself structurally impervious to fire, to be turned into a death trap?”

The Inquiry uncovered a long chain of errors, carelessness, and incompetence. The project team was blamed for a pervasive "culture of non-compliance" with fire safety rules resulting from inexplicable ignorance of building regulations by design professionals and a widespread failure among all parties to take responsibility for important aspects of the work that affected fire safety. Most alarmingly, the inquiry discovered evidence of dishonesty and fraud involving corporations who manufactured the building products, and the testing agencies charged with certifying their compliance with code.

This presentation looks at the tower and its neighborhood, briefly recounts the fire’s origin and spread, and then examines the inquiry’s investigations, findings, and significant recommendations. Attendees will gain understanding of where mistakes were made and how they can be avoided in the future.

Speaker Bio

George A. Everding, FCSI, AIA, CCS, CCCA, SCIP, retired as an architect, specifier, and contract administrator after a career spanning the scope of architectural services from pre-design to post-construction on a broad range of project types and sizes.

He taught undergraduate and graduate level classes on specifications and building material selection, and was a frequent seminar presenter at conferences and other professional events.

George remains active with the Greater St. Louis Chapter of CSI and continues as a guest lecturer at the College of Architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Credit: 1.5 units (LU/HSW) AIA-CES.

Host or Publisher Greater Saint Louis Chapter CSI