The smell of ashes
Published: Mon, 05/21/18
The Grenfel Tower Fire inquiry begins today. At the end of June last year I happened to drive along the A40 road within a few hundred yards of the ruined building. It was not a pretty sight and I don’t think I was imagining it when I caught a whiff of the ashes, even from the road.
What will be the purpose of the investigation? There is talk of getting justice for the victims and making the guilty pay for their crimes. It may come out that one particular person, or organization, did something so egregious or negligent, that they can be held criminally accountable. I am certainly not going to pre-judge the inquiry. Enough people have already stated that they expect the whole process to be nothing but a cover up. They might be right and if the inquiry was looking at high finance, or anything military or involving the secret services I would have my doubts too.
But in the case of Grenfel Tower it is hard to see that there was any malevolent intent. High rise residential buildings were constructed of concrete in the 1960s and 1970s to provide affordable social housing in already built up areas. The concrete construction made them inherently fire proof and, as far as I understand it the safety records for such buildings, in their original form, has been pretty good. However, concrete cladding is not aesthetically pleasing (certainly not as it ages), or energy efficient by modern standards. So, many millions of pounds were invested in renovating Grenfel Tower, internally and externally, including fitting cladding on the outside which proved to be combustible. However, proper provision for alarms, sprinklers and evacuation procedures had not been updated from when the building was effectively fire proof, as it was in its original conception.
There are plenty of risks for the inquiry to identify and ask searching questions about, and I am sure they will. Is any one person or organisation likely to be held criminally liable for the 72 deaths, and general chaos and suffering, that resulted from the fire? At this stage I would be surprised although I could be wrong. However, I hope that no one is made a scapegoat of in order to ‘satisfy public outrage’, that would be a tragedy in itself.
The important thing is that the right lessons are learned from the disaster, new procedures are developed and, most important, those who make the crucial decisions about public safety are properly empowered to take appropriate action in the future. Actions that may well have been thought of, and suggested in the past, but disregarded, because the apparent risk did not seem to justify the cost. I am not going to guess what those rulings might be. However, after the inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic it became a requirement to carry enough life boats (and carry out lifeboat drills) and maintaining listening watches on the radio throughout the night. Both of which would have saved hundred’s of lives when the Titanic sank, and have saved many lives since. We can only hope that something similar will come out of the Grenfel Tower Inquiry in the coming months.
Perhaps the real issue that the any inquiry into a disaster must address is the trauma left by the event, and the anxiety that it should happen again. The second module in my Self-protection Programme will be dealing with fear. I will be considering the three types of fear, intellectual assessment of risk, the physiological response to threat and the effect on the mind of anticipated crisis (anxiety) or remembered crisis (trauma). Sometimes more damage can be done by anxiety and trauma, than the actual crisis itself. On the other hand, a proper analysis of crises develops your ability make risk assessments and in turn, enables you to manage threats or even crises, in the future. Principles apply on all scales. So, although it may seem trivial to compare the two, analysing a major disaster such as Grenfel, or a child working out how to deal with a bully in the playground, are essentially using the same principle. If we can learn
how to deal with small scale problems, then we are actually equipped to deal with the big ones.
If you are interested in the Self-protection programme see here https://iceandfire.org.uk/martial01.html
regards
Graham
PS Allen Reed will be teaching at the HDC event on the 9th and 10th of June. As a Deputy US Marshal he dealt with potentially life and death situations as a routine part of his job. One of his workshops will look at how law enforcement officers use their training, experience and equipment to manage dangerous people. I have been asked why this is HEMA? Maybe it isn’t yet, but it will be one day, and now seems to be the right time to learn from the man who has been there and done it. Got to be better than trying to work it out from old books if you have the choice. Full details at http://hdc.stavcamp.org/