Grenfell Tower fire safety consultant ignored email about cladding because he was only copied in and not the ‘primary recipient’, inquiry told
- Terry Ashton ignored documents outlining proposed cladding and insulation
- The fire safety consultant also failed to read the architect’s progress report
- It comes as the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire began once again this week
The chief fire safety consultant for the Grenfell Tower refurbishment ignored documents outlining proposed cladding and insulation materials because he was not the ‘primary recipient’ of the email, an inquiry has heard.
Terry Ashton, who leads the fire engineering firm Exova, admitted ignoring an email he was copied into by architecture firm Studio E in 2012 which contained attachments containing details and drawings of a planned cladding system.
Mr Ashton also told the inquiry that he failed to read the architect’s progress report which he was sent on the same day his first fire safety report was published.
It comes as the inquiry began once again this week after having to put the proceedings on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Terry Ashton, the chief fire safety consultant for the Grenfell Tower refurbishment, did not read an early progress report by the project architects
Mr Ashton told the inquiry on Wednesday: ‘It was not on my mind at that time, I guess.
‘Had we had some sort of preliminary details of the cladding for us to consider then we might have incorporated it in the list.’
The fire consultant of some 25 years, who had no formal training as a fire engineer, said his main focus was on the refurbishment of the lower four floors of the west London block at the time.
He admitted ignoring an email he was copied into by architecture firm Studio E on October 23 2012 which contained attachments headed ‘Grenfell Work Packages’.
He also failed to read the architect’s progress report which he was sent on October 31, the same day his first fire safety report was published.
Asked why, he told the inquiry: ‘We weren’t the primary recipients … that happens a lot on projects, you get copied in, it’s a sort of scattergun approach.
‘There’s nothing asking us to look at it.’
Inquiry counsel Kate Grange QC asked him: ‘Wasn’t that a really important document prepared by the architects that would inform your work on the outline fire safety strategy?’
Mr Ashton said he would not have read it unless ‘specifically asked to do so’.
He said: ‘To just send me a link … without any instruction as to what I should do with it, then I would ignore it, which is what I did.
‘It’s absolutely the case, if somebody wants an answer from somebody, they will ask them the question.
‘Otherwise you spend lots of time looking at things which may have no interest for you.’
Seventy-two people died as a result of the fire at 24-storey Grenfell Tower in June 2017
Ms Grange took Mr Ashton through the architect’s 2012 Stage C Report, which he was seeing for the first time, that contained drawings, proposed cladding materials, and the insulation which was to be used.
She said: ‘Do you agree it does contain some specific information about what was proposed, including the specific type of insulation to be used in the outer cladding?’
He replied: ‘I can see that now, yes.’
Exova has previously said criticism of it is ‘unjustified’ because it was not consulted about the flammable materials which eventually coated the building.
The firm’s counsel, Michael Douglas QC, has told the inquiry the company had been ‘left out’ of planning discussions and had been effectively sidelined after Rydon became the main contractor in 2014.
‘Exova took no part and was not involved or expected in discussions about materials to be selected for the exterior cladding’, he told the inquiry earlier this year.
Seventy-two people died as a result of the fire at 24-storey Grenfell Tower in June 2017, when an electrical fault in a fridge-freezer sparked a catastrophic blaze which was fuelled by the building’s flammable cladding system.