By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service has identified 23 ‘high-risk’ buildings on its patch following the Grenfell Tower disaster.
A fire occurred at Grenfell Tower in London in June 2017 which killed 72 people and destroyed the 24-storey block of 129 residential flats.
A public inquiry to investigate the disaster and if any lessons could be learnt later made a series of recommendations for fire services.
Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service had completed all 47 by December 2021.
Now, at a community safety committee meeting on June 9, councillors will be updated on the progress of the Grenfell Tower action plan in Notts.
Papers published ahead of the meeting explain community events have been carried out at the 23 high-risk buildings to reassure residents and educate them on evacuation strategies. The report does not give the locations of the buildings.
Papers stated: ” NFRS has assessed 23, high-risk, tall buildings. These buildings are classified as ‘high-risk’ due to factors such as; external flammable cladding, poor compartmentation, fire safety defects, or complexity of layout.”
The fire service’s Joint Audit and Inspection Team (JAIT) is also inspecting buildings in the city.
So far, 188 buildings have been inspected with a further 21 buildings over 18 metres and 275 buildings below 18 metres scheduled for inspection.
The service has further detailed its response to the plans, including training exercises and specialist equipment.
Papers stated that the service has carried out five “tall building exercises” in the last twelve months.
And they added that the Grenfell Infrastructure grant of over £100,000 was used to purchase specialist equipment.
They said: “New specialist equipment has been purchased to provide and support effective rescues and safe evacuation of people through smoke-filled environments.
“This includes the purchase of smoke hoods, smoke curtains,
dividing breaches, short lengths, additional radios, and loud hailers.
“The smoke hoods have already been used operationally and have supported the safe rescue of trapped persons.”
Firefighters are also starting a programme of ‘dry riser’ testing on the 23 buildings.
A dry riser is a network of pipes running up inside tall buildings to enable the fire brigade to pump water to areas within the building when tackling fires high up.
“This is to ensure firefighters are familiarised with delivering water within tall buildings and to also check for defects”, the documents stated.
‘Tabletop’ exercises have also been carried out with firefighters to standardise the service’s approach to these incidents.
The papers added: “No-notice exercises have been carried out and will continue over the next six months.
“These are designed to test the Service’s capability to co-ordinate
the evacuation of large number of people, from different communities and
with different accessibility and evacuation needs.”
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
(HMICFRS) has also confirmed that addressing the Grenfell Tower Inquiry
recommendations will be an area of focus for the next inspection of the service.
This is likely to include a practical assessment of the evacuation of a large number of people from tall buildings.
