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All the latest developments in building safety reforms

Author: Tom Low2021-02-26T14:41:00+00:00

The focus of the hearing was on the role of the testing agency in demonstrating the safety of the combustible building materials used on the Grenfell Tower

"This is a very busy place," Philip Clark, former combustion chamber manager of the Building Research Institute (BRE), was interviewed by Grenfell Inquiry this week for a series of errors during the fire test This is how he described his workplace when questioning.

"We can schedule 10 people on any given day," he said, adding: "We are not there every minute to check everything that our customers do every minute."

In this supposedly busy environment, Clark said he did not notice in May 2014 that the manufacturer Celotex's insulation product test bench was secretly modified to increase its chances of passing.

Former BRE burn hall manager Philip Clark provides evidence for investigation this week

After failing an early test using 8mm cement board in February 2014, the cement board connected to Celotex's RS5000 insulation material (later installed on the Grenfell Tower) has been thickened to 12mm.

But in two places on the test bench, the cement board is still 8 mm thick. This is because they are covered with two 6mm refractory magnesium oxide boards, which are placed there to reduce the influence of flames on the insulation material.

After the test passed, neither the official test report of BRE nor the insulation marketing literature of Celotex mentioned the magnesium board.

Two Celotex witnesses, former technical service officer Jamie Hayes and former assistant product manager Jonathan Roper had previously told the investigation that Clark was aware of the additional magnesium oxide boards.

Clark denied knowing about the magnesium board and said at the hearing on Tuesday: "I will report it. If I know, I will stop the test."

Although the magnesium board was not recorded, Clark's signature was on the delivery note for the thinner 8mm cement board, even though he claimed that he believed that all the boards had the same thickness.

He claimed that he made this mistake because the burn hall was too busy. 

The Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 killed 72 people

 The central theme of this week's review of the evidence provided by Clark is the extent to which he may have participated in Celotex's efforts to falsify the RS5000 insulation test to ensure it passed.

Clark also participated in negotiations with Kingspan to test its K15 insulation material, another product used in the renovation of Grenfell Tower. 

Clark claimed that the manufacturer could "secretly" install additional components on the test bench without the inspector's knowledge.

"We are not there 24/7. We don't have security at the door," he said, adding: "It depends a lot on the honesty of the customer."

When asked by the attorney for Richard Millett QC to ask whether this means that Clark does not always determine the exact composition of the rig being tested, Clark replied: "I don't necessarily say, no, but if you have someone who is deliberately deceiving, Then if this is their intention, they might do so."

Clark said that BRE's job is not to "carry out n-level supervision" on how drilling rigs are built, adding: "Everything we do is full of trust."

Even though Celotex managed to smuggle the magnesium boards onto the test bench without drawing attention, Clark claimed that he still did not notice the cement boards of different thicknesses he signed and the two ruby ​​ribbon magnesium boards fixed on the test bench. Bit.

Millett questioned this version of the incident and asked: "Don't you know that there is a 6mm magnesium oxide layer behind it? 

"You are in charge of this test, the photo shows it is there, the deputy knows it is there, as they have to do, it takes time to endure, it is covered by a very obvious ruby ​​ribbon in two places of different thickness materials. . 

"You must have realized the reason behind this, right?"

Clark said that he failed to find that the board "has lingered in my mind."

"I would go back to the burn hall the day before the test, I would run around the meter and all similar things, and to this day I still can't figure out why I missed it," he said, adding: "No, I can't explain it at all. "

But the next day, in a test in May 2014, Clark’s helmet camera shot a video clip in the Burning Hall. He told Jonathan Roper, former Celotex assistant product manager: “Look at the fire on the board now seems to have stopped because of you. A lot of energy is lost from behind it. 

"The other thing is that it is quite big behind the board [because] it extends the flame vent."

When asked the chairman Sir Martin Moore-Beek why he said "the board is there now", Clark said: "I don't know, it's just talking-a general conversation."

He said that when he talked about the things behind the board of directors, he was referring to flames.

In another communication captured in the lens, Clark once said, "Sometimes changing two things at once does not always give you an advantage." 

Former Celotex Assistant Product Manager Jonathan Roper (Jonathan Roper) testified for the investigation last year

Millett suggested that this refers to two changes in the test-the magnesium board and the thicker 12mm cement board.

But Clark denied that he knew of two things that happened during the construction of the tested wall, and said that he was only referring to "scientific principles. If you change two key items and two key variables, you don't know which one has changed." .positive effect."

Clark was also asked about BRE's testing of Kingspan's K15 insulation material, because in a 2005 test, it was found that the flame was incorrectly recorded as having a propagation velocity of half the actual velocity.

Due to a typo in the BRE file, it is said that the flame in the test took 10 minutes to climb up to four meters on the K15 rig. It actually took five minutes.

The error occurs after extracting data from the wrong column in the test note, and the correct time is only recorded in the original handwritten note of the test.

Then, starting from this point, the error value is repeated in all test data.

Clark said at the hearing that this error "should be corrected", adding that he only realized the error during the investigation last year.

To make the testing agency even more embarrassing, it was revealed on Thursday that former Celotex assistant product manager Roper had warned BRE that Kingspan had abused its successful K15 BS 8414 test four years before the Grenfell fire broke out.

In an email exchange revealed to the survey, Roper appeared to have reminded Stephen Howard, BRE business group manager, that Celotex's competitor in the insulation market, Kingspan, has been selling K15 on various exterior wall systems not covered by the test.

Roper wrote: "This product is used in buildings over 18m, using a variety of structures, some for masonry, and some for steel frames with ACM panel cladding, terracotta, etc."

BRE Business Group Manager Stephen Howard provided evidence for the investigation on Thursday

He added: "We [surprised] that they are confident enough to use their products in buildings that are not covered by their fire tests unless they have a report saying otherwise."

Despite the warning, Howard did not take any action within the BRE regarding Kingspan's use of insulating materials because he said Roper did not provide further information on how the product was abused.

K15-like Celotex's RS5000-was later found to be included in the cladding system used in the renovation of Grenfell Tower, which was blamed for the fire that killed 72 people in June 2017.

The investigation next week will hear more evidence from Howard, as well as evidence of construction control by contractors Simco and Herefordshire.

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