Kent Fire Rescue Evidence - Wednesday 13th October 2021

13 October 2021 · Dr. Grimwood (Kent Fire Rescue), Mr. Kinnier (Counsel to the Inquiry), Chairman · 23:48
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Evidence from Kent Fire and Rescue Service regarding their involvement and observations related to the Grenfell Tower fire, focusing on fire dynamics training and operational procedures.

Key moments

Full transcript

# Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (medium model)

# Source: Local audio transcription (no YouTube captions available)

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00:19:20 thanks very much

00:19:28 all right dr. Grimwood

00:19:29 thank you sir

00:19:30 sorry we kept you waiting a bit longer than I suggested

00:19:32 but I think we're ready to go on now

00:19:34 so we'll see if there are any more questions for you

00:19:37 yes mr. Keir

00:19:38 thanks sir, just a few dr. Grimwood

00:19:40 in answer to an earlier question

00:19:42 you mentioned that

00:19:44 suppressive capacity and resource limitations

00:19:46 it was the email correspondence you were having with

00:19:48 mr. Cowop

00:19:50 that it was a particular topic in Kent

00:19:52 and with you personally because you were doing your PhD

00:19:54 in matching fire load

00:19:56 with the amount of water that's used

00:19:58 and it was concerning you

00:20:00 that fire and rescue services were discharging the same amount of water

00:20:02 into a flat fire as an office

00:20:04 now what training did firefighters have at Kent

00:20:06 to work out fire load

00:20:08 well we undertook

00:20:10 an extensive fire dynamics

00:20:12 training program

00:20:14 that formed part of the training

00:20:16 that I was giving

00:20:18 up till 2015

00:20:20 and we have

00:20:22 an operational note

00:20:24 operational information

00:20:26 that we have

00:20:28 that we have

00:20:30 an operational note

00:20:32 operational information note

00:20:34 on fire dynamics

00:20:36 which is very advanced

00:20:38 and we expect firefighters

00:20:40 to be aware of

00:20:42 all the information in there

00:20:44 would you expect the question of fire load

00:20:46 to be examined as part of a 7-2-D process

00:20:50 certainly if they were going into an office

00:20:54 they would be expected

00:20:56 to try and match up fire load

00:20:58 with water requirements

00:21:00 but in a flat

00:21:02 probably the fire load

00:21:04 the only fire load they would really be concerned with

00:21:06 would be something stored on balconies

00:21:08 or hoarders

00:21:10 would the question of cladding

00:21:12 on the exterior of a premises

00:21:14 be something that a fire crew took account of

00:21:16 as part of the 7-2-D process

00:21:18 and considering fire load

00:21:20 I should say

00:21:22 I think they would look to identify

00:21:24 to the knowledge

00:21:26 level that they have

00:21:28 if there was cladding

00:21:30 existent

00:21:32 or relevant

00:21:34 and if they weren't then we would

00:21:36 perhaps have a database of buildings

00:21:38 that have cladding

00:21:40 on such buildings

00:21:42 where we actually increase

00:21:44 the PDA

00:21:46 the predetermined attendance to

00:21:48 such buildings so they would be aware of it

00:21:50 thank you

00:21:52 Dr. Groomer that concludes all the questions that I

00:21:54 now have for you

00:21:56 and it just leaves me to say thank you very much indeed

00:21:58 for attending to give evidence today

00:22:00 it's much appreciated

00:22:02 thank you

00:22:04 well Dr. Groomer not too many extra questions

00:22:06 anyway we are very grateful to you all three of us

00:22:08 for your coming to give us your evidence

00:22:10 I and I'm sure

00:22:12 my colleagues have found it very interesting

00:22:14 and we're very grateful to you for giving up

00:22:16 so much time to come and talk to us

00:22:18 it's a pleasure thank you sir

00:22:20 thank you very much indeed

00:22:22 so if you'd like to go to the usher that would be fine

00:22:24 thank you

00:22:32 sorry

00:22:34 thanks

00:22:52 thank you Mr. Keneer

00:22:54 no more witnesses today I think

00:22:56 that concludes the evidence for today

00:22:58 the evidence will start up again

00:23:00 next Monday when

00:23:02 Professor Chris Johnson will be called

00:23:04 and examined by Professor Millett on his report

00:23:06 which dealt with communications

00:23:08 yes and he's the first of a series of

00:23:10 expert witnesses we're going to hear

00:23:12 next week is that right?

00:23:14 that's right three next week

00:23:16 thank you very much well in that case we'll

00:23:18 conclude at that point for today

00:23:20 thank you very much indeed for this week

00:23:22 we'll resume on Monday next week at 10 o'clock

00:23:24 when we look forward to seeing

00:23:26 Professor Johnson thank you sir

00:23:28 thank you very much indeed

00:23:30 10 o'clock Monday next week

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