Fire safety is one of those aspects of life that we don't really think about untill we have to but because  I have been involved with it for nearly 60 years I have seen the tragic effects at first hand and what it can do do people and their families and this is why we need to be able to identify and report fire safety problems ourselves.

It would be nice to think that when we go into any building that it had been inspected by the fire and rescue service  (FRS) and that it was up to the required fire standard, but unfortunately this is not the case and the reality is that it may not have been inspected for many years and our safety is reliant on how competent the owner (responsible person RP) or his representative is.

In my experience and as you will have seen from recent tragic fires this can be a dangerous assumption and even more worringly is the fact that the fire and rescue services do not always get it right eg the Grenfell Fire and the "stay put" policy for residents. This is why we have to take some responsibility on ourselves to report defects to the RP or the FRS and the media together with questioing things that we feel are not right.

This project aims to help you in this difficult area and to provide examples of poor fire safety that I have encountered and what action you can take.

Fire Investigation

The current situation in the UK does not make independeent fire investigation easy as for many years it has been solely the domain of the FRS, but if you think about it, can it be right if the authority that controls the legislation also investigates the serious/fatal incidents? It didn't work for the police and in my experience it doesn't work for the FRS.

In many of my investigations it can be clearly seen that the FRS fail to provide relevant information that I have requested and this statement by the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel issued by Baroness Nuala o'Loan, I believe should be considered "We believe that concealing or denying failings, for the sake of an organisation’s public image is dishonesty on the part of the organisation for reputational benefit, and constitutes a form of institutional corruption.

We recommend the creation of a statutory duty of candour, to be owed by all law enforcement agencies to those whom they serve, subject to protection of national security and relevant data protection legislation."

The Penhallow Hotel Fire

This was the first hotel investigation that I had carried out following a request from the residents who did not believe what they were being told by the police and FRS and after my initial enquiries I could see why and so I wrote this article https://www.ifsecglobal.com/fire-news/the-penhallow-hotel-fire-accident-arson-or-incompetence/ Following this I made a video with the BBC showing how I thought the fire had occured and this is it https://youtu.be/_k2GVcXwuQI It was interesting to note that the FRS threatened the BBC with legal action if they broadcast the video but it was broadcast and no action was taken.

The Royal Clarence Hotel Fire

It can be difficult challanging an official version of what went wrong after a serious fire but I gave my version to the media and this very brave fire officer came forward to give another version and his words to me were " your version was nearer to the truth than the offical version" - see video below you decide.

The Cameron House Hotel Fire

This is my initial investigation into the fire that I carried out following a request from the mother of one of the guests that died in the fire.https://www.ifsecglobal.com/fire-features/the-cameron-house-hotel-fire-what-do-we-know-what-do-we-not-know/

My Freedom of Information  (FOI)request https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_about_inspections_pr#outgoing-1428705

The Clandon Park Fire

This was not one of my usual hotel fire investigations but I was interested because I had done some fire safety work for the National Trust (NT) previously and I was a member and this together with contact with a member of the FRS aroused my interest that all was not right with the investigation. I did try to get some additional information from the NT Executive but they would not answer my questions and so I wrote this article https://www.ifsecglobal.com/fire/clandon-park-fire-questions-from-a-national-trust-member/ I did receive some information about the actions of the FRS but could not verify them but my investigations did uncover some interesting points about the investigation as you can see in the article.