Grenfell subcontractor ‘can’t see how’ cavity barriers were fitted wrongly

负责为格伦费尔大厦安装新的绝缘材料和覆层的公司的一名合伙人告诉2017年火灾的调查人员，“他看不出”在有缺陷的翻新工作中，中空屏障是如何前后颠倒安装的。

Grahame Berry of subcontractor Osborne Berry denied the firm had struggled to get enough qualified workers for the refurbishment, which led to the loss of 72 lives, when he appeared before the Grenfell Tower Inquiry yesterday.

Like his business partner Mark ‘Taff’ Osborne had done on Monday, Berry – known as ‘Bez’ to the project team – agreed that photographs of the work taken during post-fire investigations had shown workmanship that was “shocking” and “unacceptable”.

Particular issues included Siderise cavity barriers intended for horizontal use that were found installed both vertically and back to front on the tower and other barriers that fitted poorly. Both scenarios were not isolated incidents and meant the barriers were unfit to stop the spread of fire and smoke.

Inquiry barrister Kate Grange QC asked Berry how it was possible that nobody noticed such examples of poor workmanship on site.

“I can’ t see how it’s arisen because of the other checks that people have come ’round after we’ve installed the stuff,” he said.

“There were checks after we’ve installed all our stuff on the building anyway, the insulation, the firebreaks as such. So I can’ t see how that got missed.”

Grange asked who else Berry expected to be checking the installation of the cavity barriers and insulation that Osborne Berry was tasked with fitting before the rainscreen cladding specified for Grenfell Tower was put in place. Berry named Harley Facades’ project manager Ben Bailey.

Grange asked whether it was possible that the casual fitters and fitter’s mates who worked for Osborne Berry had been left to their own devices and that their work had gone unchecked.

“Most of the time we were always on site looking at what people are doing on various mast climbers around the building,” Berry said.

“It’s happened but I can’ t see how it would have happened as such.”

Grange asked whether any specific training had been given to Osborne Berry’s team about how to install vertical cavity barriers properly.

Berry said team members had been told which type of barrier to use vertically and which to use horizontally and had seen mock-ups of correct installations. He said they had also been shown how to install the barriers correctly.

But he also told the inquiry that there had been a gap of “a good two months or more” between the installation of the horizontal cavity barriers on the tower and the installation of the vertical barriers.

在会议的早些时候，Grange问Berry他是否阅读了Siderise产品的营销和安装指南。他说没有。

Berry gave similar answers for installation instructions for the Reynobond aluminium composite material (ACM) cassettes used on the tower and the Celotex RS5000 and Kingspan K15 insulation installed on Grenfell tower.

He also said he was not sure whether he had ever installed Siderise cavity barriers before and that he could not recall fitting cavity barriers with an intumescent strip – like those on the horizontal Siderise barriers – previously.

No labour shortages

Berry was asked whether he and Osborne had ever struggled to find properly qualified fitters and fitter’s mates to help them on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment.

格兰奇向他展示了2015年8月与Total Site员工代理机构的一封电子邮件，他在邮件中写道，如果下周一他没有在现场安排四名额外的装配工，他将与他所在公司的董事总经理有“真正的麻烦”。

Berry was asked whether he had ever been forced to take on workers who didn’t have the right skills to do the job. “Not that I’m aware of, no,” he replied.

贝里被问及Total Staff邮件记录的另一部分，该机构的工作人员说:“我已经替换了所有四个人。”

格兰奇问贝里是否曾经说过，他不希望某个钳工或钳工的伙伴回到现场，因为担心他们的工作。“我不记得有这样的事，不，”他回答说。

Berry was also asked about September 2015 report from Jonathan White, one of project client Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation’s contracted-in clerks of works.

怀特写道:“外部覆层仍然非常落后。劳动力非但没有增加，反而减少了，现场只有两个人。还会有进一步的延误。”

Berry said he did not think there would ever have been only two men on site fitting the cladding.

Invoices

周二的听证会上，奥斯本·贝瑞在2014年9月将其在格伦费尔大厦的工作的最初定价为252,465英镑，项目外部信封承包商哈利·Facades已经接受了这个价格。但费用上升到36.7万英镑。

Berry said the increase in cost related to “extras” that were not known about in 2014, such as the discovery that the windows Osborne Berry were installing at Grenfell did not come pre-glazed and the need for a layer of EPDM synthetic rubber to go around the frames.

He was also asked about an October 2015 invoice to Harley for around £27,000 that included itemised entries for one day when he and Osborne were on site but had nothing to do, which was priced at £360. Another entry was for £880 and was described as “8 men no work for 1 day machines up in air to look like working”.

In explanation, Berry said: “I think that was a time where we had no materials on site for that particular day or so, and Rydons had a client meeting with a potential client for another building,” he said.

“Harley asked us to be up in the air to look like we were working so it was like a normal building site as such, rather than people just sat downstairs doing nothing.”

Berry said the team had gone up the mast climbers and pretended to work for the day. Asked whether the team had pretended to work for the whole day, Berry replied: “Bar lunch break, obviously.”

Berry said he did not know who the client had been.

Complaints

Harley’s Ben Bailey and Berry’s business partner Mark Osborne were asked in their evidence about a complaint from Grenfell refurbishment main contractor Rydon containing allegations about Berry’s on-site behaviour.

The April 2015 email from Rydon project manager Simon O’Connor said there had been a number of complaints about Berry knocking on residents’ windows asking for tea, scaring animals inside flats, showing a “complete lack of respect for health and safety” and criticising the quality of Rydon’s work. One of the health and safety concerns involved climbing between mast climbers on the site.

O’Connor’s mail said he would have Berry removed from the site if there were any further incidents.

Grange asked Berry about the complaints. He said there was no truth to any of them.

Asked specifically about climbing between mast climbers, Berry replied: “I’m not stupid enough to climb across a climber when it’s 10 or 12 or 15 floors up in the air. I wouldn’t be that stupid or naive to do that.”

贝瑞说，试装团队唯一一次在桅杆攀爬器在空中飞行时从它身上下来，是在他们在屋顶区域工作的时候，他们在这种情况下一直戴着夹式安全带。

调查仍在继续。