UPDATED WITH BRENT COUNCIL STATEMENT: LETTER: Will Brent Housing ever carry out the urgent repair to the self-closing fire door on the 3rd Floor at William Dunbar House, South Kilburn?

 

The fire door that is supposed to be self-closing remains open - allowing flames and smoke to penetrate the building.

 

Brent Council reacts on Twitter to John's first letter - January 18th, 2022

UPDATE February 2nd 2022

 

 

Dear Editor,

 

Will Brent Housing ever carry out the urgent repair to the self-closing fire door on the 3rd Floor at William Dunbar House, South Kilburn?

 

As readers of WM know, I have been trying to get the council to fix the Fire door on the 3rd floor for a long time, which compromises my safety and that of everyone living in the block.

 

Last night there was a serious fire in Poplar on the 8th floor of a tower block which required an emergency evacuation, with some residents escaping via an internal fire escape.

 

If a fire was to break out on the 3rd floor of my block and smoke and flames escaped from the flat where the fire was, it would quickly travel out the open fire door into our only internal fire escape, leaving  everyone living in the block trapped with possible fatal consequences.

 

Nobody can ever predict when a fire might break out in their home, so I am calling on Brent Council for one last time to repair the fire door to ensure the safety of everyone living there.

 

Finally, the council are breaking the law, as The Fire Safety Order (2005) updated in 2021 says "landlords have a duty of care to protect any residents living in William Dunbar House" but for some reasons known only to themselves, they have chosen to break the law by not repairing the fire door.

 

Thank you

John Healy.

 

Here is a reminder of Brent Council's undertaking following the Grenfell disaster

 

 And here is the link to the manufacturer's statement on maintenance:

https://www.gerdasecurity.co.uk/productsandservices/communal-fire-doorsets/maintenance.aspx

 

 

"How 'Urgent' is 'Urgent' when there's a major fire risk fault?" No repair of fire door at William Dunbar House yet

 

 Picture taken yesterday

It will be 2 weeks on Monday from when Pensioner John Healy wrote a letter to Wembley Matters desperately seeking help in getting Brent Council to deal with faulty fire doors at his South Kilburn block, William Dunbar House. LINK

Shortly after publication I was able to update the article with news that a councillor was taking up the case.

In a further article on January 18th we revealed that another door, on the 5th floor was also faulty and this time Brent Council replied on Twitter:

 Escalation as a matter of 'Urgency' was welcome but another week has gone by and the 3rd floor door has still not been fixed. (Photo above).  John Healy discovered that some flats in the same block did not have self-closing doors.

John said:

Could you question the Council as to what they mean by 'urgent'.  The council told me they carried out an inspection on the doors after your first story in WM without the pictures, which is 2 weeks ago.  Tthought the Council said 'this issue is urgent" but I have to spend another weekend at least, worrying about a possible Fire in my block.

Could you also ask them about all these flats that do not have self closing fire doors?  I assume they belong to leaseholders.

UPDATED WITH COUNCIL RESPONSE: Brent Council must exercise its duty of care and fix the non-operating self-closing fire doors at South Kilburn block. Have they not learnt lessons from Grenfell?

 This 3rd floor self-closing fire door has not been working since 2017 despite notification to Brent Council

A week ago Wembley Matters published a letter from John Healy who lives at William Dunbar House on the South Kilburn Estate. LINK

He had resorted to writing the letter to ask Wembley Matters for helf after his attempts to get Brent Council to repair what are supposed to be self-closing fire doors that have remained open. One since 2017!

John Healy wrote:

At the Grenfell Inquiry, self closing fire doors that did not self close were identified as the second highest issue after unsafe cladding and as a result I have been emailing the council to fix 2 self closing doors that do not self close and which are part of my only fire escape in my high-rise, one on the 3rd floor & one on the 5th floor but after 3 years, they still have not been fixed and everyone's safety is under threat because of this.

I had a response to one of my emails from a housing officer who said "Fire Safety is not included in my job description" and he failed to pass it on to another officer, who did have Fire Safety in their job description.

After 3 years I decided to ask the London Fire Brigade to solve the issue but I was shocked by their reply, which said they were not responsible for Fire Safety in council blocks and they forwarded my email back to Brent Council who failed to take any action as usual.

I hope that now the evidence of failure to rectify is public that Brent Council will exercise its dury of care to residents and quickly fix the problem on the 3rd floor and the more recent 5th floor problem (below) and check every self-closing door in the block.

 As I  was was completing this article I received another email from John Healy that speaks for itself:

Can you ask Brent Housing to carry out a full inspection of all the fire doors in William Dunbar House, as I have only checked those doors up to the 5th floor and for all I know, there may be many others in the floors above me.

At the Grenfell Inquiry Mr. Stokes the Fire Risk assessor carried out his FRA's without actually going into the tower.  Since I began emailing the council, my block has had 2 FRA's, with the last one in 2019 and neither of them noticed the damaged doors.

II can only assume that the FRA's in my block were carried out using the same method as Mr. Stokes, where the assessor never actually visited my block.  The last one even got the location of our only fire escape wrong. He said it was next to the lift shaft and anyone entering the building could clearly see the stairwell began at the far side of the building.

When I reported this to Brent Housing they said "they had full confidence in the FRA assessor and it did not matter that he got the location wrong".

It is worth recalling that a resident of Grenfell had written a series of blog articles drawing attention to the fire danger in the block. He was ignored.

 RESPONSE ON TWITTER SHORTLY AFTER THE ABOVE ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED

 

UPDATE - case taken up by ward councillor. LETTER: A letter to Brent Council regarding my safety in the event of a serious fire in my high-rise block

 Dear Editor, 

How can I get Brent Housing Management to fix the self closing fire doors in my high-rise, William Dunbar House, South Kilburn.

At the Grenfell Inquiry, self closing fire doors that did not self close were identified as the second highest issue after unsafe cladding and as a result I have been emailing the council to fix 2 self closing doors that do not self close and which are part of my only fire escape in my high-rise, one on the 3rd floor & one on the 5th floor but after 3 years, they still have not been fixed and everyone's safety is under threat because of this.

I had a response to one of my emails from a housing officer who said "Fire Safety is not included in my job description" and he failed to pass it on to another officer, who did have Fire Safety in their job description.

After 3 years I decided to ask the London Fire Brigade to solve the issue but I was shocked by their reply, which said they were not responsible for Fire Safety in council blocks and they forwarded my email back to Brent Council who failed to take any action as usual.

Now I am asking Wembley Matters to get a response from Brent Council and get them to fix the 2 self closing door in my block.  However if there are at least 2 damaged doors in my block, I am sure there must be many more damaged doors throughout the rest of Brent's high-rise stock and the council should carry out an urgent inspection of all their high-rises to check to see if there are any other self closing fire doors that do not close.

I realise how important this issue is after the tragic fire in the Bronx that was caused by a non self closing door that stayed open, allowing fire and smoke to escape to the rest of the building, resulting in so many tragic deaths.

My fear is that my block could be next, unless Brent Housing fix all the damaged fire doors across the borough, or we could end up like Grenfell or yesterday's fire in the Bronx..  

Thank you Martin.

John Healy

 

UPDATE: Following publication of this letter on Wembley Matters a ward councillor has got in touch with John to take up the case.

UPDATE Has Brent Council learnt nothing from the Grenfell Inquiry and are they putting their disabled residents in peril as a result?

Lawyers involved in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry into the 2017 fire which killed 72 people have described it “as a landmark act of discrimination against disabled and vulnerable people”.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council knew about the conditions of Disabled people living in Grenfell Tower but refused to provide them with evacuation plans, and housed some on the upper floors with a ‘stay put’ fire policy, the Inquiry into the Tower fire has heard.

Source Disability Rights UK  

 

UPDATE - Today, the day after this article was published Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt has written to John Healy acknowledging his enquiry of April 21st and stating that it has been forwarded to the respective department who will look into the issue and make every effort to resolve it. He said the Council aimed to respond withing 10 working days.

Readers may recall several articles Wembley Matters has published about the plight of disabled pensioner John Healy who lives in a Brent Council block on the  South Kilburn Estate.

John wrote a personal blog on March 12th  about the issues he was facing and Brent Council made the following statement in response:

"Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEP) are essential for anyone who may need assistance in the unlikely event of being advised to leave a building because of fire. We're concerned that something seems to have gone wrong here and have contacted Mr Healy to put it right."

John Healy contacted the Council and the Council could not find the PEEP request he had made and asked him to resubmit. He resubmitted and has heard nothing further. John says that officers have stopped replying to his emails.

In their evidence LINK  to the Grenfell Inquiry Bindmans pointed out the failure of the Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) to assess residents' needs:

 Dr Lane finds no evidence that TMO assessed the needs of any vulnerable person in GT in the event of a fire3. This failure resulted in TMO not being appraised of the fire precautions required by RRO in order to protect residents, including vulnerable residents, and failing to advise LFB of the need to assist the vulnerable. The lack of appropriate precautions is reflected in the deaths: a quarter of the 67 child residents present on the night died and 41% of the 37 vulnerable adult residents died.These groups suffered higher death rates than any other category on the night. Yet TMO's spreadsheet emailed during the fire showed only 10 out of 225 residents listed with disabilities5

 Mr Healy is rightly concerned that Brent Council has also failed to adequately assess the needs of its vulnerable residents, putting them at considerable risk.  I would go further and say that they are repeating what Kensington and Chelsea did in ignoring the pleas of their tenants when they draw attention to deficiencies in safety precautions in their blocks. Brent Council brought council housing back in house instead of having the arms length organisation ,Brent Housing Partnership - Brent Housing has direct control and thus direct responsibility for the welbeing and safety of its tenants.

It even appears the Mr Healy is seen as a nuisance who can be ignored.  Today he wrote to his housing officer:

Good afternoon, you may be aware that the Grenfell Inquiry heard today from an officer of Kensington & Chelsea council, as he responded about why he failed to issue PEEPs to several disabled residents in the block, including many who tragically died on the night.

I myself have been asking for a PEEP since last September and I still have not been sent one.

I also need to see the evacuation policy for everyone at William Dunbar House.

And finally can you send me a copy of the latest Fire Risk Assesssment for William Dunbar House please?

Cllr Janice Long has submitted a generic  question to the Council  about PEEPs. according to Mr Healy, which gave him some hopes, but the Council has 14 days to reply, prolonging the uncertainty and anxiety.

John told Wembley Matters he had  contacted a senior officer who deals with Council policy:

 I asked him what did he mean when he said in a debate on Fire Safety in Brent's tower blocks:-

"In terms of people with special needs, we will try and relocate the residents if necessary".

The cabinet said they would review their position on retrofitting sprinklers in the 8 South Kilburn tower blocks (including William Dunbar House), once the result of the South Kilburn resident's ballot is known but they seem to have forgotten to have the review.

I have to remain in my block for several years without any sprinklers, even after the London Fire Brigade  said they could only say a high rise is safe, if they have sprinklers installed in them.

I also checked my most recent Fire Risk Assessment for my block---William Dunbar House over evacuation which says:-

"Physically disabled people should be relatively safe in their own abode should a fire occur elsewhere in the building".

Our rating is 'moderate' which says "in a serious fire there are llikely to be some deaths but not too many".

So if some will die in a serious fire, I have a feeling it is most likely to be me, or another disabled person living in my block.

Just to add, the Brent Housing officers who were dealing with me through email have stopped replying to me.  They have not responded to my Stage 1 complaint either, even though it has gone past their 20 days waiting time before they are supposed to respond.

 So this pensioner with very limited mobility and extreme deafness is left without a Personal Emergency Plan, that is required by law, on the 5th floor of a block without sprinklers or an alarm system that he can hear and with his request for relocation refused. On top of that his Stage 1 complaint made in order to get some sort of hearing has not been responded to within the required 5 days and a further 20 to find a solution. The complaint was made 38 days ago.

Is it any surprise that he feels desperate, ignored and sick with worry?

 

Repair carried out at pensioner's flooded flat. Power still off.

The good news is that after two weeks the repair to dry risers at William Dunbar House on the South Kilburn Estate  that caused John Healy's flat to flood has at last been carried out. There was a residual amount of water that continued to drip from the ceiling but that has now stopped.

Unfortunately the flat will need to dry out before power can be restored and meanwhile John has no heating or hot water. Wates will need to visit to assess when power can be safely switched back on.

Brent Council seeks injunction in order to tackle 10 day leak flooding pensioner's flat & leaving him without heating

Brent Council this evening made the following statement about the case of John Healy, the pensioner who has been in his flat without heating for more than 10 days following a leak and subsequent flood:

As soon as we were informed that there was a leak in a property at Dunbar House, South Kilburn, we responded immediately. We attended the property immediately and identified the source of the leak. 

The leak is affecting a few properties in the block including Mr Healey’s home. We made contact with all the affected residents, and offered them temporary accommodation where necessary and other support. Our Neighbourhood Housing Officer for the area has been in close contact with Mr Healey and also offered him temporary accommodation and other relief which he declined; he has stated he is happy to remain in the property.

The resident of the source property is now denying further access, despite repeated attempts to gain entry. As this is a tenancy breach, we are in the process of obtaining an injunction. This will allow us to access the property and stop the leak, as well as carry out the required repairs.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused to the affected residents, and this anti-social behaviour from the resident at the source property is completely unacceptable. In order to gain entry, we need to follow the legal process which is why it has taken longer to resolve. Our immediate concern is to stop the leak and to offer ongoing support to the affected residents. We are also taking appropriate action on the tenant who is obstructing the repairs.”

Asked for his reaction John said:

Just for accuracy my surname is Healy and it is 'William Dunbar House'.  Over the period they have blamed three different tenants for refusing access to the source- all three preventing the repair seems a bit fishy to me. 

I told my housing officer that I was ok on Wednesday evening as I thought that the repair would be done the nest day, based on the information that the council now knew the source. They did not know it immediately as the council statement claims.

Had I known that they had not even started I would at least see what decant was on offer. I am not happy to remain in the property but I will not move anywhere until they tell me the details. I have several hidden  illnesses and impairments, so I need a suitable property that meets all my needs before I can move on to it. I am on PIP for both the Daily Living component and the mobility component. This is a DWP benefit and proves my level of disability as they have strict eligibility criteria.