BPF Corrects the Guardian on Lakanal House Fire Inaccuracies

 The inquest into the Lakanal House fire concluded on 28th March.

The full coroners verdicts can be found at

http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/LakanalHouseVerdicts.htm

Media coverage of the tragedy was intense, and rightly so. However, some coverage of the inquest included inaccuracies, such as the following initial reports in The Guardian, which wrote: ‘A proper inspection would have picked up work from the 1980s that removed vital fire-stopping material between flats and communal corridors, the inquest said. It also noted that asbestos window panels had been replaced with PVC equivalents, which burned out in less than five minutes, accelerating the spread of the blaze’.

Surprisingly, there is no reference to PVC on the Lakanal House verdicts as the material that replaced asbestos window panels. We found, on the contrary, that asbestos window panels were indeed replaced, but by composites Trespa sandwich wall panels, not a PVC product.

The BPF, anxious that the information that such a high profile news publication provides is correct, quickly wrote to the editor. Consequently, the article was rectified to confirm the Lakanal House replacements were indeed composite panels. They have also added a footnote making clear that the replacement panels were not a PVC product.

To see the corrected article please go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/28/lakanal-house-fire-deaths-prevented