[DemolitionRed]

A new district heating scheme was installed in Grenfell Tower in the rehab. completed in 2015, whether using the original concrete ducts or not I don't know. The issue which occurs to me is what was the effect of this ducting (old and possibly new) in compromising the fire and smoke sealing of flats and floors which is crucial in a block like this?

Apparently after the rehab. a complete a new gas supply system was found to be necessary and was installed through the whole block.

I heard no mention of these possibilities yesterday, but today for the first time I heard a fire prevention expert on Radio 4 mention "heating pipes" as a possible vector for smoke or flame transmission across what are supposed to be internal barriers.

Nevertheless... the external cladding, again the cheapo option when a safer one was available, seems to be the main suspect for breaching or, rather, bypassing the internal fire barriers at present. If that turns out to be either the whole or part of the case, then unfortunately sprinkler systems in the flats would have made little or no difference.