London Fire Brigade ‘failed to heed warnings of high-rise fire before Grenfell’

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A fatal fire at a housing block in 2009 should have alerted the London Fire Brigade to the “shortcomings” in its ability to fight blazes in high-rise buildings, the final report of the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster has found. The report found that the Lakanal House fire in Camberwell, south London, “foreshadowed” the 2017 Grenfell Tower blaze. The tragic conclusion is that the Lakanal House fire in July 2009 forewarned the LFB about the existence of the shortcomings which revealed themselves once more on the night of 14 June 2017 Grenfell Tower Inquiry report The report identified several key measures that should have been implemented by the LFB following that incident. It named former LFB commissioners Roy Dobson and Dany Cotton as bearing “ultimate responsibility for the LFB’s inability to take effective action after the Lakanal House Fire”.