Grenfell Tower basement substation
Case reference FOI2026/00639
Received 4 June 2026
Published 21 July 2026
Request
I am requesting recorded information held by the London Fire Brigade concerning the decision during the Grenfell Tower fire to keep the basement electrical substation live.
1. Please include any record showing: - who gave that advice; - when it was given; - what "not involved" meant; - whether it referred only to fire involvement; - whether it also included water ingress, flooding, electrical hazard, firefighter safety, gas-isolation operations, or risk to crews in the basement; - whether remote isolation was requested, considered, refused, delayed, not attempted, or deliberately not used; - whether street-level isolation was requested, considered, refused, delayed, not attempted, or deliberately not used.
2. What recorded information shows whether basement flooding, water ingress, or unsafe electrical conditions were known, assessed, or communicated before the decision was taken to keep the substation live? Please include any record showing: - when LFB first became aware of water, flooding, or significant water ingress in the basement; - whether that information was relayed to AC Roe, the Command Unit, UKPN, or any incident commander; - whether UKPN advised that flooding or water affected access to the substation or safety of work; - whether the presence of water affected the decision to keep the electricity live; - whether the decision was later reviewed, debriefed, corrected, disclosed to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, or supplied to the Metropolitan Police.
3. Please also provide any recorded information held by LFB concerning the later HV/LV substation inspection due on 6 December 2017, including whether LFB was informed of the inspection, received any result, held any report, was told the inspection did not take place, or supplied any related record to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry or Metropolitan Police.
Response
Our General Counsel’s Department have let me know that they have over 13,000 documents on their Grenfell SharePoint site. To obtain the information you have requested they would have to manually check these documents to locate and extract any relevant information that is related to the basement electrical substation.
To remain within the “appropriate limit” of £450 as defined the FOIA fee regulations, an individual in the General Counsel’s Department would have to manually retrieve each of the 13,000 files (electronically), examine the document for any record of the information you have requested and, then extract any relevant information located in less than five seconds per record, which would not be feasible.
I therefore confirm that the cost of providing the information you have requested is greater than the “appropriate limit” of £450 as defined the FOIA fee regulations. In setting this out in full this now serves as a formal ‘refusal notice’ for this part of your request based on section 12 of the FOI act. As you may be aware, if the cost exceeds the appropriate limit to comply with a request, a public authority is not obliged to comply with it. If you can further refine this part of your request then please let us know however, please do bear in the mind the manual nature of any search that may need to be carried out to obtain this information as detailed above.
Documents
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