Sam Webb with his citation: ‘Never afraid to ask difficult questions of those in authority, he made a unique and expert contribution … and has probably saved many lives in so doing’

WHO will keep up the fight for fire safety now that Sam Webb has died?

The former Camden Council architect, who lived for many years in Parliament Hill, was a fierce advocate for­ tenants at Ronan Point, Lakanal House and Grenfell and has held local authorities to task for more than 50 years.

I spoke to him in March this year when he told me how fire safety rules needed to be urgently strengthened to protect residents in tall buildings proposed in the O2 Centre redevelopment.

The designs, which have been submitted to Camden Council, include several blocks higher than 18 metres.

However, all of the blocks will have just one staircase. While it is legal for new blocks to have single staircases, the London Fire Brigade has repeatedly raised concerns about the single stairway system since the Grenfell disaster in 2017.

Mr Webb MBE, who was on the All Party Parliamentary Fire and Rescue Group and founder of the group Tower Blocks UK, had said: “The dangers of a single escape staircase are obvious. The fire brigade have to lay hoses up the stairs from the bridgehead and these prop open the fire door on the floor where the fire is.

“This allows smoke to enter the stairs. Anyone above the fire trying to escape must come past the hoses on the stairs. These are live and can jump about. They can break legs. There should be a minimum of two escape stairs in a high- rise block.”

The UK is one of the only countries in the world that allow single staircases in buildings regardless of height.

Land Securities, the developer of the 02 Centre, dismissed concerns it was cutting corners with fire safety, adding “like the vast majority of residential developments in the UK, the buildings proposed for the O2 Centre site have one staircase supplemented by a suite of fire safety measures”, adding that Camden Council would be reviewing the designs along with the London Fire Brigade.

The earliest high-rise building built in London with one staircase was Lakanal House, Camberwell, where six people died in a fire in 2009. Mr Webb was an elected Royal Institute of British Architects Council and used to work for Camden Council as an architect.

He went to the Northern Polytechnic in Holloway Road, now part of the London Metropolitan University, where his architecture degree course was interrupted by two years’ national service in the RAF.

After travelling to Maoist China in 1973, he worked on housing design at Camden Town Hall and also taught architecture schools.

His MBE citation, awarded to him due to his work with the Grenfell Inquiry, says: “Never afraid to ask difficult questions of those in authority, he made a unique and expert contribution … and has probably saved many lives in so doing.”