Grenfell Firefighters Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
THE GRENFELL FIREFIGHTERS STUDY; establishing a cohort
IRAS ID
265618
Contact name
Johanna Feary
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College, London
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN92425651
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
On the 14th June 2017 a fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower, causing the deaths of over 70 occupants. The fire spread unusually rapidly and its extinction – which took 60 hours - required the labour of over 1000 firefighters from the London Fire Brigade (LFB). Because of the scale and nature of the fire, a sizeable proportion of firefighters were subjected to unusually high exposures to fire smoke, often without standard respiratory protection; this proposal is for the study of potential adverse effects from these exposures.
Through LFB we will invite all the Grenfell firefighters, and a sample of other LFB firefighters, to undergo a confidential assessment of their respiratory and cardiac health. We will use simple breathing and cardiac questionnaires and tests; we will also collect samples of blood for examination of DNA damage and other genomic signals in a subsequent project which will require additional funding and ethical approval. Finally, we will request permission from participants to enrol them in an ongoing process of linkage to routinely collected health data such as those from hospital admissions and cancer registration.
We will correlate the findings from the respiratory and cardiac measurements with data held by the LFB on individual exposures to firesmoke at Grenfell and at previous (and subsequent) fires. In the longer term we will link these exposure and early-outcome measurements to future adverse health events.Lay summary of study results: On the 14th June 2017 a fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London, causing the deaths of over 70 occupants and becoming the worst residential fire in the United Kingdom since the second world war. The fire spread unusually rapidly and its extinction – which took 60 hours - required the labour of over 1,000 firefighters from the London Fire Brigade. Because of the scale and nature of the fire, a sizeable proportion of them were subjected to unusually high exposures to fire smoke, in many cases without standard respiratory protection. This study team proposed to create a cohort of the Grenfell firefighters to study a range of potential health effects from these exposures.
The main study question is: “will exposure to fire smoke at the Grenfell Tower fire cause long-term health effects to firefighters of the London Fire Brigade?”
The study is officially called “The Grenfell Firefighters Study; establishing a cohort.”
The study sponsor is Imperial College, London. The study is funded by the Colt Foundation, a medical charity.
The study recruited a total of 687 current or previous firefighters as study participants, through the London Fire Brigade (LFB). These were either firefighters who attended the Grenfell fire, or those who were eligible to attend the incident but could not.
We further grouped participants based on their cumulative/total exposure to fire smoke, based on data from the LFB from Grenfell, and at previous (and future) fires.
Both participant groups underwent the same tests. No treatments or interventions were given to any participants in this study.
The baseline survey took place between February 2020 to April 2023. For this baseline survey, all recruited participants attended a one-off appointment at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London with the study research nurse and did a series of simple, non-invasive tests to measure baseline heart and lung health. This included breathing tests, a detailed blood pressure assessment, and a questionnaire on breathing symptoms.
A blood sample was also taken to examine any DNA damage and other genomic signals, as part of a later project which will require additional funding and ethical approval.
During the baseline survey, we asked participants’ permission to use their data in an ongoing process of health data linkage, to routinely collected health data (such as hospital admissions and cancer registries) at any point in the future. This is to examine the incidence of heart and lung conditions and cancer in this cohort over the next 50+ years.
By using a combination participant data from the LFB, the study’s baseline survey and ongoing future health events, we hope to understand more about whether exposure to fire smoke at the Grenfell Tower fire caused long-term health effects to these firefighters.Lay summary of study results: On the 14th June 2017 a fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London, causing the deaths of over 70 occupants and becoming the worst residential fire in the United Kingdom since the second world war. The fire spread unusually rapidly and its extinction – which took 60 hours - required the labour of over 1,000 firefighters from the London Fire Brigade. Because of the scale and nature of the fire, a sizeable proportion of them were subjected to unusually high exposures to fire smoke, in many cases without standard respiratory protection. This study team proposed to create a cohort of the Grenfell firefighters to study a range of potential health effects from these exposures.
The main study question is: “will exposure to fire smoke at the Grenfell Tower fire cause long-term health effects to firefighters of the London Fire Brigade?”
The study is officially called “The Grenfell Firefighters Study; establishing a cohort.”
The study sponsor is Imperial College, London. The study is funded by the Colt Foundation, a medical charity.
The study recruited a total of 687 current or previous firefighters as study participants, through the London Fire Brigade (LFB). These were either firefighters who attended the Grenfell fire, or those who were eligible to attend the incident but could not.
We further grouped participants based on their cumulative/total exposure to fire smoke, based on data from the LFB from Grenfell, and at previous (and future) fires.
Both participant groups underwent the same tests. No treatments or interventions were given to any participants in this study.
The baseline survey took place between February 2020 to April 2023. For this baseline survey, all recruited participants attended a one-off appointment at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London with the study research nurse and did a series of simple, non-invasive tests to measure baseline heart and lung health. This included breathing tests, a detailed blood pressure assessment, and a questionnaire on breathing symptoms.
A blood sample was also taken to examine any DNA damage and other genomic signals, as part of a later project which will require additional funding and ethical approval.
During the baseline survey, we asked participants’ permission to use their data in an ongoing process of health data linkage, to routinely collected health data (such as hospital admissions and cancer registries) at any point in the future. This is to examine the incidence of heart and lung conditions and cancer in this cohort over the next 50+ years.
By using a combination participant data from the LFB, the study’s baseline survey and ongoing future health events, we hope to understand more about whether exposure to fire smoke at the Grenfell Tower fire caused long-term health effects to these firefighters.REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1847
Date of REC Opinion
6 Dec 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion