Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington - news and discussion
- Thread starter JTG
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bi0boy
Power User
Obviously other evacuating people can help them down, but the main message is that they get to the refuge, and the fire brigade should be up there in minutes. Some buildings can also have designated fire evacuation lifts, but clearly this one didn't.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
lifts in tower blocks notoriously unreliable at the best of times
EastEnder
Brixton Barnacle
Looks like there might've been a lot of non-compliance in this instance. Just the very idea of being in a wheelchair, stuck in an ineffective refuge, as the fire gets closer... it's a horrific thing to say, but at least an able bodied person has the last resort option of jumping out of a window...The fire is supposed to be contained in the flat it started. Even if it breaches that, the stairwell is additionally protected. Certainly enough time for firefighters to go up and bring wheelchair users down from the landings. There could also be evac chairs that people can use to take wheelchair users down flights of stairs. That's why fire safety videos tell wheelchair users to go to refuges, because it's a system that works.
Obviously if the building doesn't comply with the regulations, then all that goes out the window.
Treacle Toes
Time
bimble what would be happening in that flat to make that woman decide throwing her baby from the 9th floor was the better choice? I'm so pleased the child was caught but
I think we can all imagine.
bimble
floofy
I know. Just that hours ago i read that a child was thrown out of a window and now i see that one was caught, so that counts as 'good news'. Still too much for brain to deal with, of course.bimble what would be happening in that flat to make that woman decide throwing her baby from the 9th floor was the better choice? I'm so pleased the child was caught but
No. It is very often part of an upgrade to the thermal performance of the building, it should be a positive thing for the residents. Insulation just wasn't a consideration for construction until relatively recently. To include insulation in old buildings you either lose internal space or stick it outside which means that a new cladding system will be required. Modernising the look of the building is a happy by-product of this process.
Its supposed to be a win win. Warmer homes, cheaper bills and a modern looking building which the residents can feel good about.
EastEnder
Brixton Barnacle
It's looks unreal, such devastation, like something out of a hollywood disaster film...
mod
A modernist
People throwing their kids out of windows. People jumping from windows. Fuck me this is horrific.
London fire: Families threw children out of Grenfell Tower to safety - BBC News
London fire: Families threw children out of Grenfell Tower to safety - BBC News
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
Mot of the modern flats I've lived in, up to 5 stories, have only had one staircase. The one where I was caught in a fire and few years back didn't have sprinklers or a communal alarm system or even emergency lighting. And that was only a few years old at the time.
It should be mandatory for most blocks of flats to have proper fire prevention and management systems.
not-bono-ever
meh
Cost cutting and skimping always hits those most who are least able to manage it. My shock and horror is moving towards anger
EastEnder
Brixton Barnacle
Not to mention that, even if it were salvageable (seems improbable), who's going to want to live in a block that (possibly) a lot of people have died in?
dessiato
4 years and I still cry sometimes
Moving picture.
The emergency services will also need help and support in the days to come, they will have witnessed truly appallings scenes.
I imagine these men, last night, have seen things we cannot imagine. I hope they get the care they truly need.
As much as I dislike the police generally, at times like this they earn their money, and deserve praise.
Ambulance crews too. Often forgotten when talking about emergencies, but always there, doing what they do.
bimble
floofy
I stayed over last night at my friend's on 16th floor of a block that's decades old but now all private expensive high rent flats: It's full of brand new quality fire safety stuff (heavy duty fire doors all over the place sprinklers in each flat hoses all up the stairs etc) . If that block is adhering to the rules then why the hell wasn't k & C's council doing so too.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
not-bono-ever
meh
cupid_stunt
Where's the bloody sun?
Expert after expert being interviewed just can't believe how fast it took hold, and coverage seems to be increasingly focusing on the exterior of the building being the reason for it spreading so quickly, which does point towards the new cladding being the problem.
A blamestorming session no doubt.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
they crowd people into unsafe flats, remove proper oversight, jobs for the boys shit going on probably with the choice of firms doing what work was done. And when you hear about this rhetoric of cutting red tape, removing impediments to business, optimizing fiscal potentiality or whatever. And this is what we get for it.
I'm just waiting for some scummy fucker in news world to suggest it was the fault of someone with a chip pan going who fell asleep drunk. Katie Hopkins will no doubt get her hate on in a manner such as that
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
Exactly. Took 15 minutes to spread from bottom to top. Concrete isn't meant to burn, so it's the surrounding structures that spread the fire, right? (going on the assumption it's build from concrete, what else would it be for tower blocks?)
Yes. Its utterly astonishing. There are just so many reasons why this should never happen.
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