Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington - news and discussion

[NoXion]

What the fuck?

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I take it that these thugs didn't bother showing any ID or otherwise identifying who they were working for? Because this is completely unacceptable behaviour.

But isn't this also a very stupid thing to do as well? I would have thought that this is one of those scenarios where you don't want to draw attention to yourselves. Even if you do tell your goons not to identify themselves, having them act all belligerent like this just screams "we've got something to hide!".

 

[lizzieloo]

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[lizzieloo]

Do you know when the building regs environment gets looked at in the enquiry? Doesn't really seem to have come out yet.

The first part of the enquiry was specifically looking at what happened on the night of the fire

The second part will be looking at everything leading up to it.

 

[teuchter]

The first part of the enquiry was specifically looking at what happened on the night of the fire

The second part will be looking at everything leading up to it.

That will be the more significant and interesting part of the enquiry, I think.

 

[GarveyLives]

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[GarveyLives]

The process of wearing down the victims ahead of a full-scale cover-up is now in full flow?

"Survivors and the bereaved from the Grenfell Tower fire have expressed their “extreme frustration” at the pace of justice after Scotland Yard admitted no charges were likely for at least two years ..."

Grenfell survivors’ anger as police say no charges until 2021

 

[Pickman's model]

The process of wearing down the victims ahead of a full-scale cover-up is now in full flow?

"Survivors and the bereaved from the Grenfell Tower fire have expressed their “extreme frustration” at the pace of justice after Scotland Yard admitted no charges were likely for at least two years ..."

Grenfell survivors’ anger as police say no charges until 2021

the process of wearing down the survivors of that dreadful night has been in full flow for quite some time

if there'd have been riots then i am sure the process would have been much accelerated.

 

[GarveyLives]

The growing stench around this affair is becoming unbearable:

Grenfell council spends more than £90k on bosses' bonuses

 

[GarveyLives]

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[GarveyLives]

A summary of some of the Grenfell related stories in the media over the past few weeks ...

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[Lurdan]

Only just noticed that a Radio 4 documentary from last month has been added to the BBC's Grenfell podcast page

The Story of Flat 113

It deals with the events on the night through what happened to the occupants of the flats on the 14th floor, most of whom ended up in Flat 113, and who didn't all survive.

It's sensitively made but it's also quite powerful and I didn't find it an easy listen.

 

[GarveyLives]

"A housing boss in charge of Grenfell Tower before it went up in flames has been chosen to speak at a national housing conference on improving building safety, in a move that has provoked fury among survivors."

No - it's not some sort of belated April Fool's joke ...

Anger as Grenfell boss is invited to speak at housing safety event

 

[Chilli.s]

No - it's not some sort of belated April Fool's joke ...

Anger as Grenfell boss is invited to speak at housing safety event

Ignorant and tasteless in the extreme. Rewarding failure.

 

[GarveyLives]

"Kensington and Chelsea council made £129 million from selling property in the years leading to the Grenfell fire tragedy - money that could have been spent on the tower’s renovation works which may have been fatally compromised by cost-cutting."

Exclusive: Grenfell council had £129M it could have spent on tower renovation

"Here, we detail exactly when key decisions about the tower's renovation and how to finance it were made, alongside the council's property deals ..."

Grenfell tower timeline: The key events

(Source: as stated in image)

Wasn't the guy from The Skinners’ Grammar School in Tunbridge Wells and Christ’s College, Cambridge with the 50-year legal career, who has also been Queen’s Counsel, receiving a knighthood while serving in the Commercial Court of the High Court in 1995, up to his appointment as Lord Justice of Appeal, supposed to tell us all this?​

 

[GarveyLives]

Hardly a surprise, given what has come to light thus far:

"An MP has called out council officials, after claiming they described The Grenfell Tower area as “little Africa” and “full of people from the Tropics ...”

MP accuses Grenfell council of racism and snobbery

 

[GarveyLives]

Two years later:

Two years on, Grenfell survivors accuse ministers of 'going through the motions'

And a sordid truth ...

"It’s not that we don’t see injustice such as Grenfell or Windrush, it’s that we get bored by it ..."

The shameful truth about Britain’s response to Grenfell

Lest We Forget Them​

 

[GarveyLives]

Sadly, another victim ...

Grenfell campaigner, 51, killed herself after writing a note describing how witnessing the disaster had ruined her life, inquest hears

"Dr Fiona Wilcox, recording a verdict of suicide, said: 'Amanda lived very close to the fire and there is no doubt that she was extremely traumatised by it.

'Following the fire she worked in the community providing support, acting as an advocate, making so many posts on social media and, at the time of her death, she was still working."​

 

[GarveyLives]

A further Grenfell Media Watch Update apprears below:

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[tim]

Block of flats ablaze in Worcester Park.

Major blaze at south-west London flats

It doesn't look good!

 

[Mation]

Block of flats ablaze in Worcester Park.

Major blaze at south-west London flats

It doesn't look good!

No physical injuries reported yet, thank fuck. This must be terrible for many people though

 

[muscovyduck]

Block of flats ablaze in Worcester Park.

Major blaze at south-west London flats

It doesn't look good!

Fuck sake

 

[brogdale]

One of the Berkeley Group's 'New England style' wood & cardboard blocks on "the Hamptons" development on the former Worcester Park sewage works.

 

[TopCat]

Really rich estate built with wood. Lots like this in SW London.

 

[TopCat]

Wood.

 

[dessiato]

I've deliberately not read this thread for a while because it's so distressing. I came here today just to try to catch up, hopefully on positive news. All it's done is anger me. The scum who just seem to shrug off the damage they do to people's lives disgusts me.

I need to ignore this again. I'm just so angry and equally disgusted by the fudging around that's being done. Politicians, greedy landlords...arseholes at best

 

[Jay Park]

I've deliberately not read this thread for a while because it's so distressing. I came here today just to try to catch up, hopefully on positive news. All it's done is anger me. The scum who just seem to shrug off the damage they do to people's lives disgusts me.

I need to ignore this again. I'm just so angry and equally disgusted by the fudging around that's being done. Politicians, greedy landlords...arseholes at best

Ditto, I could not and still cannot internalize the trauma that people experienced on that day and the disdain they’ve had to cope with since. Lending empathy and the usual platitudes just doesn’t quite cut it.

I was a long way away when it happened and met a London lass on my travels, about a week or so after the fire, it was still smoking for fuck sake. We both were unable to contain our emotions.

Those pictures of Jacob Twat-Bogg asleep in the commons (in my warped opinion) gave him a look that almost resembled being human (that jaded feeling from Brexit etc) and yet I’ve just remembered that his policies and his voting was a huge factor in this happening. Should be fucking hung.

 

[Lurdan]

The Worcester Park fire is not the first of it's kind this year :

Fire chiefs were trying to work out why the fire spread so fast. The estate was completed in 2010 and features timber frames.

It is the third serious fire to affect a block fitted with wooden features this summer. A fire destroyed a block of 20 flats in Barking in June. The block, built in 2012, was clad with a wood-based material called Thermowood which had a Class D fire rating, according to Inside Housing. Last month a care home in Crewe built in 2009 was devastated by fire. It had a timber frame.

Regulations state that external walls must rate as a Class B or higher for fire safety but this only applies to buildings more than 18m in height.

Worcester Park fire: families lose everything after blaze devastates block of flats - Times (paywalled)

Really rich estate built with wood. Lots like this in SW London.

This particular block was managed by Metropolitan Thames Valley HA and at least some of the flats were shared ownership.

Other parts of the Worcester Park estate are very upmarket indeed. However the plans for the development also included 40% 'affordable' rented housing (originally 150 out of 500 units). The 'affordable' units (built in brick rather than the wooden 'New England' style of the expensive stuff) were managed by Thames Valley Housing who merged last year with Metropolitan.

When tenants moved in, they had to sign a Good Neighbour Agreement, which amongst other rules, required that under-15s must be home and supervised by 9pm.

So if young teenagers want to play football together this summer, the homeowners can stay out on the lush green spaces until the cows come home, but the social tenants must go home early.

Thames Valley Housing says the agreement was a preventive measure to stop anti-social behaviour before it starts.

(Inside Housing July 2008 - paywalled)

The situation produced this article in the Mail on Sunday
Apartheid UK: How a controversial law to integrate social housing in new developments is creating mini-ghettos - Mail (2008)

Those social housing tenants eh. Imagine having one next door.

Metropolitan Thames Valley HA announced a very large fire safety programme earlier this year, and earlier this week advertised for an additional fire safety officer.

 

[GarveyLives]

"Deeper into the long grass ..."

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[Manter]

Gavin fucking Barwell is on the honours list

 

[Orang Utan]

Gavin fucking Barwell is on the honours list

Lord Grenfell