Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington - news and discussion

[EastEnder]

Police has confirmed six deaths so far, but this figure is likely to increase.

Could take hours to search the whole place...

 

[SpookyFrank]

Barwell is unfit for any public office.

The good people of Croydon have already dispensed with his services. Which now looks like letting him off easy tbh.

 

[Pickman's model]

Could take hours to search the whole place...

grim, grim task

 

[agricola]

Could take hours to search the whole place...

More like days, if not weeks depending on how the structure is.

 

[Pickman's model]

The good people of Croydon have already dispensed with his services. Which now looks like letting him off easy tbh.

he's on my passenger list for south georgia

 

[not-bono-ever]

Its not the fire, well not initially, its the smoke. FFS, there will be people in there who, live in a block because of its accessibility and structure, people who may not be able to live in a conventional flat or house as they have mobility issues and suchlike. This doesn't bear thinking about. This is awful.

 

[editor]

The Grenfell blogger is rightly fucking furious:

Regular readers of this blog will know that we have posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere in RBKC.

ALL OUR WARNINGS FELL ON DEAF EARS and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time. Below is a list of links to previous blogs we posted on this site trying to warn the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea who own this property and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation who supposedly manage all social housing in RBKC on the Council’s behalf:

Fire Safety Scandal At Lancaster West

KCTMO – Playing with fire!

More On Fire Safety

Another Fire Safety Scandal

KCTMO – Feeling the Heat!

WHY ARE WE WAITING?

GRENFELL TOWER – FROM BAD TO WORSE

MORE TROUBLE AT GRENFELL TOWER

THE DISEMPOWERED OF GRENFELL TOWER

TMO STILL ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

 

[treelover]

not-bono-ever Awful news, yes, residents and locals have said there were a number of disabled residents in the block.

Once the awful work is carried out and the inquests begin, there will be some very damning evidence coming out, one wonders whether there has been a deliberate running down on these blocks as to 'encourage' movement out of the area.

 

[treelover]

BBC News were interviewing a bloke called Piers, who clealy knew the issues, the area, knows the Grenfell blogger, Jane Hill had to keep saying, "ah, but we don't know what happened yet" Fair enough, but Piers was really on the ball.

 

[19force8]

Well that's still post-war sort off, its a catch all phrase. But yeah, there were still very few building regs in the 70's.

After the Ronan Point collapse building regs were substantially tightened.

So 1974 can't be regarded as part of the post war tower block craze. Also, look at contemporary buildings of similar height such as the Barbican Towers which show best practice at the time and consider why that wasn't followed here.

 

[campanula]

noooo this is a nightmare, a fucking nightmare. My 12 year old sister died in a housefire in Milton Keynes - exacerbated by burning polystyrene ceiling cladding and worse, windows which only opened into 6 inch slats. There was a small space visible, behind a sofa which was not totally blackened, where she had obviously crouched in terror. I have no words to fully express my absolute misery for these people...and hope the repercussions lead to prison sentences.
My sister's death did, at least, cause MK council to investigate fire-proofing and safety throughout the whole series of estates...and, afaik, Conniburrow was actually knocked down and rebuilt.

 

[bimble]

Can't stop thinking about the thing I read earlier that said someone had thrown a child out the window of their burning flat to save them from the fire

 

[Teaboy]

The Grenfell blogger is rightly fucking furious:

Whilst its deeply tragic that they've been unable to prevent the tragedy hopefully the blog will give the guilty no place to hide.

 

[treelover]

This bloke and his partnet were evacuated from a nearby block, he said he had no insurance and had just brought as much of his belongings as he could.

 

[klang]

So terrible! I know somebody who (used to?) lives in this building, together with his wife and five kids. Haven't 't seen him in a few years, so dunno if he still lives there, and his number seems to have changed. Will have to somehow try to get in touch with him......

 

[EastEnder]

Can't stop thinking about the thing I read earlier that said someone had thrown a child out the window of their burning flat to save them from the fire

Doesn't bear thinking about... fucking horrific...

 

[frogwoman]

 

[Pickman's model]

After the Ronan Point collapse building regs were substantially tightened.

So 1974 can't be regarded as part of the post war tower block craze. Also, look at contemporary buildings of similar height such as the Barbican Towers which show best practice at the time and consider why that wasn't followed here.

don't know who built it, whether it was rbkc or glc

 

[Treacle Toes]

This bloke and his partnet were evacuated from a nearby block, he said he had no insurance and had just brought as much of his belongings as he could.

Luckily for him he can go home at some point.

 

[treelover]

noooo this is a nightmare, a fucking nightmare. My 12 year old sister died in a housefire in Milton Keynes - exacerbated by burning polystyrene ceiling cladding and worse, windows which only opened into 6 inch slats. There was a small space visible, behind a sofa which was not totally blackened, where she had obviously crouched in terror. I have no words to fully express my absolute misery for these people...and hope the repercussions lead to prison sentences.
My sister's death did, at least, cause MK council to investigate fire-proofing and safety throughout the whole series of estates...and, afaik, Conniburrow was actually knocked down and rebuilt.

I have heard of a number of properties in my area with no Gas Safe, etc, but tenants too scared to report it, due to retaliatory eviction, things must change.

 

[agricola]

not-bono-ever Awful news, yes, residents and locals have said there were a number of disabled residents in the block.

Once the awful work is carried out and the inquests begin, there will be some very damning evidence coming out, one wonders whether there has been a deliberate running down on these blocks as to 'encourage' movement out of the area.

I'd be amazed if there was a deliberate attempt to run things down in order to get people to move, even with that council.

What is more likely is that they ignored obvious problems because it would have cost them or their mates money, which is after all the common theme when it comes to disasters occurring under their watch.

 

[Yossarian]

This will probably lead to significant tightening of the law, probably took something like this to do so. I don't know what the rules are but we have nothing in my block apart from a smoke alarm in the stairwell (old building converted to flats) .

It's inexcusable that they need to wait for a disaster like this to happen at home before they start tightening regulations - other cities with a lot more high-rises than London have managed to avoid this kind of disaster for a long time.

 

[Pickman's model]

Its not the fire, well not initially, its the smoke. FFS, there will be people in there who, live in a block because of its accessibility and structure, people who may not be able to live in a conventional flat or house as they have mobility issues and suchlike. This doesn't bear thinking about. This is awful.

yeh, tower blocks house lots of people who can't out in a hurry, people with young children, old people, disabled people... it's indescribably awful, as the fucking thing was predicted by the grenfell blogger

heads will roll, sadly only metaphorically

 

[Pickman's model]

I have heard of a number of properties in my area with no Gas Safe, etc, but tenants too scared to report it, due to retaliatory eviction, things must change.

in social housing they are big on gas safety, there's a mandatory inspection every year.

 

[treelover]

I'd be amazed if there was a deliberate attempt to run things down in order to get people to move, even with that council.

What is more likely is that they ignored obvious problems because it would have cost them or their mates money, which is after all the common theme when it comes to disasters occurring under their watch.

Keith, 42, a former resident at Grenfell Tower said the fire alarms didn’t work properly when he lived there.

I grew up in Grenfell Tower; it was my home until I joined the army at 16. It was only four years ago that my mum sold her flat there and moved in with my sister. She’s now living up in Watford.

When I lived there we’d had a few fires over the year – nothing on a large scale, but the fire alarms did not work properly. If you were in your flat even with the telly off you wouldn’t have heard anything. It was so quiet. After a fire on the sixth floor when we lived there, my mum had asked me to speak to the other leaseholders on her behalf. It was a small fire but afterwards we would try and engage with the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation but nothing changed with them.

You may be right, this guy is describing events 25 years ago.(guardian update)

 

[Teaboy]

After the Ronan Point collapse building regs were substantially tightened.

So 1974 can't be regarded as part of the post war tower block craze. Also, look at contemporary buildings of similar height such as the Barbican Towers which show best practice at the time and consider why that wasn't followed here.

Sure but Ronan Point wasn't fire was it? The tightening of fire regs is a relatively modern thing as it is with other regulations. Why wasn't best practice followed? The same reason is so often isn't I I imagine. Best practice is often inconvenient and expensive. Unless obliged by building regs best practice is still often not followed. That's construction for you.

 

[Wilf]

That is damning!

That's odd though, he seems to be talking about a school next door - the Aldridge Academy (?).

 

[moomoo]

A guy on the telly just said it was started by a fridge explosing in the flat next to his.

 

[MrSki]

I heard earlier of wheelchair users on the 18th floor! What the fuck is that about. You are not supposed to use lifts in the event of a fire so how is someone in a wheelchair supposed to get down 18 flights of stairs.

 

[treelover]

The emergency services will also need help and support in the days to come, they will have witnessed truly appallings scenes.