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Massive Fire in High Rise Apartment in London

R

R&R

Member
Fire security has been on a shambolic level in several of the old London high rises for years. It's just so sad it always has to come to tragedy like this for things to possibly change. And this is happening in one of the richest councils in UK...unforgivable.
 
N

Nevasleep

Member
Pretty alarmed that the stairs aren't safe. The blocks I've been in, they are usually barren concrete at a higher pressure, unless perhaps these are near the cladding.

I've lived in a new build 18 floor apartment building for two years, only heard the fire alarm once (and that was caused by ex lol), it stopped, nobody came to check or log it, even though we have staff on-site. Compare that to my student days, where any hint of smoke would cause a full evacuation and fire service to attend.
 
Kadin

Kadin

Member
As soon as I saw this whole thing up in flames, my first thought was how long until the whole thing collapses. Glad to see in the Sky News video that as of yet that hasn't happened...

What a horrible situation for all those people.
 
G

Griss

Member
Incomprehensible horror. My heart goes out to all those people.

Almost seems irrelevant if it collapses now... how could anyone in there still be alive?

I just hope and pray that the alarm system worked and that all those people seen on the street are the residents. If the fire alarm failed or was too slow you're looking at hundreds of fatalities here in the worst possible way.
 
Jezbollah

Jezbollah

Member
JESUS. Just wokeup to this.

Interview with one of the residents on Sky News: Alarms only sounded after they were out at around 1:30am. He only got out thanks to his neighbour knocking on his door.

There will be an utter fucking reckoning for the landlords and the council (as another poster has mentioned, probably the most affluent in the entire country) and other councils in the City who are treating their apartment buildings like this.
 
D

DSN2K

Member
Woman on skynews news earlier said residents had complained about gas pipes going down one of the fire escapes, how the fuck does that make any sense putting pipes there !?!
 
F

ferrasvansen

Member
DSN2K said:
Woman on skynews news earlier said residents had complained about gas pipes going down one of the fire escapes, how the fuck does that make any sense putting pipes there !?!
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Rip to the poor souls caught up in this, dreadful. Seems there were many warnings about this.
 
G

Griss

Member
Rivyn said:
How many people live in that flat? 120-150? Here's hoping a bunch of them were on vacation or not home.
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From The Guardian:

Nick Paget-Brown, the leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, has spoken on Sky News UK, saying he was working to establish how many people were in the tower block at the time of the fire. “Several hundred would have been in there. It’s a question of establishing how many were in there at the time of the fire,” he said.
Click to expand...
 
Kadin

Kadin

Member
Sorry if this was posted already but the top post on reddit shared this link which within shows additional info that this was a fire risk as far back as 2013, this article was written early last year. Absolutely crazy.

It has been very clear for some time to the residents of Grenfell Tower that those responsible for ensuring the smooth running of Lancaster West Estate are failing in their duty of care and wilfully allowing our residential amenity to decline in unacceptable ways.

Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in our landlords failure to deal with a serious health and safety issue that recently developed at the entrance/exit to Grenfell Tower. This matter is of particular concern as there is only one entry and exit to Grenfell Tower during the Improvement Works and the potential for a fire to break out in the communal area on the walkway does not bear thinking about as residents would be trapped in the building with no way out!
Click to expand...
 
F

Foxxsoxx

Member
Jesus I'm watching the live stream on Youtube and it's people yelling allah akbar and posting nazi symbols nonstop.

What the fuck is wrong with people?
 
S

Syder

Member
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/housing/regenyour-neighbourhood/grenfell-tower
Grenfell Tower, on the Lancaster West Estate in North Kensington, has been undergoing major refurbishment.

The tower block is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) on behalf of the Council and contains 120 homes. It was built in 1974.

The large scale works included the installation of insulated exterior cladding, new double glazed windows and a new communal heating system. A new communal entrance has been created and there are new facilities for returning tenants, Grenfell Under 3s Nursery and Dale Youth Amateur Boxing Club. Nine much needed new homes have been created from unused spaces.
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https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/grenfell-tower-still-a-fire-risk/

Blog from a concerned local about the building being a fire hazard.
 
A

Auctopus

Member
The twitter "story" is pretty disturbing. Footage of the fire taking hold with a person using the lights in the flat to send SOS message to outside.

Edit: fucking hell, do not watch the videos on Twitter - you can hear people screaming for help.
 
Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck

Member
Auctopus said:
The twitter "story" is pretty disturbing. Footage of the fire taking hold with a person using the lights in the flat to send SOS message to outside.

Edit: fucking hell, do not watch the videos on Twitter - you can hear people screaming for help.
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The footage they just showed on BBC of just the building alight was enough.
 
Cybrwzrd

Cybrwzrd

Banned
CadetMahoney said:
People are gonna be arrested and probably tried for serious crimes for installing that cladding in the building.

It looks like it was made out of wood. All of it gone up.
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If you watch the BBC video of the early fire, you can see the fire line burning across the building. The thing is, modern buildings fire suppression systems are able to keep the external fire out of the structure, but this was built in the 70s, and was managed by what sounds like slumlords.

Here are some more examples of cladding fires.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1801571
 
T

Timbuktu

Member
GHG said:
Flammable cladding on the outside of the building according to some of the residents.

One of the residents on Sky just said he wasn't even woken up by the fire alarms because they were so quiet, he woke up in time to get his family out by chance. He woke up randomly, went for a cigarette and then saw the fire.

Sounds like the building was ill-equipped in terms of fire safety.
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Jeez. The building was just recladded. I don't know how this got through part b of the regs.
 
F

Foxxsoxx

Member
Auctopus said:
The twitter "story" is pretty disturbing. Footage of the fire taking hold with a person using the lights in the flat to send SOS message to outside.

Edit: fucking hell, do not watch the videos on Twitter - you can hear people screaming for help.
Click to expand...

Yeah... just saw that... this is fucking horrible.
 
A

Any Questions

Member
I can also see a lot of landlords quaking this morning. The housing stock in London ranges from world beating to squalor. The laws and enforcement are about to get much much tougher after this.
 
P

Polari

Member
Syder said:
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/housing/regenyour-neighbourhood/grenfell-tower


https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/grenfell-tower-still-a-fire-risk/

Blog from a concerned local about the building being a fire hazard.
Click to expand...

It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice! The Grenfell Action Group believe that the KCTMO narrowly averted a major fire disaster at Grenfell Tower in 2013 when residents experienced a period of terrifying power surges that were subsequently found to have been caused by faulty wiring. We believe that our attempts to highlight the seriousness of this event were covered up by the KCTMO with the help of the RBKC scrutiny Committee who refused to investigate the legitimate concerns of tenants and leaseholders.

We believe that these investigations will become part of damning evidence of the poor safety record of the KCTMO should a fire affect any other of their properties and cause the loss of life that we are predicting ...

In the last twenty years and despite the terrifying power surge incident in 2013 and recent fire at Adair Tower, the residents of Grenfell Tower have received no proper fire safety instructions from the KCTMO. Residents were informed by a temporary notice stuck in the lift and one announcement in a recent regeneration newsletter that they should remain in their flats in the event of fire. There are not and never have been any instructions posted in the Grenfell Tower noticeboard or on individual floor as to how residents should act in event of a fire. Anyone who witnessed the recent tower block fire at Shepherds Court, in nearby Shepherd’s Bush, will know that the advice to remain in our properties would have led to certain fatalities and we are calling on our landlord to re-consider the advice that they have so badly circulated.

The Grenfell Action Group predict that it won’t be long before the words of this blog come back to haunt the KCTMO management and we will do everything in our power to ensure that those in authority know how long and how appallingly our landlord has ignored their responsibility to ensure the heath and safety of their tenants and leaseholders. They can’t say that they haven’t been warned!
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Jesus. This looks like a case of severe negligence.
 
S

Skyzard

Banned
Steel said:
Oops, was going when the OP was posted. Still a bad time for this to happen.
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Real bad...sleeping and don't wake up:

Heat and smoke from fire can be more dangerous than the flames. Inhaling the super-hot air can sear your lungs. Fire produces poisonous gases that make you disoriented and drowsy. Instead of being awakened by a fire, you may fall into a deeper sleep. Asphyxiation is the leading cause of fire deaths, exceeding burns by a three-to-one ratio.
Click to expand...

Somewhat related but interestingly:

Most children sleep through smoke alarms, investigator warns
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