27 storey block of flats on fire in London.

[DoctorTwo]

BBC link. Holy shit, almost the entire building is ablaze. Hope everybody got out safely.

I just saw this. I'm praying for everyone's safety. At that time of night it's likely a lot of people were asleep.

"It's so heartbreaking, I've seen someone flashing their torches at the top level and they obviously can't get out."

Oh, dear God.

I hope that the torches are flickers from the fire and that people are out.

So terrifying.

What's worse is that it sounds like the tenant knew something like this was waiting to happen, and the landlords are essentially responsible 😢

*tenants.

There are obviously many of them.

Where are you getting that from Dowager?

The images and eyewitness accounts are awful.

I don't think it's realistic to think everyone will have got out from a 27 story block of flats that catches fire and burns out of control in the middle of the night.

That's awful if true Dowager .

I don't remember a fire like this in the UK in decades, the fire service (and government) have done so much to mitigate fire risk.

Awful that fire safety was raised over four years ago at this building I used to work very close and it's not accessible

grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/fire-safety-scandal-at-lancaster-west/

Very sadly there are reports of concerns from the residents' association that clearly haven't been acted on

grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/

Gosh, that article sounds kind of threatening.

Absolutely terrible. But how does, I'm guessing a c1960s building of concrete and asbestos construction, along with other fireproofing (albeit inadequate) burn like this. Technically it shouldn't be possible.

It sounds like a lot of people didn't get out, advice is to stay in the your flat in the event of a fire.

How on earth can they think that telling people to stay in their flats is the right advice ?

I agree Stef. It's a bit sinister.

This is so terrible, those poor poor people. I can see the smoke plume from here and I'm about 7 miles away.

It's not sinister, it's disgusting that the management didn't sort out the problems that they were aware of

Residents were warning of power surges already, and lack of access for fire and rescue vehicles, and crap advice to stay in flats in event of a fire, and grills not being fitted to shafts (as fire service had requested) so the shafts would act like chimneys if there was a fire drawing heat and flames upward into the whole building.

I think the Board of KCTMO probably had a lot of warnings.

Those poor people inside. Told to stay in their flats ... I'm bloody sickened.

I lived in a 1960's 10 storey block in London. Asbestos was removed about 10 years ago, but solid concrete walls and ceilings. This block was clearly not built like that.
But for a building to burn like this in 2017 suggests gross mismanagement, or, in other words, profit before people.
Devastating and criminal.

I'm in the US and have been watching on the news for hours now and feel sick to my stomach, it's horrific...

It is a concrete building. It's not supposed to burn like that

The final sentence of the blog post liked to by NewIdeas at 5:19:

'The Grenfell Action Group predict that it won’t be long before the words of this blog come back to haunt the KCTMO management'

That is terrifyingly prescient.

I agree the blog post reads as a threat.
Hope people get the help they need ASAP.

I think it sums up how the apparent mismanagement could put lives at risk.
Whatever problems there have been, this disaster is horrific.

I don't think the blog reads as a threat at all. It sounds like desperation of people trying to get their safety taken seriously. And tragically they were right. Profits before people indeed.

We can only hope that the advice to stay in your flat was ignored and people made it out safely.