Grenfell Tower

[RhythmAndStealth]

Watching the news just now and I can't believe my eyes. It looks absolutely horrific.

I want to think everyone got out safe, but sadly I just can't.

Some of the news reports are about alleged poor safety standards and dangerous living conditions. If that's true it just beggars belief.

A witness from the fourth floor said that his neighbour banged on his door and told him to get out. He said his fridge had exploded.

If I was a Grenfell resident I'd rather the PM spent the morning with the council ensuring immediate funds are released to assist them and with the head of the fire brigade, some senior police officers and lawyers making sure the people culpable for this are hunted down.

Horrifying to wake up to this news, those poor people :( I hope its found out what exactly was the state of the building and whether it fit fire regulations or not and if it didn't then heads better roll. This shouldn't be something that can happen in a rich country like the UK :(

A local resident who witnessed the blaze said gaps in the cladding at the corners of the building acted like a chimney to funnel the flames up the building. It hen spread laterally as the cladding caught alight.

It's entirely possible (I think), that there were additional fires created by surging electrics after an initial fire - therefore, the fridge may have blown up due to this, rather than being the cause of the fire.

A few people on my Facebook are organising collections.

There is no point in speculating about anything, I understand that certain people want to find someone/something to blame, but until more facts are known, well I for one am keeping an open mind.

What a tragedy though. Awful, the Twin Towers came to mind there.

When you think about all the rules regs, building control an ordinary householder has to observe when building an extension/loft conversion whatever, one really hopes that similar rules are observed by the Councils in charge of multiple properties.

Deepest sympathy to all. London has been badly hit with sad things lately.

Its understood there can be no statement in Parliament on #grenfelltower tragedy cos MPs not sworn in yet

Sheesh. Surely protocol can be shifted a bit.

It is a bit like asking for a statement to be made during a school assembly, during the summer holidays

No one is in parliament, because the new parliament doesn't officially exist, and no one is in there. Passes haven't been issued to new MPs, they don't have offices etc

Utterly horrific can't even begin to imagine
There would be a gap between the cladding and the building and there should have been proper fire stopping in place to prevent the fire funnelling up through it, makes me wonder if it wasn't done properly.

MP's do have their passes. They were in the chamber yesterday for speaker election and from today swearing in begins. The speaker might say a few word when swearing in begins today.
While the Building is said to be safe it is still burning and they must be a chance it will either collapse soon or have to be quickly demolished.

1112a
My newly-elected MP tweeted yesterday that she was excited about going to the HoC on Thursday to collect her pass, so they don't all have them - reelected ones might?

The PM was visiting the French President yesterday with the Home Secretary in an official capacity yesterday. If she can manage that during the 'school holidays', then I'm sorry that argument is nonsense.

No words 😥

The sheer scale of this is just terrifying. By Dubai standards it's probably just a tiddler.

They are death traps. Pure and simple.
Whether they house council tenants or are million pound executive homes.

Just so very sad at this news and just feel for the waste of livestream owners if found guilty of ignoring safety features will go to prison over this .

I don't think tower blocks are inherently safe. No matter what fire protection Is included, or retiring etc. The fact remains they are difficult to get out of and difficult to fight fire in them. Things fail- fridges, wiring, systems. Then catastrophe.

There has been many many tragedies over the years involving tower blocks. I can't help thinking the back to backs were better in so many ways.

Waste of lives

There will be a whole host of errors that have led to this being such a tradegy.

The investigation will be very interesting.

I think having two escape routes at opposite ends of the building has to be a 'must'. Impossible to retrofit that tho!

Also like a PP posted people are their own worst enemies - not bothering with smoke alarms (not that you should rely on your own one in a tower block, there should be a central one) leaving things in corridors, propping open fire doors, replacing doors, breaking risers, storing stuff in electrical cupboards, buying dodgy as fuck electrical items cheap from China etc.

These blocks need to be managed better - fire inspections weekly (binning anything in corridors), access to apartments for fire alarms/fire testing etc a condition of your lease with building management having keys to all apartments.

There should be 23h building management on site.

I don't see why sprinklers weren't installed in the refurb (need to be 'manually' set off by fire service or something or building management rather than linked to fire alarm in case of false alarms).

I would expect there to be a central fire alarm system in all the corridors that was super loud.

Fire doors in corridors should be automatically held open and the holding mechanism releases on a fire alarm because otherwise people just prop them open so are useless.

House met yesterday, and elected speaker. MPs being sworn in today and tomorrow.

They'll (probably) make a decision about whether there will be a debate specifically on this, or how else it could be marked, once the incident is over (the building is still alight). Parliament isn't always recalled after a disaster, and debate/condolences are often a little time after the event.

Maybe. Or depending on seat. I know one new MP who mentioned going to get their pass on Saturday I think.

So the local council tried to gag the action group that complained about the fire alarms.

The most horrific news to watch.

It seems by making the building look 'pretty' they have murdered people instead with flammable cladding.

The blog is very very scary.

On a blog, the action group wrote seven months ago: ‘Unfortunately, the Grenfell Action Group have reached the conclusion that only an incident that results in serious loss of life of [Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation] residents will allow the external scrutiny to occur that will shine a light on the practices that characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation.’

Blood on their hands.

Did anyone hear the ex chair of the residents board speaking about the kctmo? How 68% of residence had reported being harassed and threatened by the management company and contractors. He personally stated the contractors threatened him at his door.

Those residents knew they were living in a death trap, they knew their safety was not a priority and no one wanted to listened them.

One of my friends lived there. She's missing. I can't think straight.

Mona, the woman who's just been interviewed on Sky News - what a wonderful woman, the best of human beings.

They be a debate once the Queen Speach is done. Many issues regarding fire safety to be raised.

This is the blaze I was thinking of a few years ago where people were trapped becase of only one exit route

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Lakanal_House_tower_block_fire

Really hoping you hear good news about your friend Thierry.