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.

Not you Condensed! It was someone else

The picture is of a fire in Shepherds Bush tower block, similar to the Grenfell block, that took place last year.
The fire was caused by a faulty tumble dryer.
Altough it was a nasty fire it was contained.
Difference between the them, the Shepherds Bush block had no cladding.

Corporate manslaughter in English law
''Corporate manslaughter is a criminal offence in English law, being an act of homicide committed by a company or organisation. In general, in English criminal law, a juristic person is in the same position as a natural person, and may be convicted for committing many offences.

A juristic person cannot be imprisoned, but the penalty would be an unlimited fine as for the existing common law offence.''

I'm no lawyer but the above seems to indicate that no one will be imprisoned for this.

Man on BBC has just said concerns from tenants about fire safety including locations of boilers were ignored.

I constantly post about shoddy repairs and corner cutting on here and ive had some on here tell me im obsessed,

Im not in London Im in Essex but corners get cut by HAs constantly.

"Councils just can't afford the upkeep of such property "

Odd that seeing we live in one of the richest countries on earth.

Draylon It's the adding on of flammable cladding that's a concern.

If this has been caused by one of those faulty tumble dryers, as happened Shepherd's Bush, then those companies need to be held to account as well, as well as the council.

HuffPost UK‏*@HuffPostUK*

#Breaking Theresa May is 'deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life' in the #GrenfellTower fire

Which lunatics thought it wide to spend millions on cladding to make the outside look pretty????

I'm no lawyer but the above seems to indicate that no one will be imprisoned for this.

It seems new sentencing guidelines were brought in in 2016 for H&S offences and this has increased the amount of people serving jail terms for serious H&S breaches.

www.healthandsafetyatwork.com/regulation/sentencing-guideline-increased-risk-jail

'Allan Thomson, sentenced in April to six years in prison after one worker was killed and another seriously injured on the same day during a demolition in Stockport, and Faruk Patel, who was acting as a site manager on a refurbishment in Leicester when a window fitter fell to his death. He was jailed for 30 months.

Others jailed since the guideline came into force include Kenneth Thelwall, the director of a Cheshire warehouse firm, who was jailed for a year after an employee died when the MEWP he was loading onto a truck fell and crushed him.'

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

No, this is absolutely the wrong thing to do. If a communal area fire alarm goes off, the last thing you do is get everyone to rush to that communal area where the fire is. Thats why regs are as they are. Fire alarms are in each residential flat only, but fire should then be contained, giving enough time to evacuate, fire fight. Clearly the 'contained' didnt work here, and yes thermal cladding is coming under scrutiny for spreading this via the outside.

norman smith‏*@BBCNormanS*

Govt's Civil Contingencies secretariat to meet this afternoon to co-ordinate response #grenfelltower

I'm not disagreeing that 'corners get cut' by HA's, but the bigger question is why; and I'm suggesting it's as much as anything because there is no money.

Or the money is spent on the wrong things? Or the councils sitting on huge reserves which they refuse to spend?

mimishimmi I have reported your post.

Conspiracy theories are absolutely not acceptable at this stage,

"Which lunatics thought it wide to spend millions on cladding to make the outside look pretty????"

The lucrative eu energy efficiency fund that demanded it be brought up to thermal standards.

Reports suggest it was either a fridge or someone smoking.

The Telegraph‏*@Telegraph*

London Ambulance Service says 20 people injured in the Grenfell Tower fire are in critical care

Corbyn tried to pass a law to make houses safer with private landlords.

Conservatives rejected it. What with 72 MP's being private landlords themselves.

Serious questions about only one exit in and out, only one fire escape, no fire alarms or not loud enough, no sprinklers, and flammable cladding that used to be concrete.

8.7 million apparently spent, but on what?

The management company threatened residents when they signed a petition about how unsafe the building was.

What a sad day.

AuntieStella The specialist burns unit (regional unit) is at Chelsea and Westminster (not that it matters but just incase anyone that needs that information in the future; or anyone is trying to find a relative / friend). Mary's has is the NW London MTC.

Does anyone know if authorities have a rough number of people who managed to get out of the building yet?

Victims may also have been sent to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford - they have a burns unit.