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Original poster

Grenfell Tower

999 replies

RhythmAndStealth · 14/06/2017 04:49

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.

OP posts:
Bloodybridget · 14/06/2017 07:34

Boopsy in that area of London, and especially in social housing, you'd always get a very high proportion of BME residents. No reason to think this block is unusual in that respect.

Goingtobeawesome · 14/06/2017 07:34

I've just turned the tv on in the last fifteen minutes and seen this. That poor man who is trapped has me in tears and now they've said more about him I've cried more. It's terrifying and a helpless situation. They have to get him out.

Thoughts are with everyone. They've lost everything. Has anyone heard yet if there's an appeal started?

MercuryMadness · 14/06/2017 07:35

I feel physically sick at the thought of people trapped inside and having to consider throwing their children out of windows.

hopsalong · 14/06/2017 07:35

Oh this is horrific. I live about a mile away and had been hearing helicopter noise all night but only realised why just now.

I saw this fire in the Sheoherd's Bush tower block blazing from the Westway last summer and thought it was a miracle that a) no one seriously hurt and b) that it didn't cause more sustained damage to the building. But surely it should have triggered a review of fire safety in all of these similar blocks?

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/37203933

Mrsemcgregor · 14/06/2017 07:38

It's giving me 9/11 flashbacks. People trapped on high floors with no way out. Making desperate decisions.

SquirmOfEels · 14/06/2017 07:38

Television picture show a number of other blocks in the area, one of which looks very similar to this tower. Anyone know if that is its twin?

Because if so, finding the cause of this fire and establishing whtherther the other one is fit for habitation must be an urgent issue.

namechange20050 · 14/06/2017 07:40

I used to work in property management; implementing fire and health and safety risk assessments for large blocks of flats. A block like this should have a mains alarm system with sensors in each flat. There should also be fire doors in the common ways and in the flats to contain any fire that does break out. I would also expect a block like this to have a dry riser (so water can be pumped up into the block by the fire brigade). I am horrified and mystified at what could have gone so wrong in this case.

YellowLawn · 14/06/2017 07:42

this is horredous.
as pp, usually we have breakfast show on tv to catch up on news before leaving the house.
today I put on a cookery show.

my thoughts are with the families of the affected residents. I really hope that many more people were able to get out safely.

HoldBackTheRain · 14/06/2017 07:42

A guy in the flats has just said on Sky News that it was his neighbours fridge that caused the fire - don't know if that's accurate.

BlackeyedSusan · 14/06/2017 07:47

there was a fire in the block near us a few years ago. it appeared to be limited to the one flatand minor damage around (if I remember correctly form the news reports. )

the fire alarms are audible. I can hear then in my flat 30 yards up the road.

that the fire spread is horrendous and a failure of the buildings structure itself.

Vanillaisboring666 · 14/06/2017 07:49

This is just so awful. I am so sad for the people and families still trapped or who have lost loved ones. This is terrible

YellowLawn · 14/06/2017 07:50

my sil was caught up in a fire a similar block of flats a year ago.
the difference - only one flat burnt out and the four flats above, below, beside had smoke& heat damage.
that's how fire safety measures are supposed to work.

those poor poor people.

Spudlet · 14/06/2017 07:52

Fatalities have been confirmed by the London Fire Commissioner, but they can't say how many yet.

Dear god.

barrygetamoveonplease · 14/06/2017 07:52

I am so sad for the people and families still trapped or who have lost loved ones. This is terrible
This.

Vanillaisboring666 · 14/06/2017 07:53

My next fear is that the building will collapse ??? It is so unstable now

MakingMerry · 14/06/2017 07:53

Obvioisly, it's far too soon to know, but that report about the fridge, has horrible similarities to this report on the residents' blog from 2013.

^Continuous Power Surges in Grenfell Tower

There have been two weeks of power surges in the building, most notably in the early hours of the morning and throughout the evening and night time. Electronic apparatus are seriously affected by these surges. Computers are turned on and off, lights continually flicker becoming very dim and extremely bright in the space of a few seconds.

On 11th May 2013 at 9:05pm we had numerous power surges in the space of a minute, and in that process my computer and monitor literally exploded with smoke seeping out from the back and the smell of burnt electronics filled our entire computer. My monitor also fused at the same time. When I called the TMO out of hours service the standard textbook response was given to us that I was the first one to report such a problem and I was made to feel like a fool reporting such an issue, which resulted in years of data being lost forever.

Please note if the power surges continue at Grenfell Tower, it would be very dangerous and costly because it is interfering with electric and electronic items in the household, including the telephone line, television, fridge, washing machine, computer etc”.^

grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/grenfell-tower-from-bad-to-worse/

Soubriquet · 14/06/2017 07:54

Spudlet Sad

I think fatalities was going to be a definite...the fire was too out of control. Too quick, too fast, too much.

I just hope most people got out..but it doesn't look like it.

I've seen a video where someone on the top floor are flashing their lights on and off to try and get attention Sad

PerkingFaintly · 14/06/2017 07:55

Bloke who got out of the seventh floor said fire alarms didn't go off. He was woken by shouting from the street.

Soubriquet · 14/06/2017 07:56

I can't believe the advice is "in case of Fire, remain in your flat"

I bet a lot of elderly abided by that Sad

CoralDreamscapes · 14/06/2017 07:56

Why do we not have equipment to reach the higher floors of tall buildings?

I used to live quite close to this building, and, the police would visit regularly to install free fire alarms and check though that were working (we were on the 8th floor). The combination of this, and a coworker's flat catch on fire meant I actually looked into escape chutes; we then moved into a house so it was not needed, but for all of you saying you live in tower blocks, it is well worth looking into.

Building regulations have to change so that it becomes mandatory that smoke alarms are installed in people's flats - not just the communal areas; I cannot think of a single reason why an entire tower block would not hear smoke alarm other than them not being installed where the fire brigade recommend. Another concern is the fact that fire doors seem to have failed - either because they weren't there (was probably not compulsory when this building was built), or because they have been left proped open.

Building owners and management companies should be forced to catch up with current recommendations and regulations - no more "this building doesn't have to adhere to new advice because it was built in the 1920s"

I think the reason they can't douse the building from above is due to the stability of the building. And, we possibly don't have a fire helicopter - I've never seen one in London.

Absolutely devastating, filled with sadness, but also starting to question how this has happened.

Thoughts with families, friends and the fire brigade.

Spudlet · 14/06/2017 07:56

Yes, it would have been beyond miraculous for fatalities to have been avoided.

She said they couldn't confirm a number because of the complexity of the building - I interpret that to mean that they've deemed some parts to have been totally unsurvivable, it's just that they don't know how many were trapped there yet.

Runny · 14/06/2017 07:57

This is horrendous. Those poor people. How on earth can a fire spread like that in this day and age?

CommonSenseIsNotAllThatCommon · 14/06/2017 07:58

I am so saddened and heartbroken. My love and thoughts to all the people affected.

AmenacingWhistle · 14/06/2017 07:59

That blog is beyond damning. It seems the residents were just waiting for this to happen.
It's horrific it's happened at all. Too have been avoidable is unfathomable.

LanaKanesLeftNippleTassle · 14/06/2017 08:00

I hope someone goes to the wall for this. Angry

Those poor, poor families. Sad

It seems the building was missing many crucial fire fighting/detection tools, and had been suffering serious power surges.

I hope people are charged with murder if this is the case, as they knowingly let people live in a giant deathtrap.

Just see on the Guardian that fatalities have now been confirmed.