London Fire: Grenfell Tower thread five

[RhythmAndStealth]

RIP

Five victims officially named
At least 79 victims expected, possibly more
Many displaced and struggling

To all those affected and all those helping

Thread four
Thread three
Thread three contains links to threads one and two.

Blimey, Albadross, that's alarming. Some odd people out there, I would forward to the police too.

Very impressed by the Mayor of Salford. He seemed very sincere that he wouldn't feel safe in those blocks so why should the tenants.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/22/grenfell-tower-survivors-too-scared-to-seek-help-because-of-immigration-status?CMP=share_btn_tw
Grenfell Tower survivors 'too scared to seek help' because of immigration status
Some survivors of disaster are refusing to seek help because they fear being reported to Home Office, volunteers say

Anybody else wondering how many other injured people there are who aren't able to seek help - the hidden victims

Albadross, definitely would report that.

I found the guy's Twitter - I'm not sure if it's meant to be a joke account... all kinds of threats and mentions FB deleting all his accounts.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/grenfell-tower-victims-could-hit-10675106

Mirror now covering the bedroom tax angle.

BBC breaking news - 161 homes in a tower block on the Chalcots estate in Camden is to be evacuated due to concerns over cladding.

The focus on the fridge freezer seems to have increased the victim blaming comments towards the tenant from that flat.

Ive even seen comments asking whether people in flats should be allowed to have freezers.

Thats how stupid some of these haters of social housing tenants are.

CaveMum it's also been reported that the Camden flats' cladding was installed by Rydon, the same company who fitted it at Grenfell

I wonder what the company owners are doing right now ...

news.sky.com/story/grenfell-fire-survivors-moved-out-of-hotel-with-just-hours-notice-10925401

By Dan Whitehead, Sky News Reporter

Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have been thrown out of a west London hotel with just a few hours notice.

Sky News has seen the letter from Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council which asks the people, some of whom lost family members in the fire, to get out by 4pm on Friday.

A telephone number was given for them to arrange alternative accommodation but some victims have told us there was either no response or no answer as to where they should go.

The letter from the council said: "Despite efforts to extend your stay... regrettably the hotel has stated that they do not have availability to extend your booking.

"You will need to check out of this hotel by 4pm.

"Please contact the accommodation team as a matter of urgency to discuss your urgent options."

The survivors were in 20 rooms at the hotel in Kensington and the Red Cross said they have all since been able to find other accommodation.

But local community groups helping at the hotel said some of the victims have been moved between three or four hotels since the 14 June fire

From the Independent

“Today the London Fire Brigade completed a joint inspection of the blocks with Camden Council technical experts. Together we decided that the Taplow block needs to be temporarily decanted while we undertake urgent fire safety works so that residents can be fully assured of their safety. This means that we need to move residents from their homes and into temporary accommodation.

Story forgot the link

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/camden-tower-evacuated-cladding-taplow-block-chalcots-estate-grenfell-fire-london-latest-a7805751.html?cmpid=facebook-post

Comment from DH "bet the company owners arent even in the country"

Sounds about right, Helena

The treatment of the survivors makes it clear how terribly bad our emergency plans are. It is obvious that plans of where to house people in such an event were non existant. We send teams of experts all over the world and yet we are failing spectacularly to look after people here in London. I know hotel rooms can't be magically found but I thought emergency plans would include nominated hotels that in the event of a disaster would spring into action. Between all the London hotels I'm sure they could do better than this.

Again the glaring divide as if this were middle class people made homeless they would have insurance company putting them up and meeting cost no question and hotel of the owners choice.

News updated to say five tower blocks in Camden evacuated - 800 homes.

Evacuating over 800 families on a Friday night?

Camden Council have stated that the cladding on the five blocks is "identical" to that on Grenfell Tower and will be removed "as soon as possible".

From BBC:

"Council leader Georgia Gould said: "The panels that were fitted were not to the standard that we had commissioned. In light of this, we will be informing the contractor that we will be taking urgent legal advice.

"Whilst we are clear that our cladding design and insulation significantly differs to that at Grenfell Tower, the external cladding panels did not satisfy our independent laboratory testing or the high standards we set for contractors."

The council pointed out the tower blocks on the Chalcots Estate, containing 711 homes, were fitted with fire resistant insulation and there was fire resistant sealant between floors.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40370993

Two board members of Shelter quit after Grenfell tower fire.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/23/two-shelter-board-members-derek-myers-tony-rice-quit-after-grenfell-tower-fire?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Sounding more and more like Rydon Construction are a firm of cowboys.

Between all the London hotels I'm sure they could do better than this

Someone mentioned on another thread about the rooms which are "magic-ed up" when flights are cancelled. I realise, of course, that this only tends to be for one night and that such hotels are probably under contract to the airlines ... but it seems to suggest the ability to put something together in haste if the will is there

This is an absolute bloody nightmare of epic proportions . Just how much worse can this get?

Well done to Camden council for dealing with this quickly and appropriately.

Have any other councils evacuated tower block residents?

The Last Leg is on Channel 4 again tonight. They may give more coverage to Grenfell this week They only touched upon it last week which was the edition dedicated to Jo Cox.