Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

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Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:30 am

The whole building is engulfed. Eye witness accounts report people in their apartments flashing their lights and phone flashlights before being engulfed in smoke and eventually flames. Likely to be 10's - 100's dead. :(
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by JimC » Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:34 am

Poor buggers...

I must admit, the fear of something like that puts me off the idea of apartment living...
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by cronus » Wed Jun 14, 2017 4:54 am

Horrific reports on the TV. It was full of famlies in temp housing and they'd been throwing their kids to 'safety' from the higher floors as the fire raged. Makes you shudder.
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by Hermit » Wed Jun 14, 2017 5:54 am

Here's hoping for a minimal number of lives lost and injuries suffered.

Now I'm just waiting for the usual conspiracy theorists to lecture us on exactly how the fire started and the usual terrorist organisations to claim responsibility. In reality, the building appears to simply have been a fire trap, and its residents have known it since at least as early as last November.
Many on social media are already discussing this November 20 post from a group of people who lived in the tower and were worried about fire safety. (Stuff has confirmed that the post existed prior to the fire starting.)

In the post the residents are almost disturbingly prescient about the possibility of a large fire.

"It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders," the group writes.

"We have blogged many times on the subject of fire safety at Grenfell Tower and we believe that these investigations will become part of damning evidence of the poor safety record of the KCTMO should a fire affect any other of their properties and cause the loss of life that we are predicting:"
Link
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by Scot Dutchy » Wed Jun 14, 2017 11:52 am

It had no fire proof staircase and fire resistant covering on the outside. It was a tower for poor people.

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Also no one has clue who lived there.
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Jun 14, 2017 12:09 pm

Apparently there were serious fire concerns raised by tenants last year. Someone needs to go to jail for this.
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by Hermit » Wed Jun 14, 2017 12:25 pm

pErvin wrote:Apparently there were serious fire concerns raised by tenants last year.
Since 2013, actually. I posted a link to it earlier. If you follow it up, you'll get to the most serious one here, indicating that fire safety issues were largely ignored for over a decade, and on the occasion when they were dealt with, it was only in a perfunctory manner and a one-off.
“From the asset records provided to me by the TMO the emergency lighting and fire alarm systems along with the dry riser, fire fighter lifts and the hose reels installed in this building are all subject to a maintenance contracts. Testing, servicing and maintenance is being carried out by professional third party contractors on a planned preventive maintenance programme with records kept centrally by TMO at the “Hub” and by the contractor for all these systems, no test certificates have been seen to confirm this.

RGE Services are under contract to TMO to provide portable fire fighting equipment, testing, servicing and maintenance, the fire extinguisher in this building, the basement boiler room, the lift motor room, the ground floor electrical room plus other areas were out of test date according to the contractors label on the extinguishers. The last test date was on the 8th August 2011. Some located in the roof level areas had “condemned” written on them in large black writing with a last test date of 2009 or 2010. This seems to indicate that monthly occupier inspections are not being carried out.

It is not known if the caretaker is undertaking the monthly occupier’s tests of the installed emergency lighting system, fire extinguishers and structural items as per the caretakers check list this would include the external stairs and lift checks with the results being kept as a record of testing having been undertaken.”

On the face of it this is alarming evidence of serious negligence over several years, and it is rendered all the more alarming when seen in its true context, as part of a history of negligence that in all likelihood stretches back to 2004 and beyond.

It just so happens that one of our members chaired the EMB Property Management Committee in 2004 when that committee received information that the Grenfell Tower emergency lighting system was in very poor condition. Two thirds of the battery packs were completely dead, and the entire system would have failed in an emergency. The committee then fought a protracted battle with the TMO for more than a year, during which time the TMO repeatedly denied that there was a problem, or any negligence with regard to inspection and testing of the system. Eventually the EMB committee succeeded in badgering the TMO into ordering an independent investigation. This was conducted by Peter West of Capita Symonds. His report, when it was published in May 2005, was a shocking indictement of TMO mal-administration and failure of oversight, and of the electrical contractors whose duty it had been to inspect and test the Lancaster West emergency lighting system.

The report recommended that all batteries be replaced urgently, and this was done immediately. However, other recommendations appear to have been largely ignored, one of which was that the TMO urgently consider options for replacing the whole system, which was virtually obsolete and unfit for purpose. Another crucial recommendation that appears to have been ignored was that the TMO initiate and enforce in future a far more rigorous testing and inspection regime for fire safety equipment at Lancaster West.
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by laklak » Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:58 pm

Scot Dutchy wrote:It had no fire proof staircase and fire resistant covering on the outside. It was a tower for poor people.

Also no one has clue who lived there.
So, pretty much a charcoal chimney then.

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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by Scot Dutchy » Wed Jun 14, 2017 4:01 pm

What I can see on the plans is that the staircase is continuous. No fire doors to divide it up.
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by Rum » Wed Jun 14, 2017 4:31 pm

Scot Dutchy wrote:It had no fire proof staircase and fire resistant covering on the outside. It was a tower for poor people.



Also no one has clue who lived there.
I think you are jumping to conclusions. It seems a number of extended families lived in the block and there is a pretty close community based around the block. Plus, this is Kensington, one of the most expensive places to live in the UK - though these would be low end for the area.

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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by cronus » Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:19 pm

Got one or two seventies buildings tarted up with fresh external cladding here. Must be a national trend - dressing mutton as lamb with these ugly architectural carbuncles...but I've thought it all seemed a tad dodgy all along....
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by Rum » Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:21 pm

Well of course you did. You saw this coming didn't you?

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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by cronus » Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:32 pm

Rum wrote:Well of course you did. You saw this coming didn't you?
I'd never live in a high-rise. Nothing has changed.
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by cronus » Thu Jun 15, 2017 3:59 am

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 89951.html

Looks like the local authority tarted it up to maintain house prices for retired professionals around that semi-effluent area.... :coffee:
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Re: Horrific Fire Engulfs London Apartment Tower

Post by pErvinalia » Thu Jun 15, 2017 4:01 am

Apparently Australia's CSIRO tested the exact same cladding panels that were added recently to the building. They found them massively flammable and had to stop their test due to the extreme fire it caused.
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