London flats to be evacuated over cladding [BBC]

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SlipperyFishes

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More than 100 homes in a tower block on a council estate in Camden, north London, are be evacuated because of safety concerns over cladding in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Camden Council says residents in 161 flats in the Taplow block, one of five towers on the Chalcots estate, will be moved for "urgent fire safety works".
Similar cladding was used on the building to that on the Grenfell Tower.
A total of 79 people are feared dead after the Grenfell fire

The Department for Communities and Local Government said 14 residential high-rise buildings in nine local authority areas have now been found with cladding that raises safety concerns.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40389148

Changes to the buildings due to take 3-4 weeks. We're lucky there hasn't been more of these fires but this is going to be costly for the government who said for so many years that there were no problems here.

Update: This has now been revised to five tower blocks (800 homes). Effin' eck.
 
I'll keep saying it, but the cladding was not solely responsible for Grenfell. There is far more to be checked than just the cladding.
 
I still haven't taken the time to find out what cladding they have used on my privately owned block.
Haven't really heard anything in the news about privately owned blocks either.
 
bosseye said:
I'll keep saying it, but the cladding was not solely responsible for Grenfell. There is far more to be checked than just the cladding.
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Yeah, this cladding is just a particularly nasty accelerant. So many of these towers are just death traps
 
Zaph said:
Yeah, this cladding is just a particularly nasty accelerant. So many of these towers are just death traps
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I just worry that everyone is focusing on the cladding, "We've changed/altered the cladding, it's all safe now, phew!" and yet not dealt with any of the services issues, the fire stopping and compartmentation issues, the management issues etc etc that all contributed to Grenfell.
 
bosseye said:
I just worry that everyone is focusing on the cladding, "We've changed/altered the cladding, it's all safe now, phew!" and yet not dealt with any of the services issues, the fire stopping and compartmentation issues, the management issues etc etc that all contributed to Grenfell.
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It's very depressing, there's already a narrative emerging -

cladding = totally unsafe!
no cladding = totally safe!

The councils are rushing to re-write risk assessments
 
bosseye said:
I'll keep saying it, but the cladding was not solely responsible for Grenfell. There is far more to be checked than just the cladding.
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The cladding and insulation was certainly responsible for how quickly the fire spread. I mean, you only have to look at the footage to know that. But indeed there are so many other factors that simply made a terrible situation even worse again.
 
frankie_baby said:
Taking the cladding off wont take that long, getting the "safe" cladding up though will probably take years
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Yeah but to take it off they're gonna have to put up 20 storey's worth of scaffolding. The whole evacuation sounds like a corner-cutting council panicking because "criminal manslaughter" is being thrown around in regard to Glenfell.
 
BBC News - Cladding on 27 high-rise blocks of flats in 15 council areas fail fire safety tests, UK government says

Feel so bad for all these people being evacuated. No idea where the council is going to put ones who can't stay with family or friends.

edit: airbeds set up at a leisure centre

tWkHnn0.png
 
This is a crazy dereliction of general public safety and the duty of care for these residents from all sides, government, local authority and of course the builders and property owners who cheaped out in such a recklessly dangerous way, for the sake of a few thousand quid.

Heads need to roll all over the place. Feel sorry for those being evacuated, it's going to be a clusterfuck for all involved but it's the only sane option. No matter how many precautions are taken we all saw and heard about how quickly that fire spread and how quickly people got trapped.... Never again. This has to be done.
 
bosseye said:
I'll keep saying it, but the cladding was not solely responsible for Grenfell. There is far more to be checked than just the cladding.
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You're not wrong. The cladding is something that enables the fast and quick escalation of a fire event outside of it's containment zone - in general fire safety has to be looked at without the cladding to be considered.

I fear we will see very bad standards for most apartment blocks dating back decades.

This is a massive undertaking that is way beyond replacing external cladding materials.
 
These flats are being evacuated not just because of the cladding, but they have other issues like missing fire doors and weird gas pipe insulation going on. If it was just the cladding, it would take a few days to remove with no need for people to leave, which has been going on elsewhere in the UK this week.
 
bosseye said:
I'll keep saying it, but the cladding was not solely responsible for Grenfell. There is far more to be checked than just the cladding.
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Yeah, but not flammable cladding and a fire escapestairs would have gone long way in saving dozens of lives.
 
bosseye said:
I'll keep saying it, but the cladding was not solely responsible for Grenfell. There is far more to be checked than just the cladding.
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I disagree. These tower blocks are specifically designed to enclose the fire within one flat. The cladding completely bypassed that safety feature. Even with all the other issues it is my understanding that the cladding is the reason why it turned into such a tragedy.
 
There's no magic bullet for the systematic and long term failure to consider and cater for the needs and safety of the poorest in our society.

'Cladding' is just a very visible and immediately addressable symbol of how Austerity kills poor people. It's a quick fix that might stop a few more from burning to death, which tends to make the news, while thousands of others are dying quietly without making a fuss.

Dougald said:
There are going to be a lot more than five tower blocks. A lot.
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Well considering:
Zaph said:
Cladding on 27 higpeople h-rise blocks of flats in 15 council areas fail fire safety tests
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I'd say that's a given, yeah.
 
This is a nightmare, I feel so bad for these people who have literally just had their lives upheaved, so much uncertainty. Hopefully a lot of them have family that can help them out in this time.
 
So what is the material used in the cladding? And do the safety rules specifically prohibit its use?
With the tests they're doing, are they seeing if it's the same material or other materials with similar properties to Grenfell?
 
Moral Panic said:
I disagree. These tower blocks are specifically designed to enclose the fire within one flat. The cladding completely bypassed that safety feature. Even with all the other issues it is my understanding that the cladding is the reason why it turned into such a tragedy.
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The problem is in Grefnall they wasn't. There was no firedoors or anything.
 
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