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Massive Fire in High Rise Apartment in London

G

Ghost

Chili Con Carnage!
Apparently there are 4000 tower blocks in the UK with similar set ups to this one, the Government has known about the risk since 2013, cross party parliamentary groups have demanded they change the regulations to force landlords to renovate and the government has stalled repeatedly under several housing ministers.

Source: http://www.lbc.co.uk/news/london/we...vernment-sat-on-tower-fire-report-four-years/

Sickening, the landlords will mostly likely escape unpunished from this because the regulations haven't demanded that they provide sprinklers.
 
Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck

Member
elrechazado said:
Amazing with those pics that it was so few.
Click to expand...

I doubt they have done a room by room floor by floor search as yet so I wouldn't even take these numbers as a starting point.

BBC interviewed a couple of women earlier and they named four people they knew who had died.
 
I

I H8 Memes

Member
Looking at the building on fire and hearing that it started on the 4th floor, and witnesses have said the exits were unusable. I dont see how there is less than 100 dead people in that building. At that hour and from the 4th floor up, it could be a lot worse than 100.
 
G

GrizzleBoy

Banned
In the borough I do maintenance in, the company who did the refurbishments (Rydon) holding a meeting in the community centre I was working in.

Looking deadly serious in there....

Would love to know what they're talking about.
 
B

Breakage

Member
elrechazado said:
Amazing with those pics that it was so few.
Click to expand...
The block has around 125 flats home to between 400 to 600 people.The fire happened at the worst possible time - during the early hours of the morning when people would have been sleeping.

The body count is going to rise for sure.
 
C

cameron

Member
cmCujaY.jpg
Click to expand...

Photo shows firefighters taking a rest near the building after a huge fire engulfed the #GrenfellTower in London

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 14, 2017​
 
V

v1oz

Member
BunnyBear said:
Astonishing that a building like that can withstand a devastating fire and not collapse, but the Twin Towers in New York fell within two hours. Goes to show the advancements in tech over the years.

I can't even imagine experiencing something like this. Fucking hell.
Click to expand...

"As for the stability of the block this is unlikely to be affected by this fire - intense and hot as it was - as the structure is almost a reinforced concrete frame with a central concrete lift shaft which should have remained. In the case of New York’s Twin Towers the main structure was steel and the heat generated by the explosion of aviation fuel created heat at such a level that the steel structure on the floors where the planes hit, bent and the top floors above collapsed which then caused the blocks to completely collapse."

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk...ticle?blocktitle=news-feature&contentID=17134
 
V

v1oz

Member
Recalled an incident in China that a building had similar fire after renovation. It happened likely because of the insulation material that could catch fire. I think a deep investigation on the type of the insulation material might give an answer to the cause of the fire.

Some other points of consideration as to things which could have prevented the worst of this disaster.
- Why wasn't there a fire extinguisher in each flat?
- Why weren't there smoke masks for residents in each flat?
- Why no sprinkler system
- why was there just a single exit/stairway
- What was the composition of the cladding material and why did it catch fire so quick?
- why weren't the fire alarms working?
 
B

Breakage

Member
Chances are the people who lost their homes last night will no longer be Londoners since they'll likely be re-homed outside of London.
 
Z

Zaph

Member
moggio said:
@EL4JC

Listen to an angry and upset resident of #GrenfellTower. Anyone who lives in London will recognise this story.
Click to expand...

Poor kid.

Intentional arson might be a bit much, but there is currently a lot of dodgy shit happening in London right now that isn't far from it, just so land can be sold for redevelopment. There's a nursery near us that's full of asbestos but the council won't pay for refurbishment nor will they extend the lease (allowing them to seek private funding) because the nursery is on prime land that they've received huge redevelopment bids for.
 
G

George Oscar Bluth II

Banned
Jazzy Geoff said:
Yeah I said this earlier. No room for the poor in RBKC. And increasingly not in LBHF and even Ealing either.
Click to expand...
The gentrification of Hammersmith has been shockingly fast. I don't venture there all that much so I was shocked to see all these new apartment buildings and fancier shops popping up everywhere. Made me feel ill.
Faddy said:
People that has been left homeless by the fire should take a walk around Kensington and take empty housing owned by an oligarch.

The new MP for Kensington has already done some of the ground work

http://emmadentcoad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/dark-matters-light-means-life-in.html

Have at it as far as I'm concerned.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the situation in Kensington is disgusting. Walk through any residential area and you'll see that the number of people just don't match up the number of residences. Lots of empty housing and then they go building "affordable" housing behind places like the Odeon, which was kind of a local icon.
 
M

Miles X

Member
Exterminieren said:
Utterly fucking disgusting.

I couldn't imagine a starker picture of where our country is nowadays.
Click to expand...

How on earth is that disgusting. I doubt anyone knew that the cladding would be such a fire risk? What's wrong with improving the look of these buildings, they're damn ugly for the people living inside as well!!

Also I doubt that's what is going through the minds of the neighbouring luxury tower residents. Gees some of you like to think the worst of people.
 
2

2MF

Member
Miles X said:
Also I doubt that's what is going through the minds of the neighbouring luxury tower residents. Gees some of you like to think the worst of people.
Click to expand...

This is true. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.

Also, when "gentrification" comes up, remember that unless you're literally the poorest person in your area, you might be pricing out and displacing someone who also wants to live there.
 
S

SomewhatGroovy

Banned
I am paralyzed at the thought of the lives that may have been lost, including those of innocent children, in this incident.

This is beyond tragic.
 
J

JoeBoy101

Member
v1oz said:
Recalled an incident in China that a building had similar fire after renovation. It happened likely because of the insulation material that could catch fire. I think a deep investigation on the type of the insulation material might give an answer to the cause of the fire.

Some other points of consideration as to things which could have prevented the worst of this disaster.
- Why wasn't there a fire extinguisher in each flat?
- Why weren't there smoke masks for residents in each flat?
- Why no sprinkler system
- why was there just a single exit/stairway
- What was the composition of the cladding material and why did it catch fire so quick?
- why weren't the fire alarms working?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the bolded is not standard in the US. Is this code/requirement in other countries.

As to the others... yeah. And even if there were Fire Exts., fire alarm system, etc., when was the last time all of it was inspected and serviced? When was the last fire drill done? Ever?


Beefy said:
Already risen to 12 dead

https://twitter.com/AP/status/875021644485591040

RIP
Click to expand...

Gah, this is going to be ugly.
 
C

cpp_is_king

Member
Miles X said:
How on earth is that disgusting. I doubt anyone knew that the cladding would be such a fire risk? What's wrong with improving the look of these buildings, they're damn ugly for the people living inside as well!!

Also I doubt that's what is going through the minds of the neighbouring luxury tower residents. Gees some of you like to think the worst of people.
Click to expand...

Someone posted a link earlier in the thread where they had linked 4 or 5 major building fires across the world to this exact same kind of cladding. The risks were known.
 
E

Exterminieren

Banned
Miles X said:
How on earth is that disgusting. I doubt anyone knew that the cladding would be such a fire risk? What's wrong with improving the look of these buildings, they're damn ugly for the people living inside as well!!
Click to expand...
There have been numerous reports of fires directly being caused by this manner of cladding. Even setting that aside, the residents had been desperately pointing out the fire hazards in the building for years before the cladding was put up, and more focus was put on improving the aesthetics than actually fixing the fatal problems in the building.

That point about the building being ugly for the residents is surely the key here- the building was still ugly and shittily-equipped for the people living inside. The exterior cladding didn't at all benefit the people living there, even before today's ghastly tragedy.

Also I doubt that's what is going through the minds of the neighbouring luxury tower residents. Gees some of you like to think the worst of people.
Click to expand...
I don't need to think that it's intentional to feel utterly sickened that untold numbers of people are dead because the rich folks didn't want to look at them, thanks all the same.
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
BunnyBear said:
Astonishing that a building like that can withstand a devastating fire and not collapse, but the Twin Towers in New York fell within two hours. Goes to show the advancements in tech over the years.

I can't even imagine experiencing something like this. Fucking hell.
Click to expand...

Twin Towers collapsed fundamentally due to the kinetic energy of the attack. The fireproofing was literally blown off of the black iron of the building. Although compared to modern structure built after 2008 they were structurally weak.
 
M

Maintenance

Member
BunnyBear said:
Astonishing that a building like that can withstand a devastating fire and not collapse, but the Twin Towers in New York fell within two hours. Goes to show the advancements in tech over the years.

I can't even imagine experiencing something like this. Fucking hell.
Click to expand...


Something something jet fuel something something steel beams.


On topic, that's tragic. I sometimes get afraid because my building is old (about 40-50 years old) and there's only one emergency exit.
 
Charles Brandon

Charles Brandon

Member
Exterminieren said:
I don't need to think that it's intentional to feel utterly sickened that untold numbers of people are dead because the rich folks didn't want to look at them, thanks all the same.
Click to expand...

Well, that's not what happened. It wasn't that the "rich folks" didn't want to look at them, it's that the building was a hideous carbuncle, which it was. There isn't anything wrong with trying to spruce up an ugly building. The fault is with either the people who decided to use the flammable material or the people who set the building regs who decided this material is appropriate.

It's got nothing to do with the wealthier people who live there, which is most people who live in that area.
 
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