Grenfell Tower Fire
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Not sure if you guys in the other hemisphere have caught up with this but it looks like scenes from the Towering Inferno.
Death toll sure to rise.
Dramatic images show devastating impact of London tower block fire
These dramatic pictures show the devastation caused as flames raged through a 27-storey tower block in Notting Hill.
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Man, if this article is true some bureaucrat has a lot of lives to answer for...
Tower residents predicted catastrophe in chilling warning before fire
Residents of a tower block which erupted in flames in a horrific fire said they “predicted a catastrophe” but claim safety warnings “fell on deaf ears”.
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I'm astonished; that's what fire stairs are for.
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@NTA said in Horrific Fire in London:
Its amazing that they're only reporting 6 deaths. That is still unacceptable, but looking at the photos, that's a minor miracle.
That's all they've found so far but looking at the photos and reading breaking news it is unlikely they've got very far into the building yet. It's bloody awful.
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@Catogrande good point. Suppose its a bit premature to report on the "missing, feared dead" side.
@antipodean - think I heard the smoke alarms weren't in great shape.
Also will say, that as someone who is a fire warden in their place of work, I know people are very lackadaisical about fire drill knowledge. I'm assuming that they didn't bother running fire drills in a residential apartment, and not many people think about it anyway.
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From the little I have read it the whole building has just been renovated and modernized. Smoke alarms shouldn't have been a problem.
The reason the residents group had concerns was that while work was going on the access to exits was limited and the mitigation to that risk thought up by some clever person was to tell everyone to stay where they were unless directly affected therefore reducing the numbers trying to exit.
Because this fire took hold and spread so quick residents didn't know they were affected until too late so by following instructions they remained in place.
IF all that is true then someone has a very poorly thought out plan to answer to AND whoever dismissed the obvious flaws that were pointed out needs to answer why. -
Bloody hell looks like there were a few warnings alright
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@Rembrandt It is beginning to look like a rancid can of worms that has been opened by this catastrophe. If culpable I sincerely hope heads roll and not just some bloody scapegoats either. The council should also be held to account and by that I mean actual people.
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@NTA I know only too well how casual residents can be in apartment buildings. Every time I hear our alarm go off I wait to see if it will be turned off and only after a while do I go out into the foyer to see if there's smoke. But at least I know where the fire exits are and how quickly I could find them even if obscured.
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@antipodean said in Horrific Fire in London:
@NTA I know only too well how casual residents can be in apartment buildings. Every time I hear our alarm go off I wait to see if it will be turned off and only after a while do I go out into the foyer to see if there's smoke. But at least I know where the fire exits are and how quickly I could find them even if obscured.
We had a fire in a next door building to our office which resulted in the Fire Service being called and the fire alarm raised. Our office is in the ground floor and there are flats above. We evacuated the building but did not see any of the residents appearing. Two of us went back in the building (after assessing risk) to knock on doors and what have you so see one resident wandering around in his slippers trying to turn of the alarm because it was noisy.
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This is horrific. Here's the fire safety poster advising them to stay put
KCTMO – Feeling the Heat!
The Grenfell Action Group are acutely aware that we are resented and despised by the un-holy trinity that controls North Kensington, ie the Council and their quislings at the KCTMO and the Westway …
How the hell does this get ignored for so long? Seems almost too incredible to have this much notice of the problems as well as vivid descriptions of this catastrophe in advance.
Definitely a wake up call for all apartment dwellers. Our evacuation alarm went off the other day and a tenant just disabled it with a key that is left in the alarm lock, there is a load of flashing warning lights I assumed the bodycorp would have it fixed by now, bloody stupid even for me to have not chased it up by now.
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The more I'm reading, the more I'd like to see the building owner and whoever the overseers were spending tonight in a cell...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11876437
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wow, just wow, so horrific for all those involved.
How a block like that can go up like that and so quickly is just mid boggling in this day and age, surely points ot sub-standard materials and work and then poor systems.
And the reports of people jumping or dropping kids, is hard to even comprehend making that decision, roll the dice on surviving the fall or certain death by staying, just heartbreaking!
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@taniwharugby that is what is most shocking to me, how fast the whole building went up in flames. It's an old building but you'd hope with the renovations the materials used would be a consideration? I am really clueless when it comes to building standards but I assume both the building owners and the council will be held accountable for this.
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@No-Quarter said in Horrific Fire in London:
@taniwharugby that is what is most shocking to me, how fast the whole building went up in flames. It's an old building but you'd hope with the renovations the materials used would be a consideration? I am really clueless when it comes to building standards but I assume both the building owners and the council will be held accountable for this.
The managers are saying everything was signed off according to regs.
There is speculation that the type of cladding (something over polystyrene type base) shot the fire upwards but an architect was saying it was more likely that's were created that made a chimney type effect and sucked it. -
be a far few managers scouring through old emails and files hoping to find something that doesn't tie them in this catastrophe.
Might be one or 2 breaking out the office shreader too -
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@Hooroo said in Horrific Fire in London:
Poor damn fire fighters! What an awful day at work for them. Must be one of the toughest jobs.
Yeah, they must have felt absolutely helpless. You could see them blasting their hoses as high as they could but it was completely ineffective in the face of that massive blaze. That'll haunt them for the rest of their lives
