Fire at Grenfell Tower in London

Experts have repeatedly warned that the addition of cladding, which is regularly used to refresh old or ugly buildings, can help spread fire. It can work like a chimney, they have warned, bringing up air that allows it to spread across a building quickly.

_Landlord spent £10million to put cladding to make building look pretty (for surrounding rich) for 300k they could have sprinkler system._

"We believe that it is the responsibility of the fire industry, rather than the Government, to market fire sprinkler systems effectively and to encourage their wider installation .../

This *fucking cunt*. An industry has a responsibility to market lifesaving devices to developers? FUCK OFF.

mission v much not accomplished then xp

stet otm, this belief that the free hand of the market will somehow inevitably lead to safe, secure housebuilding instead of deathtrap slums is fucking delusional

It's a lie though, they actually dont care.

well, yeah

Housing providers are in a position with blocks like these where they are encouraged to consider EWI particularly on non traditional construction blocks and also because of the decent homes standard. Poor energy ratings of uninsulated dwellings, the pressure to be seen to reduce carbon emissions, to increase energy efficiency, to help towards reducing fuel poverty: all these have driven similar refurbishment work all over the country.

"Don't look at us, it wasn't OUR job" is a terrible look when people have just died.

The alternative of demolition and rebuild was not always the viable one. Plus there has in the past been loads of funding available for EWI works.

The worrying thing, having been involved in similar works in the past, is that the company that provided the cladding 'solution' on the grenfell project went into administration straight after the contract completed. And in my experience they don't strike me as a leading light in the industry.

I imagine that the powerful in Kensington will be looking to point fingers at architects and contractors to deflect from what appears to have been utterly disdainful management of the block and its tenants / leaseholders. The grenfell association blog post linked to earlier is tragic.

Given this is effectively a large-scale corporate manslaughter charge I don't think deflecting the blame is really going to work.

The official death toll has now risen to 12.

(xp) I wish I shared your confidence.

twitter account of the editor of "inside housing"

This is what a report into cladding used in a nearby tower which caught fire in August said. Report was kept secret. https://t.co/z0GOVjkNjB pic.twitter.com/RPJTTLj3Y7

— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) June 14, 2017

polystyrene ffs

Sorry I'm not good at links on zing

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/14/disaster-waiting-to-happen-fire-expert-slams-uk-tower-blocks?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

That's proper cowboy spec in that tweet.

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested spending cuts could have contributed to the deadly fire at Grenfell Tower. The Labour leader said “searching questions” need to be asked about what happened at the west London tower block, adding: “If you deny local authorities the funding they need, then there is a price that’s paid.”

very sad and enraging situation.

Tensions erupted in clashes with the police outside the Rugby Portobello trust, which is acting as a centre for dispossessed people.

The road outside the club was packed with people, some in tears and some wailing. A fracas broke out, apparently over a journalist trying to film a distraught woman. Some men moved to protect the woman and, within seconds, a large contingent of police officers were jostling with the crowd amid shouting and screaming.

Watching the news right now and the tower appears to be leaning quite alarmingly. Dunno if it's camera angle or what.

I'm almost certain that's the camera angle...

Def camera angle; was just past and it's straight. Fires still burning though

The intrusive questioning and filming of people in the severest state of shock and grief (looking for missing family, kids etc) by the BBC today is fucking repulsive. A new low even by their own appalling lack of standards :(

how many people lived in the tower? david lammy says he expects "hundreds" of ppl to have died

david lammy otm

This is the richest borough in our country treating its citizens in this way and we should call it what it is. It is corporate manslaughter. That’s what it is. And there should be arrests made, frankly. It is an outrage.

Many of use across the country have been caught up in an election knocking on housing estate doors, travelling up to the top floors of tower blocks, and we know as politicians that the conditions in this country are unacceptable.

We build buildings in the 70s. Those 70s buildings, many of them should be demolished. They have not got easy fire escapes. They have got no sprinklers. It is totally, totally unacceptable in Britain that this is allowed to happen and that people lose their lives in this way. People should be held to account.

simultaneous lammyposting there

Just listened to that on youtube, Lammy totally otm and Nick Robinson a total arsehole who was trying to deny there is any class inequality dimension to this preventable tragedy.

There could have been 400+ people in the tower and the numbers confirmed dead and confirmed safe/in hospital are nowhere near that.

The scale of this is horrific, I read somewhere that there could have been anything between 400-600 people in the flats when the fire started.

average house price in kensington and chelsea is £1,989,412

george osbourne could see the fire from his street

grenfell tower was recently remodelled to cram more residents inside, fire alarms were not properly fitted, cladding was flammable

just free associating here, no class inequality implied, of course

fuck nick robinson now and forever btw

There could have been 400+ people in the tower and the numbers confirmed dead and confirmed safe/in hospital are nowhere near that.

I've been thinking about that too, the fire started on the fourth floor and there were, what, 24 floors? It's chilling and horrific. Theresa May is visiting the site today, I really really really hope people tell her to fuck right off, but I'm sure there isn't the will or spirit to do that right now, but soon I hope there will be.

(xp) Fuck the BBC now and forever.

Meanwhile Theresa May visited the site and managed to avoid meeting any of those affected or volunteers helping. She really is a pathetic human being.

i've been wondering how heavily stage-managed may's visit will be - she'll be terrified, and rightly so, of getting shellacked by the public but the optics of her running it like her election rallies of four punters in a warehouse would be at least as bad

wait, she's already been? ffs

It's like she hates people or something.

better not to have gone at all and made some vague statement about letting the authorities do their focusing on the issues or something

showing up in groucho glasses, having a quick shufti and fucking off again is absolutely the worst thing she could have done

i mean i guess that's become her personal brand now but even still, holy shit

this is a straight-up dereliction of duty by a prime minister who sold herself on being strong and stable

i don't think i was even this furious with david cameron the day after the eu referendum

corbyn set to visit a bit later. as someone in my twitter feed said, the political blame game can't begin a moment too soon.

absolutely

this surely has to be the final nail in theresa may's coffin as pm, and like almost all the other nails, along with the wood and interior lining, she made it for herself

fuck her forevermore, she deserves her epitaph as the worst pm in at least a century

I hope this will lead to massive changes in both policy and attitudes but it's just as likely that safety will be used as an excuse to accelerate estate demolition and gentrification.

"political blame game" sounds horrible in these circumstances but if that if that is what it takes to hasten the process of bringing the guilty parties to account - then fucking bring it on.

it's only horrible if there's not actually clear and simple blame to be laid at the feet of politicians and all signs seem to point to this being an almost inevitable endgame of tory austerity

Osborne was saying they shouldn't abandon austerity yesterday, it is almost like the penny hasn't dropped that this disaster is on him as well.

osborne in 'total cunt' shocker