Massive fire at high rise flats in London

[ayrmad]

45 minutes ago, williemillersmoustache said:

^was just about to post that.

So what's the cost of a human life if it's 150 dead and a total saving of 5k? 

Folk cost £33.33 each.

That's too much for most politicians/decision makers/landlords I'm afraid.

[Cerberus]

So are the actual number of dead unknown or are the media being told to not report it?

Hopefully justice is done and people go to jail over this.

[dorlomin]

Quote

The most striking thing that hits me when I watch the interviews and images of the Grenfell Tower disaster is the number of ethnic-minority and marginalised working class voices who lost their lives and have been affected by this catastrophe. It reminds me of Hurricane Katrina and the stark inequalities that it exposed. It is heartening to see rich, poor, black, white, Muslim, Christian and people of all backgrounds come together and demonstrate the foundations of the word "community". The council are guilty of corralling the most vulnerable people into these death traps and then negligently ignoring their desperate cries of concern. This disaster clearly highlights the practise of economic marginalisation and segregation under the guise of 'regeneration' that this council is guilty of. They have ethnically and class cleansed Notting Hill and forced us onto the fringes of the area and into the most desperate of conditions. They would never have shown such disregard and contempt for the concerns of the more affluent and middle-class residents of this community. Their actions are nothing short of manslaughter!

 

 

 

Link

[ayrmad]

Portillo's looking a bit gutted on This Week reflecting on the enormous loss of life.

[Glenconner]

Manslaughter might be the term used by the legal profession.

I call it MURDER.

[ayrmad]

Just now, Glenconner said:

Manslaughter might be the term used by the legal profession.

I call it MURDER.

They'll probably call it admonished or no further action.

[Hedgecutter]

Grim reality:

 

[Cerberus]

Grease ball David Cameron was one who voted against making rented property fit for human habitation.

[dundeefc1783]

Trust me none of those firefighters want to meet her. It must be fucking horrific working in a public sector job and being used as a publicity stunt for some arsehole politician.

Almost every block of high flats in Scotland that's been renovated has had some kind of cladding put on it, I know of several in Clydebank and Dumbarton alone. I hope local authorities all over the country are working their arses off to get reassurances these are safe.

I am absolutely amazed at the restraint being shown by people who are quite rightly angry. These flats were clad in flammable material to make them have less of an impact on gentrification, the same gentrification which no doubt forced these people to move into tower blocks etc. To see Theresa May and her party of appalling people fawn around and not even have the decency to meet with any of them even privately with say a community leader etc is disgusting and demonstrates the contempt with which Tories view the working class. Voting against bills requiring housing to be an acceptable standard and safe to protect personal vested interests of land/housing stock owners could imo bring down this government, I'd immediately like to see a parliamentary enquiry on whether rules have been broken by Rees Mogg etc voting despite their capacity as slum lords.

Sure I read somewhere that the law in Scotland is slightly different. Apparently illegal to use combustible cladding in Scotland but not so rigorous in England.

Not sure if that's correct.

[senorsoupe]

One observation from a Canadian reading this is how the f**k could a building like this be allowed to have ONE escape route?? That to me is completely bonkers and would never, never,never fly over here. Every block of flats needs a minimum of two staircases

[Dee Man]

Any official figures on dead cats yet?

[Alert Mongoose]

It's a slightly tenuous link but hopefully this is another stage in the death of capitalism in it's current guise.

[supermik]

13 minutes ago, Dee Man said:

Any official figures on dead cats yet?

Here is mine.

 

[MONKMAN]

I'm not surprised that they've no idea how many people were in the building at the time, and that many will never be identified.

Shockingly reports are suggesting that the US company that manufactured the cladding Reynobonds,  do a fire-resistant panel at an additional cost of £2 per square metre.  To think these people may have died horrifically for the sake of a few grand, doesn't bare thinking about.

[Sergeant Wilson]

28 minutes ago, senorsoupe said:

One observation from a Canadian reading this is how the f**k could a building like this be allowed to have ONE escape route?? That to me is completely bonkers and would never, never,never fly over here. Every block of flats needs a minimum of two staircases

There was another flight of stairs, but those were for getting in.

[hk blues]

One observation from a Canadian reading this is how the f**k could a building like this be allowed to have ONE escape route?? That to me is completely bonkers and would never, never,never fly over here. Every block of flats needs a minimum of two staircases

Think there were a number of escape routes - lifts and stairs. Read some reports that talked about only one exit during the renovations, but they were completed some time ago so seems irrelevant. I've lived in high rises a number of times, and only ever had one stairway for exit in addition to lifts. I'd imagine the cost of adding a second exit stairway would rule out such a provision - cost/benefit analysis and all that.

Let's be honest here, everything in life comes down to balancing cost and risk. Sadly, occasionally the risk becomes a reality.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

27 minutes ago, MONKMAN said:

I'm not surprised that they've no idea how many people were in the building at the time, and that many will never be identified.

Shockingly reports are suggesting that the US company that manufactured the cladding Reynobonds,  do a fire-resistant panel at an additional cost of £2 per square metre.  To think these people may have died horrifically for the sake of a few grand, doesn't bare thinking about.

I think we can all pretty much predict that the "public enquiry" into this will rumble on for a long period of time, at great cost with the final result being some local authority middle manager or QS taking the fall, whilst the real policy and decision makers will escape unscathed with the usual "lessons will be learned" shite being trotted out on several occasions. 

 

[pandarilla]

I think we can all pretty much predict that the "public enquiry" into this will rumble on for a long period of time, at great cost with the final result being some local authority middle manager or QS taking the fall, whilst the real policy and decision makers will escape unscathed with the usual "lessons will be learned" shite being trotted out on several occasions. 
 

It may well be a middle management council type that has done the deal for this refurb though. It's certainly not a central government issue (specifically).

There's two things at play here. Who specifically agreed this deal and what shenanigans went on (kick back payments, ignoring warnings, cutting costs etc.)? This is where folk will be prosecuted - either on the local government side or the company side.

And then the bigger issue of the state of housing in this county. Why are companies like this allowed to get away with this shit? Why do we not have proper regulation?

You can't jail folk for the second issue but you can hopefully change the narrative.

[Ross.]

9 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Sprinkler system retrofit would have been about £200k. That puts the cost of a person up to £300ish.

Getting a bit pricey these humans eh?

Much has just been knocked off the welfare bill? Brings the cost down significantly.

8 hours ago, kilbowie2002 said:

Trust me none of those firefighters want to meet her. It must be fucking horrific working in a public sector job and being used as a publicity stunt for some arsehole politician.

Almost every block of high flats in Scotland that's been renovated has had some kind of cladding put on it, I know of several in Clydebank and Dumbarton alone. I hope local authorities all over the country are working their arses off to get reassurances these are safe.

I know folk who have lived in the flats at Yoker, Dalmuir and Drumry and have seen countless flat fires in the blocks in those areas. Never seen it affect more than the flat that was on fire and those directly around it, and even then the other flats were mostly smoke damaged. 

[Moonglum25]

Sajid Javid on Breakfast Time this morning had a serious car crash interview - started of using all the right phrases and buzzwords and was then taken apart by Charlie Stayt. By the end he was a disgrace, could not answer if they would retro fit sprinkler systems or not, pathetic figure of a man.

Theresa May's failure to visit the residents yesterday is totally inexcusable, treating the people with utter contempt.  can see some civil uprising coming out of this as people have had enough.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Moonglum25
spelling