Tower block fire - london

darkgen · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:40

Pretty harrowing description from a firefighter on LBC now.

HazardO · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:44

Shocking and terrible news. My heart goes out to those affected, the deceased and their friends and relatives.
I certainly hope serious lessons are learnt from this because the speed it appears to have spread should not occur from a fire wherever it originated within the building, even if it means we need to condemn and replace other buildings which may also share whatever design/implementation flaw has allowed this to happen.

d_brennen · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:48

HazardO said:
even if it means we need to condemn and replace other buildings

Not happening at today's property prices. Even retrofitting safety equipment is done on the cheap

Greebo · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:48

The_One said:
piers morgan ripping into the director of the company who refurbed the tower on itv right now

qUITE RIGHTLY SO BUT WATCHING HIM EARLIER THIS MORNING WAS AWFUL. Every "expert" they had on, Piers just kept asking why the SAS werent there with helicopters lowering people on ropes to rescue those people in the higher levels.

He's ad idiot.

C.R.A.Z.Y · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:50

I doubt these new laws would have effected this tragedy but the utter greed and self-serving from some troy MP's is disgusting :mad:

Corbyn tried to pass law to make homes safe last year – the Conservatives rejected it

Jeremy Corbyn tried to pass through a law that would required private landlords to make their homes safe and “fit for human habitation” last year – but it was rejected by the Conservatives.

Labour proposed an amendment to the Government’s new Housing and Planning Bill – a raft of new laws aimed at reforming housing law – in January last year, but it was rejected by 312 votes to 219.

According to Parliament’s register of interests, 72 of the MPs who voted against the amendment were themselves landlords who derive an income from a property.

Source

Ocean Breeze · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:53

Yes because flying helicopters next to a raging inferno is totally sensible. Piers Is an idiot.

This is another blow for the Tories.

antijoke · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:54

C.R.A.Z.Y said:
I doubt these new laws would have effected this tragedy but the utter greed and self-serving from some troy MP's is disgusting

Corbyn tried to pass law to make homes safe last year – the Conservatives rejected it
Source

That final part about 72 of them being landlords themselves.....why are they allowed to vote on such things? It's situations like that wher eI think these politicians should have no affiliations on anything.

Stretch · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:56

darkgen said:
Pretty harrowing description from a firefighter on LBC now.

I've had to stop reading about it at work. The fact it involves families... I'm lost for words.

balky12 · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:57

C.R.A.Z.Y said:
I doubt these new laws would have effected this tragedy but the utter greed and self-serving from some troy MP's is disgusting

Corbyn tried to pass law to make homes safe last year – the Conservatives rejected it
Source

Think some people need to slow down a bit here. We don't know what the proposed changes were to make 'homes safe and “fit for human habitation”.

They might not have even applied to this building if they were agreed.

Granted that this shouldn't happen with todays building regs / health and saftey / etc. This could have just been a complete freak accident with a series of tragic coincidences that allowed for a fire to develop like this. The building could have been well within code on every front. However, imo, highly unlikely.

Guess we will see.

chef-borjan · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:57

On the way to work, I was reading more and more about what was going on and though 'sod it', and went to buy stuff to donate to centres. Walking up in person, the apartment block looks just awful. I didn't want to take a photo or even stare at it too long, its just morbid.

Anyway, the first centre couldn't accept any more donations so walked to another one. Good to see it was filling up with things for those in need.

Part of me is wondering if there might be a better way to co-ordinate donation efforts, many people were getting messy information from Twitter.

balky12 · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:58

chef-borjan said:
Part of me is wondering if there might be a better way to co-ordinate donation efforts, many people were getting messy information from Twitter.

Believe QPR (pretty sure I saw this earlier) have reached out to co-ordinate a relief effort at their stadium.

Fulham FC also.

C.R.A.Z.Y · 14 Jun 2017 at 12:59

antijoke said:
That final part about 72 of them being landlords themselves.....why are they allowed to vote on such things? It's situations like that wher eI think these politicians should have no affiliations on anything.

Yep, definition of conflict of interest.
It's not like these people are struggling even, it's the undiluted vulgar greed and disregard for other peoples safety and well-being the drives me nuts. Horrible horrible people.

balky12 said:
Believe QPR (pretty sure I saw this earlier) have reached out to co-ordinate a relief effort at their stadium.

Fulham FC also.

Jamie Oliver has offered to feed Grenfell residents at one of his nearby restaurants

chef-borjan · 14 Jun 2017 at 13:00

balky12 said:
Believe QPR have reached out to co-ordinate a relief effort at their stadium.

Yeah I saw that, many others as well. More from a point of view is how do we let accurate information be released to the public? Tricky. I would have liked for the 1st relief centre to have a way to get the message out saying 'we are full, please donate to other centres'. But then again, its not really a priority, the stuff will get there eventually.

darkgen · 14 Jun 2017 at 13:01

Stretch said:
I've had to stop reading about it at work. The fact it involves families... I'm lost for words.

Indeed. An earlier video instantly brought back memories of watching 9/11 live and the spectacle, the utterly incomprehensible spectacle of watching people who had jumped from the towers to escape the inferno ...

The firefighter on LBC then associating scenes of entering and climbing the stairwells to what was witnessed by firefighters in the WTC on 9/11.

Very harcore and very distressing.

adolf hamster · 14 Jun 2017 at 13:02

chef-borjan said:
On the way to work, I was reading more and more about what was going on and though 'sod it', and went to buy stuff to donate to centres. Walking up in person, the apartment block looks just awful. I didn't want to take a photo or even stare at it too long, its just morbid.

Anyway, the first centre couldn't accept any more donations so walked to another one. Good to see it was filling up with things for those in need.

Part of me is wondering if there might be a better way to co-ordinate donation efforts, many people were getting messy information from Twitter.

what did you tell work?

it saddens me that i suspect your answer was you called in sick rather than tell them you had a conscience

Stretch · 14 Jun 2017 at 13:05

darkgen said:
Indeed. An earlier video instantly brought back memories of watching 9/11 live and the spectacle, the utterly incomprehensible spectacle of watching people who had jumped from the towers to escape the inferno ...

The firefighter on LBC then associating scenes of entering and climbing the stairwells to what was witnessed by firefighters in the WTC on 9/11.

Very harcore and very distressing.

As distressing as 9/11 was, and the parallels are obvious, I couldn't think of anything worse than being stuck in a burning high-rise with my children knowing there's no way out.

darkgen · 14 Jun 2017 at 13:08

As you say; I would not even want to entertain the idea, let alone expend a thought on it.

antijoke · 14 Jun 2017 at 13:13

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2017/jun/14/tower-block-blaze-in-london-in-pictures

Some of these pictures....

snips86x · 14 Jun 2017 at 13:17

adolf hamster said:
what did you tell work?

it saddens me that i suspect your answer was you called in sick rather than tell them you had a conscience

If I was in a position too, I would have done the same. Packed the car with food/water but I'm over 1.5 hours away

Nate75 · 14 Jun 2017 at 13:18

Stretch said:
As distressing as 9/11 was, and the parallels are obvious, I couldn't think of anything worse than being stuck in a burning high-rise with my children knowing there's no way out.

It's just so sad