The Grenfell Tower Fire

Hope everyone got out. The building looks fully engulfed from what I've seen.
 
I've never seen a modern, tall building like that so completely engulfed in flames.
 
Chrunch Houston
Dubia?
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The fires in Dubai did not engulf the entire building. Most times they would shoot up on one side.
IMG_8731.JPG
 
Residents of the building are saying that the concrete facade of the building was recently renovated and covered with better looking plastic panels.

Was this a government subsidised council building?
 
Building is from the mid 70s
So it wont have the same building code in place unless retrofitted, but then again some residents are saying there was never any fire escape plans on noticeboards.
 
They just showed the fire safety flyers that were in the building.

It said that if your apartment isn't directly affected by the fire you should stay put and close doors and windows.

Whoopsie.
 
Just passed the tower on the way into work. It's still smoudering pretty heavily. Fatalities have unfortunately been confirmed but not how many yet.

A lady on the ninth or tenth floor has reportedly thrown a baby out of a window to escape the flames where it was caught by people on the ground.

 
Dennisch
They just showed the fire safety flyers that were in the building.

It said that if your apartment isn't directly affected by the fire you should stay put and close doors and windows.

Whoopsie.
Click to expand...

Normally that makes sense in this kind of building - you don't want people opening air corridors the height of the building or crowding into stairwells (people-fat burns well and long), it's far better if everybody looks after themselves and keeps their fire barriers shut. Of course, that depends on the alarm and suppression systems working. Worryingly I haven't heard a single escapee who was able to say that the alarms or sprinklers were working.

Gas engineers have recently been working there as part of a large-scale renovation. It's too early to say if those works have interrupted the fire safety systems or if they're part of the reason for the fire... but that has to be the first place an investigation will look.
 
I do wonder if the refit last year was something to do with it. The materials used or improper installation of various new services might have caused this. Retrofitting new to old is a lot more complex than starting a fresh.

These council blocks were also hardly well built to begin with and have really bad safety standards of the era.
 
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/
is this 7 months old blog post really related to today's tragedy? (ie : is KCTMO involved here? Edit: yes it is!)

"It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice!"

"Anyone who witnessed the recent tower block fire at Shepherds Court, in nearby Shepherd’s Bush, will know that the advice to remain in our properties would have led to certain fatalities and we are calling on our landlord to re-consider the advice that they have so badly circulated."

"The Grenfell Action Group predict that it won’t be long before the words of this blog come back to haunt the KCTMO management and we will do everything in our power to ensure that those in authority know how long and how appallingly our landlord has ignored their responsibility to ensure the heath and safety of their tenants and leaseholders. They can’t say that they haven’t been warned!"
 
Dennisch
I don't know if common sense is any different on your side of the small pond, but here it's normal practice to gtfo when your building is on fire.
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I doubt that's the case in tall apartment blocks - a mass evacuation is far more dangerous than staying put. If your apartment is directly affected by the fire (as you pointed out) then of course you should evacuate. Otherwise you make the building and its other occupants less safe. That's why the advice is as it is.

Make no mistake though, I'd be right behind you :)
 
Don't know how the Daily Mail could claim to know this but they are speculating that the fire was started by a faulty fridge.

A few years ago there was a spate of BEKO fridge fires including one which set a towerblock partially on fire.
 
Robin
Don't know how the Daily Mail could claim to know this but they are speculating that the fire was started by a faulty fridge.

A few years ago there was a spate of BEKO fridge fires including one which set a towerblock partially on fire.
Click to expand...

Given the current "scandal" about faulty tumble driers it wouldn't surprise me to find one of those being blamed.
 
UKMikey
Just passed the tower on the way into work. It's still smoudering pretty heavily. Fatalities have unfortunately been confirmed but not how many yet.

A lady on the ninth or tenth floor has reportedly thrown a baby out of a window to escape the flames where it was caught by people on the ground.

Click to expand...

The fella in this interview said there is no fire alarm system working in the building. He only knew the building was on fire because he saw the fire engines, stretched to look out of his 17th floor apartment and saw the building ablaze. He said the cladding was flammable and caught up like a matchstick. He went down the stairs with his elderly aunt and barely made it out.

Hard to imagine this kind of negligence in building management with no alarm and putting an exterior on the building that is highly flammable and wouldn't be helped by a sprinkler system if there was one working.
 
m8h3r
So if sprinklers weren't working and alarms weren't either does that mean a manslaughter charge for the owner(s)?
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Very possibly a manslaughter charge for whoever's contractual responsibility the fire systems were under.

Several building experts (including a London Fire Brigade Union dude) are saying that this type of design is supposed to self-contain a fire per apartment. Clearly this didn't happen. The residents' action group had, it seems, already complained about the fire provision before/during the refurbishment of the block. I'm not clear on whether the refurbishment was complete or ongoing at the time of the fire.

Grayfox
Building is from the mid 70s
So it wont have the same building code in place unless retrofitted
Click to expand...

It will, even in the 1950s the "villages in the sky" briefs were very strict in terms of fire. Previous fires in similar buildings haven't been without tragedy but more often than not have seen the building perform as it was designed to.

I recently attended a survey at Park Hill in Sheffield, one of the concerns of a colleague was that the modern developers were undermining the safety brief of the original building's design by altering/diverting partitions, ducting and services.
 
The buildings are council flats but from what I understand the management and maintenance is in the private hands of KCTMO and has been for years. Residents have been complaining about the risk of fires for years but these complaints have seemingly been willfully ignored.

Although I could be wrong on the exact status of KCTMO.

An awful, awful tragedy.
 

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