Huge fire London building

[spacemunky]

Just about to head to bed here, but I saw this on the news. 

[spacemunky]

24 storey building. Totally engulfed in flames  

[Babylon]

Doesn't look good at all, lots not evacuated from images i've seen.

[stripeyfox]

Holy crap! That's unbelievable. How terrifying. You wouldn't expect a building to burn like that?

 

 

[spacemunky]

3 minutes ago, stripeyfox said:

Holy crap! That's unbelievable. How terrifying. You wouldn't expect a building to burn like that?

 

 

I lived in a 18 storey building for 17 years. Had the occasional fire in a single apartment, but it  was always contained. 

 

I was always glad to live on the 4th floor.

 

Looks like the hoses are hitting maybe up to the 7th to 10th floors. 

 

One side of the building is almost gone.

[stripeyfox]

Lots of info on the reddit thread about residents blogging about fire safety. The building recently underwent refurbishment which included re cladding the exterior (to make it look nicer probably). The building has to be at fault here - something must have made it spread so extensively and quickly.

 

 I hope everyone managed to escape, but I fear that they may not have.

 

It really is your worst nightmare. Imagine being woken up at 0100 in the morning and having to escape with your kids etc.

 

Eyewitnesses who escaped reporting they heard no fire alarm!
 

 

 

 

 

[RODNEY FERNIO]

Awful .. reports that the injured were from the lower floors and residents above just didn't get out.

Looking like a major disaster and the way the fire spread so quickly .. serious questions will need to be asked.

[Innovindil]

Bloody hell that looks awful. 

[lgfualol]

Incredibly scary and sad. I have heard some descriptions from people there and it is tragic.

 

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/ - seems the residents already had fears of something like this happening. 

[sylofox]

Something seriously not right tower blocks don't go up like that. Burning on the whole of one side. This will be a huge investigation and no I'm not saying it's some terrorist attack. Just that something is wrong for a building to go up like that.

[stripeyfox]

BBC: London Fire Brigade says there have been fatalities but cannot give a number.

 

 

[The Guvnor]

I am a recently retired Fire fighter of over 30 years, I would say that a fire of this magnitude in a tower block in this country is unprecedented. The individual flats should be constructed so any fire is contained within that compartment. I have been to a tower block where a window was open in the flat directly above the affected flat and the fire did jump to that flat but that was a very rare occurrence and there was only minimal damage caused. I really cannot understand how this has happened, the witnesses that have said they couldn't hear the smoke alarms actuating is also extremely concerning.

The Fire services across England have been campaigning for sprinkler systems to be retro fitted in these types of buildings for years and indeed some retro fitting has gone ahead, but financial restraints with various councils and housing associations are the problem.  This is a nightmare scenario and I feel for my colleagues faced with that incident lets just hope that most residents were able to evacuate although looking at that harrowing recording you have to fear the worse.

Edited 14 June 2017 by The Guvnor

[Simi]

Can't comprehend the level of trauma some of these people will have gone through this morning,

You suspect the landlord will be having to answer some very tough questions.

Edited 14 June 2017 by Simi

[VLC86]

Shocking and very sad, i wouldn't even want to imagine what the people living there have gone through.

[TrentFox]

Horrific. A nightmare scenario in every way. Overwhelming. 

[lgfualol]

57 minutes ago, sylofox said:

Something seriously not right tower blocks don't go up like that. Burning on the whole of one side. This will be a huge investigation and no I'm not saying it's some terrorist attack. Just that something is wrong for a building to go up like that.

From what I hear they put some cheap plastic cladding on the building and it just burned away. 

[Guest]

Residents repeatedly warned of fire risk

A resident group repeatedly warned of a fire risk at Grenfell Tower and claimed a major fire was narrowly averted after a power surge in 2013.

The Grenfell Action Group says its concerns were dismissed by Kensington and Chelsea council, which owns the block, and and the local tenant management organisation [KCTMO], which runs the borough’s homes.

In a blogpost last November, it wrote:

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! The Grenfell Action Group believe that the KCTMO narrowly averted a major fire disaster at Grenfell Tower in 2013 when residents experienced a period of terrifying power surges that were subsequently found to have been caused by faulty wiring. We believe that our attempts to highlight the seriousness of this event were covered up by the KCTMO with the help of the RBKC scrutiny Committee who refused to investigate the legitimate concerns of tenants and leaseholders.

We believe that these investigations will become part of damning evidence of the poor safety record of the KCTMO should a fire affect any other of their properties and cause the loss of life that we are predicting ...

In the last twenty years and despite the terrifying power surge incident in 2013 and recent fire at Adair Tower, the residents of Grenfell Tower have received no proper fire safety instructions from the KCTMO. Residents were informed by a temporary notice stuck in the lift and one announcement in a recent regeneration newsletter that they should remain in their flats in the event of fire. There are not and never have been any instructions posted in the Grenfell Tower noticeboard or on individual floors as to how residents should act in the event of a fire. 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 health and safety of their tenants and leaseholders. They can’t say that they haven’t been warned!

[MC Prussian]

Quote

A £9.7m refurbishment project on Grenfell Tower was completed last year.

A summary of the project before it began said:

The large scale works which includes an upgrade of the cladding to the exterior of the building, new windows, a totally new heating and lobby smoke ventilation system all of which will greatly enhance the energy efficiency of the tower and contribute to reducing resident’s living costs ...

The lobby smoke ventilation system has been designed to provide the existing stairwell with protection from the ingress of smoke from a fire within a dwelling by means of a mechanical extract system.

Chellat said the new cladding appeared to contribute to the blaze.

He said: “I’m not an expert but I think the plastic [cladding] they put outside really triggered the fire. By the time I went out, the plastic was exploding. Half the building was in flames and was all the plastic which was bubbling and blowing.”

Sounds like an inept landlord and an ineptly executed refurbishment.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2017/jun/14/grenfell-tower-major-fire-london-apartment-block-white-city-latimer-road

[sylofox]

1 minute ago, lgfualol said:

From what I hear they put some cheap plastic cladding on the building and it just burned away. 

The the CEO needs locking up for life.

[separator]

There is a 'stay put' policy in the event of a fire in this block of flats. That can't be right can it?

[sylofox]

3 minutes ago, separator said:

There is a 'stay put' policy in the event of a fire in this block of flats. That can't be right can it?

Heads need to roll and people need locking up for this. Seems nothing was right in this building. How many more death traps within the borough waiting to happen.

[lgfualol]

Just read that a woman escaped with her 6 children from the 21st floor, but when she got to the bottom she only had 4.

[StanSP]

2 hours ago, stripeyfox said:

Lots of info on the reddit thread about residents blogging about fire safety. The building recently underwent refurbishment which included re cladding the exterior (to make it look nicer probably). The building has to be at fault here - something must have made it spread so extensively and quickly.

 

 I hope everyone managed to escape, but I fear that they may not have.

 

It really is your worst nightmare. Imagine being woken up at 0100 in the morning and having to escape with your kids etc.

 

Eyewitnesses who escaped reporting they heard no fire alarm!
 

 

 

 

 

refurbishment and lack of fire safety testing I presume.

17 minutes ago, separator said:

There is a 'stay put' policy in the event of a fire in this block of flats. That can't be right can it?

 

Stay put policies are quite common in tall tower blocks. Like it says, 'initally be safe to stay in your flat'. The reason for this is if the fire is in a different flat, it stops it transferring easily or quicker when doors and windows are shut. 

 

That should give enough time for Fire Service to get there (they got there within 6 minutes apparently) to try and do what they can to contain the fire. As it was, the type of cladding has been somewhat of a catalyst for what was originally a small fire (apparently a faulty fridge). 

[The Guvnor]

5 minutes ago, separator said:

There is a 'stay put' policy in the event of a fire in this block of flats. That can't be right can it?

This would be standard procedure in these types of buildings, the reason for a stay put policy is  smoke is the killer and for example when the fire fighters open the flat door to fight the fire, toxic smoke would then enter the corridor on that affected floor and could compromise the safety of residents trying to evacuate also you don't want mass evacuation in conflict with emergency services trying to fight any fires. As I have said this fire I would say is unprecedented in the UK so a stay put policy historically would have been the safest option. I have now heard of the cladding refurbishment but that should have been flame retardant and obviously conforming to rigorous Fire Safety testing. It is never clever to speculate but looking at the images now the cladding would have to be looked at very closely.

[StanSP]

apparently contractors have taken the overview of the work they did on this block of flat off their website...