Huge fire London building

[m4DD0gg]

Typical short cut maximize profits GB.

 

Would not surprise me if theres a housing association involved somewhere.....these companies are frigging awful.

[StanSP]

1 minute ago, m4DD0gg said:

Typical short cut maximize profits GB.

 

Would not surprise me if theres a housing association involved somewhere.....these companies are frigging awful.

if the HA is not run properly and takes shortcuts, then yes, they are awful.

Not all are bad though. 

[stripeyfox]

But surely you can't just clad a 25 storey block of flats in flammable material (if that is what is a factor here) and no one bats an eyelid? Surely there must be building controls and regualtions and stuff?

 

[Beliall]

terrifying to imagine what that must have been like for the residents, and the fire service looks like its unable to properly fight it above the 10th floor. just awful

[Alf Bentley]

10 minutes ago, The Guvnor said:

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.

 

A couple of local residents have commented on the recently-installed cladding looking like flammable plastic.

 

That might be a complete red herring, though, as those people presumably have no expert knowledge of substances used in cladding.

 

If the blogs posted on here about safety concerns are genuine and there has been a failure to address such concerns, this will be a massive scandal as well as an appalling, distressing tragedy.

[Guest MattP]

This looks absolutely awful, can't even imagine what it must be like for the people involved.

 

Hopefully we'll have a death count that isn't as big as I'd fear looking at the pictures.

[separator]

22 minutes ago, The Guvnor said:

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.

Makes sense I guess about staying put, until you get a fire that spreads rapidly on the external cladding of a building (if thats what it turns out to be of course). Any hope of containing a fire within a flat literally goes out the window. 

[Alf Bentley]

I've just had a quick look at the web site of KCTMO (Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation), who were managing the block.

 

It is a company employed by Kensington & Chelsea Council to manage almost 10,000 properties on behalf of the council.

The Board comprises 8 elected residents, 4 council appointees and 3 independent members.

Edited 14 June 2017 by Alf Bentley

[The Guvnor]

Individual compartments (flats) within these types of buildings are constructed to prevent fire spread to other compartments with a minimum 1 hour fire resistance ie it should not be able to compromise adjacent flats or flats above or below within that time frame, hence another reason why stay put policies are put in place. The more you look at the images it makes no sense that the fire could have spread at that speed internally .

[MrSpaM]

Baffling as to why a building like this wouldn't have a monitored fire alarm, they would have had fire engines there within ten minutes of it starting if they had

[rgc1967]

Horrific, some witnesses are saying people were  jumping from windows. What a fuched up descision to have to make .cant even contemplate making that choice .

[Benguin]

It's like watching the 9/11 news coverage all over again. Shocking images. Really hope they have managed to rescue everyone. Not that I want to suggest anything but thos type of buildings don't burn like that, they're designed normally so that fires are contained to their flat of origin.

[The Floyd]

Absolutely awful. Modern building regs are pretty airtight re. safety, so it's an unusual incident to say the least. 

[Beliall]

looks like the building is coming down sooner rather than later. i saw an earlier shot of the flames engulfing the outside of the building. seems clear to me it spread up the side

[foxy boxing]

terrible scenes and there have been fatalities. buildings like these are absolute death traps if a fire starts

[stix]

Sky news we're reporting that there are around 600 residents living in the block, and the ambulance service said at 9:30am that roughly 50 people had been sent to hospitals around the area for treatment. That leaves a lot of people still to be accounted for. 

 

The fire service at the at the same time said that fire crews had reached the 19th floor at that point. 

 

I can't even imagine how terrified people must have been. The fire apparently went from the 2nd floor to the roof in around 15 minutes. 

[stripeyfox]

9 minutes ago, foxy boxing said:

terrible scenes and there have been fatalities. buildings like these are absolute death traps if a fire starts

I'm not sure that is really the case. Fires happen in flats all the time, but in most cases are contained to one or two apartments. This fire is virtually without precedent in it's ferocity and spread

 

[Guest]

Would the central column/stairwell be uncarpeted and effectively made of non-flammable materials so people could get out (smoke inhalation aside)?

Edited 14 June 2017 by Guest

[Melbourne Fuchs]

How many people would live in a building like this? I hope it's not as bad as it looks. 

[Beliall]

Just now, toddybad said:

Would the central column/stairwell be uncarpeted and effectively made of non-flammable materials so people could get out (smoke inhalation aside)?

I saw on the news one guy who got out said the fire escape was on fire

Edited 14 June 2017 by Beliall

[Thracian]

Wonder if they'll ever know how many will have lost their life - it's dreadful and it would seem that various things have been allowed to materially affect the safety of the place.  

 

[urban.spaceman]

Victoria Derbyshire just said that someone on the 9th or 10th dropped their baby out of the window and some guy caught it at the bottom. 

 

That's incredible. 

[Beliall]

Just now, urban.spaceman said:

Victoria Derbyshire just said that someone on the 9th or 10th dropped their baby out of the window and some guy caught it at the bottom. 

 

That's incredible. 

Sky news were interviewing a witness, he said the same thing and promptly got cut off. 

[The Floyd]

5 minutes ago, toddybad said:

Would the central column/stairwell be uncarpeted and effectively made of non-flammable materials so people could get out (smoke inhalation aside)?

If you're interested in depth, try pages 15 and 16:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441669/BR_PDF_AD_B2_2013.pdf

 

 

 

 

[Jattdogg]

Absolutely shocking. Im horrified for those who were trapped or lost lives or loved ones.