Terrible tower block fire in London

[JimX]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40269625

Terrible tower block fire in London no numbers on victims.

[Kili01]

Absolutely horrendous. Unfortunately, the BBC have gone into overdrive again. They have been focusing their cameras on it for over an hour. It seems as if their people are trying to lead the news instead of just reporting it and moving on.
It is all very distressing, and not being able to do anything to help, why keep going on and on with inane chatter.

[Dominic]

You could always change channels.

[WHL]

You could always change channels.

Exactly

[emgee]

Similar reporting on ITV. People want to know why there is no obvious attempt by the rescue services to save those people trapped inside the building .

Alan

[Dominic]

I would imagine there are experts at the scene doing the best they can, under what must be horrendous circumstances.

[WHL]

Similar reporting on ITV. People want to know why there is no obvious attempt by the rescue services to save those people trapped inside the building .

Alan

This is real life, not some Hollywood blockbuster, if its possible for them to get in they will... very easy for armchair viewing people sipping their morning tea, to dish out advice?

[PhotoLady]

It's reported that the building has recently had some kind of plastic type cover or coating put onto it with a wooden frame. The residents weren't happy about it and have had meetings.

One guy said he saw it burning on the first floor and then it just took hold and quickly moved up the tower.

This is a terrible tragedy.

[Kia Picanto]

Similar reporting on ITV. People want to know why there is no obvious attempt by the rescue services to save those people trapped inside the building .

Alan

Perhaps not obvious to you, but be assured the firefighters will be doing what they ALWAYS do- ie putting their own lives at risk, whilst saving as many as possible. A guy who lived on the 7th floor managed to escape. He was in awe of the firefighters he passed on the way down, as they were going UP.

[memory man]

The residents weren't happy about it and have had meetings.

Interesting read

[PhotoLady]

Similar reporting on ITV. People want to know why there is no obvious attempt by the rescue services to save those people trapped inside the building .

Alan

This came out about 20 minutes ago:

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, has said normal fire procedures were not possible to follow in the Grenfell Tower fire.
He explained that normally firefighters would work from the inside out but in this case they had not been able to do so. He said it was "shocking" that a fire in a tower block was able to take hold in this way.

But it does seem that some firefighters did manage to get inside the building, however from eye witness reports and residents who managed to escape, it seems once it started to burn it went up the building quite rapidly.

[Dominic]

The residents weren't happy about it and have had meetings.

Interesting read

Heads are certainly going to roll.

[PaphosAL]

The management company running this high-rise tower block in S.Kensighton of all places, is also under close investigtaion all over the UK, with local Councils usually blocking resident Action Groups protests!

They are penny-pinching assholes who don't give a toss for their tenants lives. May the fleas from a 1,000 camels and 1,000,000 hedgehogs forever infest their greedy assholes!

Cheers- AL

[William Morris]

The management company running this high-rise tower block in S.Kensighton of all places, is also under close investigtaion all over the UK, with local Councils usually blocking resident Action Groups protests!

They are penny-pinching assholes who don't give a toss for their tenants lives. May the fleas from a 1,000 camels and 1,000,000 hedgehogs forever infest their greedy assholes!

Cheers- AL

Mmmmmm?

[jagwheels]

Perhaps with the recent tragedy's in Manchester & London we should be mindful of those events. I sincerely hope it is not related

[Jimgward]

Terrible tragedy. Too many of these social housing schemes have multiple responsible parties. Councils have often sold the property to one group, who sell the maintenance to another, who subcontract most work - meaning tracking those responsible becomes almost impossible.

[PolemIan]

Awful, for all involved. fire can spread so quickly. one comment is that the cladding acted as a chimney henvd the rapid spread. Visible from Mrs W's office.

[jeba]

Awful, for all involved. fire can spread so quickly. one comment is that the cladding acted as a chimney henvd the rapid spread. Visible from Mrs W's office.

I couldn´t believe that flammable claddings for high-rise buildings are permitted in the UK. But I read in a newspaper that they indeed are. This should be changed. I read an interview with a high-ranking firefighter who said that they tried to press for safer builing regulations but lobbyists prevailed in the international gremiums dealing with those questions. The only EU-country which bans flammable claddings for high-rise buildings is Germany. But according to him there needs more to be done.

[PhotoLady]

They're saying now that they're not expecting to find any more survivors. Lots of people still missing, although they were spread around a large number of hospitals....

An interesting video shared by a guy who was helping with keeping up communication between people stuck and passing details of their locations to the firemen during Tuesday evening:

[PaphosAL]

Here is the Just Giving link for donations to help these poor souls:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding ... =R4xwbxbGV

Thanks- AL