Jesus. WTF? WHY would buildings continue to be constructed with this type of flammable cladding? Wait, don’t answer. I already know.
Been reading the news online of this. Just horrific. I’ve read that some residents were initially instructed to stay in their apartments instead of evacuating.
The Silver Lining of Insomnia is I get to totally spring the news on my wife when she wakes up, making it seem like I really know What the Fuck Is Going On.
In a well designed building constructed with the correct materials to the right standard, the advice to stay in your apartment unless the fire is immediately adjacent is absolutely the right advice. Modern high rises can and should be constructed so that fires are contained; the standard is usually that an individual flat should be a safe haven for an hour. In which time the fire service should be able to deal with a fire that has been contained by the building.
However, in a case where the fire safety of the building is below standard, the fire can spread too quickly for the fire service to contain and staying in your flat becomes dangerous. The residents of Grenfell Tower have been raising the alarm about fire safety in their building for some time. This blog written several months ago makes uncomfortable reading
The building was recently refurbished. The company that provided the new external cladding went out of business shortly afterwards. This may turn out to be something that demands further investigation.
It’s worth noting that in 2009 there was a similar fire in a London flatblock. The cladding was found to be the cause of the fire’s rapid spread. In the inquest, it emerged that both the contractor nor the council* managing the building thought that the other organisation was responsible for ensuring that the cladding met the relevant building codes. One would hope that lessons had been learned from this. We will find out in due course if they had.
*Not the same council managing this building.
It’s going to be a dangerous job bringing this building down.
The BBC reports the flames have reignited. The firemen had it out for awhile.
A friend with some relevant experience and contacts has been doing some digging (see tweets here).
He’s unearthed three interesting cites.
- The material used in the cladding was Reynobond, per this planning document
- Reynobond is aluminium sheets bonded to a polyethylene core.
- This type of polyethylene-core cladding was the causeof a major apartment block fire in Melbourne in 2014. A mineral fibre core would be fire resistant. A polyethylene one isn’t. Polyethylene core cladding is cheaper than mineral fibre core.
The BBC are reporting only 6 dead, though they say firemen may find more bodies. I hope 6 is all.
If there only 6 dead then I’d say the firefighters did some good work in getting people out. If this causes more interest in strengthening fire codes and increased compliance with them, that’s a plus. And thank goodness it wasn’t terror-related. If a major factor was the exterior panels, it seems to me that they should be banned in construction and the company that produces them should stop making that particular product.
aceplace57 You’ve been here long enough and are certainly active on the boards enough to know political jabs are not allowed in breaking news threads.
This was in poor taste. Post appropriately or stay out of the thread.
Six would probably be a relative miracle. 120 apartments, starting around midnight, with the fire starting on a low floor? I wouldn’t be surprised if the number is more like sixty (or even higher).
Don’t. Tempt. Fate.
I didn’t realize that was a jab. The safety problems with the building are a major part of the news stories and that’s the responsibility of the governing authorities.
I’ll say nothing more about it.
Some people survived because they were Muslim or were awakened by Muslim neighbours.
It’s Ramadan, and people were awake for Iftar. Sunset is very late this time of year.
I have friends who grew up in the area, who are now looking for family and loved ones. It’s heartbreaking.
It’s been, what, about 12 hours? I hope everyone who can’t already be accounted for was out somewhere and still hasn’t been heard from. Seeing as how I haven’t seen the number of missing, I hope it’s low. I hope that those in the hospitals manage to recover. I hope that reporting that a large number of tenants observing Ramadan means that people weren’t caught as unaware as could have been is true.
But the number of dead is going to climb. Either from people who didn’t make it out or from those who succumb to their injuries. I hope it gets nowhere near a ten times initial multiplier, but I see that as about worst-case scenario.
Reports are saying no one on the top three floors survived. A baby thrown from the 9th floor was caught by a bystander. 
I am a born and bred Grover, (ladbroke grove), and I’ve been in that block.
They spent ten million on that block last year, Palm trees and pretty cladding, new kitchens.
They also fitted gas pipes up the main stairwell!
My mum still lives around the corner, she saw the fire climbing up that cladding.
Our friend lives on one of the lower floors, the alarm did not go off.
She’s safe, at a friend’s house.
There is a lot of murmuring that a similar block, just up the road, trellick towers, had a fire on the top floor recently, isolated, alarms, sprinklers, everything went right. That block is a council one, but is mainly rich leaseholders now. Million pound flats.
The poor man’s block, none of the safety measures worked.
But I’m proud of the Grove, community spirit personified.
The governing authorities in this case would be the local council, not Theresa May. That’s the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
They’re organizing relief efforts for the families.
A lot of people will need a new place to live.
When I was first reading this my immediate reaction was that KCTMO was a typical slumlord out to make a fast buck. But instead I find that: