Grenfell Tower

From the above blog post:

“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.”

Jesus christ.

profit margins

  • poor legal standards
  • lack of political will

http://www.frmjournal.com/news/news_detail.government-endangering-tower-blocks-by-delaying-fire-safety-regulations-review.html

  • cuts

of course accidents will happen but it is up to authorities, orgs & Govt. to mitigate as best they can

It may even have been arson but still the same mitigation applies, and you might even conclude that other cuts - social care & community policing - are contributory to an increased chance of arson

it seems crass to point these things out during a tragedy but it really is a catalogue of human errors & negligence that facilitates a situation like this, it’s not just ‘one of those things’

People are apparently still being found alive after calling energency services and being told to go inside the bathrooms and fill up their bath tubs and keep inside there.

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this is good news

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there’s more than a whiff of corruption too if the Grenfell Action Group blog is to be believed

the Chair of the TMO assoc received the British Empire Medal in the New’s Years honours list 2015/2016 after having been nominated by the Chief Executive of the TMO - over whom she is supposed to have oversight

these people are looking at Corporate Manslaughter charges

This is a side point to the tragic events that have happened, but it’s both impressive and disheartening that some of the best and most courageous journalism now happens in the form of blogs like this. In times gone by you might have had a local paper that would be able to cover corruption and malfeasance like this, but pretty much every local paper is completely on its arse, and its almost entirely the media’s own fault.

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Rarely see something so tragic happen that is so obviously the direct result of a number of different policies, all from one party. Fucking horrible and I hope they get absolutely trashed for it.

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Yup “don’t politicise a tragedy” and all that but this is literally about as direct a political cause as it gets.

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Can’t help but think of comments like this too;

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Awful stuff, I can’t help but wonder if this is illustrative of a wider issue with council housing and safety standards. Really hope some sort of legal action is taken against KCTMO.

so awful but hopefully this will turn into a sort of watershed case at least

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I help run a martial arts programme for kids in this area. Some of them live in this building. They’re all out safe thankfully.

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it’s not really a side point - it’s quite essential really that we don’t end up a society incentivised only by cost/profit equations otherwise criminal negligence is inevitable and that obviously includes the media and for whom it speaks.

If it speaks for corporate interest in order to protect advertising revenue and cowers at the threat of legal action then it’s inevitable that the only voices speaking out against such malfeasance will be the local voices of people incentivised by the fact that it’s their own lives & the lives of their loved ones that are on the fucking line.

Thank fuck blogs like this do exist otherwise these people would have no voice at all

I still keep going back to this video whenever I think about austerity - and especially the part from 4 minutes on where he talks about how slashing public services (as opposed to raising taxes) disproportionately effects those who most rely on public services

but it isn’t just services, benefits or even regulations that protect the most vulnerable that have been scrapped - it’s the entire mindset of representation. The people on the lowest incomes have essentially been scrubbed out of the economy. They’ve become structurally subhuman and hugely vulnerable - and, in essence, expendable (see disability benefits & fit for work) - in the psychotic fever dream of MUST CUT COSTS

the people making cuts are immune to effects of those cuts, it’s so easy for them. The people arguing against tax raises and regulations & broadcasting that argument are the people who would have to pay more

In the neo-liberal capitalist world where is the incentive to care ? The incentive to be selfish is clear

How do we reverse these incentives?

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My godfather lives in the building and has been a part of the Grenfell Action Group. Thankfully he is okay but it makes me sick to think of anyone else stuck in there.

The blog sort of speaks for itself. Silly to make assumptions until more is known on the cause of the fire and how it spread so quickly, but it’s very difficult not to see this as the result of the shocking neglect on the part of the management company and the local council that the group have been campaigning against for years. Especially when residents are saying things like no fire alarms went off (!)

Putting my tinfoil hat firmly on, difficult also not to see this as part of a wider attempt at social cleansing in the area. (I mean, it is a council estate in Kensington & Chelsea). The reports of corruption and negligence by the GAG are completely and utterly enraging.

Whatever the cause and reason, a woeful situation even before the fire and a heart-breaking, sickening one now.

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I mean, it’s not a coincidence that Boris - who closed fire stations & put firefighters out of work - is now a top Cabinet Minister, or that Gavin Barwell - who failed to implement proper safety standards after the recommendations following the Lakanal House fire - is now the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, or even that Fay Edwards - Chair of KCTMO - received the British Empire Medal

It’s not coincidence. Society is running on a structure that REWARDS this way of thinking, bestows upon it titles & riches. It’s the reverse of what it should be

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I feel for you man. No tinfoil hat is needed. Market forces explain all

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This is awful, if the fire started in one flat i’m shocked at how that has spread so much…surely a concrete building must have a point where this cannot happen.

It sounds like it spread via the recently-installed cladding over the concrete structure.

At every floor, and every party wall to individual flats, this kind of cladding should have cavity barriers, meaning that there is a fire-resistant barrier to fire spreading between floors and between flats.

However well detailed and designed a project might have been, if the installation was not carried out correctly, then those barriers might not have acted as they should. The building was refurbished under what’s known as a ‘design & build’ contract, meaning that the contractor has more more power, and carries more risk, than the design team and building control. These kinds of contracts make it much harder to inspect installation, and make self-certification much more common.

Clients often prefer these kinds of contract because they offer higher cost certainty and a single point of responsibility.

I’ve seen people posting up images of the floor plan, with its single escape stair, as proof that it was badly designed. That’s not true. That kind of arrangement is safe, if the design has been constructed properly, and if the alarm system and evacuation drill works properly. It sounds like none of these were the case.

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And the company who carried out the installation has subsequently gone bus apparently…

From what I’ve read it seems that the external cladding that was applied to the building last year is what likely caused the fire to spread so quickly (to the top floor in under 30 mins).

Unconfirmed reports that the fire was started by an exploding fridge (no idea how accurate this is).

Fire alarms didn’t work. Sprinkler system didn’t work but I also read something that said that is a design flaw rather than system failure as such.

It’s fucking horrific. I dread to think how high the death toll with rise. I really hope there is truth in the comment above saying that people are still alive.