For those of you who don't know, there was a massive fire at a high rise, mainly social housing, in the leafy and wealthy Kensington and Chelsea area of West London. A fire took hold and the entire block went up like the Towering Inferno. This is no exaggeration.
What has come to light since then is:
1) That the housing association managing the property for the borough had had numerous concerns raised about this very building from the Grenfell Action Group. Nothing was done, mainly in relation to the (lack of) sprinkler systems, the alarm systems and also the confusing messages relating to evacuation (or not).
2) That it was recently refurbished, with exterior cladding that had been linked to several fires in similar buildings in other nations. This cladding is reputedly banned in other nations. There are two kinds of insulation-improving cladding, one of which is more flammable (read: cheaper) than the other. Guess which one the refurbishment contractors have confessed to using? Yup. Not the more expensive one.
3) London Fire Brigade had issues (at least) two enforcement notices on other properties managed by the same group for failings, after investigations.
What happened here was absolutely tragic. The local residents of the community, already feeling under pressure and living in an area where off-shore companies own (and leave vacant) a lot of properties, there is a lack of social housing. They're angry because they feel their community is threatened, because their concerns were not listened to. Primarily they are angry, shocked and grieving at the loss of friends, loved ones, family members.
What's worrying is the apparent lack of generalised standards when it comes to evacuation equipment and no, our fire brigades don't seem to be equipped with those large, inflatable drop zones other nations have. In this situation, however, with pieces of falling, burning cladding dropping, I don't know if they would have helped. One thing is for sure, someone has to review the safety arrangements in all buildings of this kind. There needs to be more than one escape route. There have to be fire-proof refuges built in. Seriously. And someone needs to look into these inflatable drop zones to use in situations where the fire brigade may not be able to get high enough, if they don't already have them. (That said, I imagine burning debris dropping and damaging them would make them about useless, which is possibly why they are not normally seen). Someone needs to do something about this, even if they won't actually legislate for landlord responsibility to provide safe and habitable properties (oh yes, that's a thing too).
In case you're wondering about all my facts, they're all from various U.K. Papers, like the Independent, Guardian, Telegraph.
But here's another thing: while Jeremy Corbyn and the Queen - yes, the QUEEN - have visited residents, Theresa May has been lagging behind a bit. She did make a private visit to the emergency services on site, sans media you understand, but did not meet with residents. The other two did. I am sure you can imagine the response today when she did finally make a visit - from the video on the Independent website, it was a very swift exit by a side door with the police holding back some very angry local people.
The media haven't been getting a good time of it either: as Jon Snow, veteran Channel 4 Newsreader found out, the locals are incandescent with rage about the fact that the media has ignored the complaints and concerns of local people about just this possibity for years, only turning up when someone has finally died. They're right, that's shocking. Turning on one man, who isn't responsible, probably isn't fair, but then again, people are upset and angry; they are grieving. And good man that Snow (Channel 4, not The Wall people), he stood his ground on this one and let them speak. Unlike May, who pulled away in what looked to be an SUV with blacked out windows.
I have also been completely appalled at the actions of some of the other "newspapers" (my late father used to refer to them as the "Gutter Press": whether or not I concur with his assessment is my own business, but I will say I have had "experience" of dealing with one of their "journalists" and it was less than pleasant). From posing as the friend of a victim to gain access to those injured in this tragedy (nope, not kidding) to apportioning blame to someone for starting the fire (1 - not the bigger issue here; the place should NEVER have gone up like that and 2 - hounding the poor guy and asking him continually if he started the fire? No, not cool to target someone who is a victim of a truly appalling incident. I'd like to think his name (possibly not UK origin) has nothing to do with it, but hey, some of these papers REALLY don't Iike immigrants etc). Never mind the investigation hasn't even been completed yet.
And yet the outpouring of support has been incredible: churches, mosques all opening their doors to help shelter and feed people. Thousands of people from all over the city showing up to volunteer, to donate clothes, toys, whatever they can. People of all colours, creeds and persuasions coming together, helping each other out. That's amazing. They have run out of space for donations, so generous have people been. A student accommodation building manager is opening the doors of their empty studios on a temporary basis, to get people out of church halls and leisure centres. They have somehow managed to find bedding, sheets and towels for each one, because normally students supply their own. Other agencies, ordinary people, have also volunteered space too.
But that's not a permanent solution: these people need permanent homes, in their communities. Action has to be taken, legislation written and passed to make sure that this can never happen again and that proper measures are taken in these buildings in case fire ever breaks out again, so people don't die. Although I rarely agree with Corbyn on anything, I agree in that if there are properties being left intentionally vacant in the area, they should be publicly requisitioned to rehouse these people. The end.
Anyway, I intended to post about autism today, but I'm off track. Rant over.
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