Latimer Road fire: Huge fire engulfs west London tower block

[Nibb]

I know a Blaggard lived in a high rise and I haven't heard off him in FB since around 1am last night! Hope he is OK! [emoji20]

Blaggards Ok in case anyone was wondering

[Raptor]

Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered a full public inquiry into the massive fire that engulfed a west London block of flats, killing at least 17 people.
That figure is expected to rise, as fire chiefs have said they do not expect to find any more survivors in the burnt-out Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington.
People have been desperately seeking news of missing family and friends.
The Queen earlier said her "thoughts and prayers" are with families.
More than 30 people remain in hospital - 17 of whom are in a critical condition.
Prime Minister Theresa May made a brief private visit to the scene on Thursday, as questions were being asked about the speed at which the fire spread.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, also visited the site, telling community leaders "the truth has to come out".
Firefighters were called to the 24-storey residential tower in the early hours of Wednesday, at a time when hundreds of people were inside, most of them sleeping.
Many were woken by neighbours, or shouts from below, and fled the building. Fire crews rescued 65 adults and children, but some stayed in their homes, trapped by smoke and flames.
On Thursday morning, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said her crews had identified a "number of people, but we know there will be more".
The size of the building means it could take weeks, she added.
Asked how many were still missing, Met Police Commander Stuart Cundy said it would be "wrong and incredibly distressing" to give a number.
"I know one person was reported 46 times to the casualty bureau," he said.
A brief search of all floors in the tower had been carried out, but the severity of the fire and amount of debris meant a thorough search would be "difficult and painstaking", Commander Cotton said.
Temporary structures will be built inside the block in order to shore it up before more thorough work can begin.
The cause of the fire, which took more than 24 hours to bring under control, remains unknown.
Throughout the morning, only wisps of smoke were seen coming from the charred building, but flames were later seen flaring up again on a lower floor.
Dozens of people left homeless spent the night in makeshift rescue centres, as well-wishers signed a wall of condolence near the site.
London-born singer Adele and her husband visited the scene on Wednesday evening, and was seen comforting people. Singer Rita Ora also pitched in, helping to sort donations outside the tower.
Photographs and messages in English and Arabic have been left for loved ones.
Alongside them are words of anger and calls for justice, with people saying their safety concerns were not listened to.

• Student helps Grenfell residents before exam
• The man who filmed the Grenfell fire

The local authority - Kensington and Chelsea council - said 44 households had been placed in emergency accommodation so far.
Through the night, people donated food, clothes and blankets for those left without homes.
By early morning some volunteers said they were overwhelmed with donations and were turning people and vans away.
One volunteer, Bhupinder Singh, said: "It is times like this that the best of our community comes out. This is where you find out how good it is to be a Londoner."
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Questions have been raised about why the fire appeared to spread so quickly and engulf the entire building.
BBC Newsnight's Chris Cook says the type of cladding on the outside of Grenfell Tower, installed in 2015 during a refurbishment, had a polyethylene - or plastic - core, instead of a more fireproof alternative with a mineral core.
Similar cladding was used in high-rise buildings hit by fires in France, the UAE and Australia, he said.
The government has said checks were now planned on tower blocks that have gone through a similar upgrade.
Construction firm Rydon, which carried out the refurbishment, initially said in a statement that the work met "all fire regulations" - the wording was omitted in a later statement.
Fire risk assessment in tower blocks was "less rigorous" since responsibility for it shifted from the fire brigade to the owner, Sian Berry, housing committee chairwoman of the London Assembly, said.
Concerns have also been raised about fire alarms not going off and the lack of sprinklers.
It is still possible to build tall buildings without sprinklers, said Russ Timpson of the Tall Buildings Fire Safety Network, but he expected regulations might change soon.
Overseas colleagues are "staggered" when they hear tall buildings are built in the UK with a single staircase, he added.
Roy Wilsher, chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, said that if the fire spread up the outside of the tower, sprinklers might not have made a difference.
Design and regulations for such tower blocks mean fire should be contained in a single flat, he said. "Clearly something's gone wrong in this case."
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Meanwhile, appeals are being made on social media for news of friends and family who are still unaccounted for.
Among them are 12-year-old Jessica Urbano Ramirez and 66-year-old grandfather Tony Disson, from the 22nd floor.
Security guard Mo Tuccu, who was visiting friends in the tower to break the Ramadan fast, is also missing.
One family from the 17th floor has five people missing. Husna Begum and four other family members were last heard from two hours after the fire started.
Labour MP David Lammy is appealing for information about his friend, Khadija Saye, and her mother, Mary Mendy.
An emergency number - 0800 0961 233 - has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or family.
Read more about the missing here.
Stories continue to emerge from survivors and eyewitnesses.
One man, who lives in the neighbourhood, said he saw people banging at the window and children screaming. He said he knew one family with five children under the age of 10 who were all missing.
"There are so many children that are unaccounted for. My daughter's best friend has gone," he told BBC's Victoria Derbyshire.
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Michael Paramasivan, who lived on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, was among many who defied official advice to stay put, and ran with their families down dark, smoke-filled corridors to get out of the building.
"If we had stayed in that flat, we would've perished," he said.
People in the street below described watching as a baby was thrown from a window, people jumped and climbed down the side of the burning tower using ropes made from bed sheets.
Jody Martin said: "I was yelling at everyone to get down and they were saying 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors'."
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BBC News

[GTI]

Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered a full public inquiry into the massive fire that engulfed a west London block of flats, killing at least 17 people.

What is the point?? they appear to have learnt very little from the 2009 Lakanal House fire.
I want to see involuntary manslaughter convictions because this isn't some fire in a Bangladesh high rise sweat shop, this is London, one of the wealthiest cities on earth.

[Over Carl]

What is the point?? they appear to have learnt very little from the 2009 Lakanal House fire.
I want to see involuntary manslaughter convictions because this isn't some fire in a Bangladesh high rise sweat shop, this is London, one of the wealthiest cities on earth.

It is too early to say for sure, but from the sound of it, everyone has pinched pennies but met regulations.

In my opinion the real crime is the Conservative government's approach to this which appears to have legally permitted such reckless behaviour, but as previously mentioned in this thread I suspect the blame will fall on people much lower down the chain as Theresa May has promised us a "proper investigation"

[piggzy]

Apparently it is Theresa Mays now chief of staff who wouldn't sign off on safety improvements to this block of flats when he was housing officer for the area last year.
No mention of why but I assume it will be penny pinching. I would assume purchasing one less rocket to blow up civilians could have funded this.

[GTI]

This was a monstrous crime – there must be arrests after Grenfell Tower
David Lammy MP

If the preventable deaths of people burning in their homes are not a matter for the state, then what is?


A candle-lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist church near Grenfell Tower. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Don’t let them tell you it’s a tragedy. It’s not a tragedy, it’s a monstrous crime. Corporate manslaughter. They were warned by the residents that there was an obvious risk of catastrophe. They looked the other way. We don’t need another review kicked into the long grass and years of equivocation– what a civilised country should demand is arrests and a criminal trial before a judge and jury.

Where is Khadija Saye? A beautiful young woman, a hugely talented emerging artist whom my wife mentored and who had become a part of my family. She is just one of many human stories emerging from the disaster wreaked on Grenfell Tower. I have heard nothing since her Facebook post from 4am on Wednesday reading: “Please pray for me and my mum. Just tried to leave, it’s impossible.” I fear she may have perished in the inferno on the 20th floor.

Today people are waking up in community centres and church halls with nothing but the clothes on their backs. These are people who have lost everything – their homes, their possessions and even their identities and bank cards. As was the case after the 2011 riots in my constituency of Tottenham, and long after the news cycle has moved on, it will be the state that will rehouse and support them as they pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives from nothing – a process that will take years, and in many cases will never truly be complete.

The faces of Grenfell Tower victims are the faces of the residents of tower blocks across Britain: working-class, poor and often reliant on the state for their housing and safety. Yet for decades we have been pushing the state out and bringing the private sector in. We privatise profits for shareholders, but it is the insurance policy the state provides that lets them get away with it, always stepping in when the failures of the private sector spill over.

When we privatise hospital cleaning, we get MRSA. When the private sector fails to build affordable housing, the taxpayer foots the bill through soaring housing benefit costs. This week we got firefighters running towards a burning building following serious shortcomings on the part of a landlord.

This goes way beyond party politics and left v right. In 2017 we have to ask serious questions about what we have become when refurbishments were made to the outside of Grenfell Tower last year at great expense, as much to improve the view from the luxury flats that have been built around it as to improve conditions for residents. In one of the country’s richest boroughs there could be no starker encapsulation of the grotesque inequalities that plague our capital city.

Revisit the public inquiry after the Summerland disaster of 1973, the same year Grenfell was put up. In a leisure centre in the Isle of Man, 50 people lost their lives. The building was metal-clad and the metal was coated with plastic bitumen, which accelerated the rapid spread of the flames.

There are 700 tower blocks of 11 storeys or more in the capital alone, the vast majority of which were built in the 1960s and 1970s. The conditions in Grenfell Tower are mirrored in housing estates across the country.

I was on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham last week on the eve of the general election, knocking on doors in Kenley Tower and reflecting on how little has changed since I was a young boy marauding around the estate with my cousin.

For decades we have consigned people to live in overcrowded conditions that are not just unacceptable but that, in many cases, are criminally unsafe. Families live in hutches, not houses. Plywood walls divide rooms in homes that were designed for families of three but are now occupied by six or more.

Back in Dickensian Britain, a letter printed in the Times in 1849 warned that whole swaths of Londoners were “living in a wilderness, so far as the rest of London knows anything of us”. Plus ça change. Successive governments have condemned the vulnerable and the voiceless to Corbusier-inspired blocks to which few improvements have been made since they were built half a century ago. Planners, politicians and property developers have never seen London from the heights – or when it comes to living conditions, the depths – of the capital’s worst homes.

Cutting council budgets by 40% has consequences far beyond street cleaning or libraries. Local authorities have been starved of the resources they need to refurbish council properties, and we have increasingly seen the management and upkeep of homes passed to arm’s-length bodies and the private sector. If local authorities are unable to hold property management companies to account, debates about the rights and wrongs of housing policy have overnight become urgent questions about public safety.

In every borough in the country there will be a tower block or council estate just like Grenfell. Why do we care about how these people live only when tragedy erupts into the public psyche? If the preventable deaths of people burning in their homes are not a matter for the police then what is?

If past disasters have taught us anything, it is that things change only when powerful people are put in the dock. So, for the sake of the victims, call it what it is: a crime of the most horrendous kind.

Source

[Over Carl]

Something I think that is amazing is the response from the local and wider community.

But the question has to be asked, why is it down to the public to sort out the mess? Surely the council should be bending over backwards and pulling out all stops to minimise the inconvenience for anyone affected, regardless of cost.

The article above made a great point that when profits are privatised, the state ends up acting as an unpaid insurer.

That would be something at least, but from a lot of what I've been hearing, the state seems to be dumping a lot of that responsibility on the public to help out those affected.

Whilst I generally agree with that article, it falls into the trap of demanding prosecutions. This is a total wild guess, but I have a funny feeling a handful of people in the council will be prosecuted and get away with it, and the whole responsibility put onto the contractors which would let the politicians who orchestrated this whole mess to claim they have successfully punished the bad guys responsible.

[DJ OD]

I know a Blaggard lived in a high rise and I haven't heard off him in FB since around 1am last night! Hope he is OK! [emoji20]

He's south of the river mate. This was west London, near Westfield shopping centre. Shepherd's Bush.


DJ OD

[flumperino]

But the question has to be asked, why is it down to the public to sort out the mess?

In my opinion, this is Cameron's 'Big Society' in action.

Cut services to the bone (and sometimes into the bone), and then get regular Joes to sort themselves out instead.

Same with foodbanks. These weren't an unintended side-effect of cuts; they were entirely intended. Cut benefits that allow people to feed themselves, and instead make them rely on others.

I suspect that the whole plan relied on the fact that regular people tend to have a heart and a sense of empathy for their fellow person; unlike those in charge.

But back on topic, I also honestly hope that the right people are brought to justice for this terrible, and at the moment seemingly preventable, disaster. It's 2017 ffs, this sort of thing shouldn't happen in one of the world's biggest capital cities.

[GTI]

Something I think that is amazing is the response from the local and wider community.

But the question has to be asked, why is it down to the public to sort out the mess? Surely the council should be bending over backwards and pulling out all stops to minimise the inconvenience for anyone affected, regardless of cost.

The article above made a great point that when profits are privatised, the state ends up acting as an unpaid insurer.

That would be something at least, but from a lot of what I've been hearing, the state seems to be dumping a lot of that responsibility on the public to help out those affected.

Whilst I generally agree with that article, it falls into the trap of demanding prosecutions. This is a total wild guess, but I have a funny feeling a handful of people in the council will be prosecuted and get away with it, and the whole responsibility put onto the contractors which would let the politicians who orchestrated this whole mess to claim they have successfully punished the bad guys responsible.

For me the smoking gun is the resident's association Blog pointing out the inherent fire risks and the fact that it would take a major tragedy to bring the council to its senses. That is unfortunately always the way, proper regulation only comes after a tragedy.

ALL OUR WARNINGS FELL ON DEAF EARS and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time. Below is a list of links to previous blogs we posted on this site trying to warn the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, who own this property, and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation who supposedly manage all social housing in RBKC on the Council’s behalf:https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...ancaster-west/

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...ing-with-fire/
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...n-fire-safety/
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...afety-scandal/
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...ling-the-heat/
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...re-we-waiting/
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...-bad-to-worse/
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...renfell-tower/
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...renfell-tower/
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpres...p-at-the-wheel

[Nibb]

He's south of the river mate. This was west London, near Westfield shopping centre. Shepherd's Bush.


DJ OD

Good to know! [emoji106]

[GTI]

The difference between Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May's visits to Grenfell tower in two pictures?
              


Following the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower yesterday, Theresa May visited the scene and spoke with firefighters and the London fire commissioner.
According to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, Mrs May did not meet any residents of the now burnt out building.

Along with the governments lacklustre response they've once again proven themselves to be indifferent and uncaring. Charities, individuals, churches and mosques have led the recovery efforts with little help or coordination from the council.

Source

[Raptor]

Police have warned they may never be able to identify all of the people who died in the fire that engulfed a west London block of flats.
Emergency services are to spend a third day searching for bodies in the burnt-out Grenfell Tower in North Kensington.
Seventeen people are known to have died but that figure is set to rise, with dozens missing - including families.
Fire chiefs say they do not expect to find more survivors, while Theresa May has ordered a full public inquiry.
The prime minister - who faced criticism for not meeting survivors of the tragedy on a visit to the scene on Thursday - said the victims "deserve answers".
Emergency services were called to the 24-storey residential tower block shortly before 01:00 BST on Wednesday.
Six victims of the blaze have been provisionally identified.
However, Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said there was "a risk that sadly we may not be able to identify everybody".
Asked about the number of dead, he said he hoped the death toll would not reach "triple figures".
The leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council - which owns the tower block - told BBC Two's Newsnight that the authority would not use the type of cladding fitted to Grenfell Tower in other buildings in the borough.
The cladding - installed on the tower in a recent renovation - has come under scrutiny, with experts saying a more fire resistant type could have been used.
Councillor Nicholas Paget-Brown also said there had not been a "collective view" among residents in favour of installing sprinklers during the renovations.
He said it would have "delayed and made the refurbishment of the block more disruptive".
Meanwhile, Conservative MP Chris Philp told the programme the public inquiry should produce interim findings to ensure swift action can be taken if residents in other tower blocks are at risk.
"If there are other buildings which have that dangerous cladding then immediate action needs to be taken in a matter of weeks, or months - not in a couple of years," he added.
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On Thursday, the first victim of the fire was named as Syrian refugee Mohammed Alhajali, 23.
In a statement, the Syria Solidarity Campaign said Mr Alhajali, a civil engineering student, had been in a flat on the 14th floor when the fire broke out, and had spent two hours on the phone to a friend in Syria.
He had been trying to get through to his family while he was waiting to be rescued.
"Mohammed came to this country for safety and the UK failed to protect him," the group said.
His older brother, Omar, told the BBC he had lost Mohammed on the way out of the building.
Rescue stories

Stories of how people managed to escape have also emerged.
Christos Fairbairn, 41, a resident who lived on the 15th floor, described how he collapsed while fleeing the building, only to be rescued by a firefighter.
"I shouldn't be here today but I am, and for that I am thankful," he said.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Elpidio Bonifacio, a partially blind man in his 70s, was rescued from his 11th floor.
He was seen at the window of his flat waving a white jumper.
His eldest son Gordon, 41, posted a message on Facebook, saying he was now in intensive care.
"Words cannot describe the bravery of the fire teams that risked their lives to get him out. He's not out of the woods yet due to serious smoke inhalation," he added.
A political row also erupted, after the prime minister made a private visit to the scene, where she spoke to Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton and members of the emergency services.
However, unlike Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Mrs May was not seen to speak to families and residents.
Downing Street said the purpose of her visit was to get a briefing from emergency services and to ensure that they had the resources they needed.
PM's 'humanity'

She later appeared on TV to announce a public inquiry.
But former cabinet minister Michael Portillo said the prime minister "didn't use her humanity".
Labour MP Harriet Harman also criticised Mrs May for not meeting residents, writing on Twitter: "She should have been prepared to listen to them."
Conservative MP Chris Philip later told Newsnight the prime minister was "keen not to intrude and cause disruption".
Tory minister Tobias Ellwood said on BBC One's Question Time that "security concerns" had also stopped Mrs May visiting survivors.

---

Challenge for fragile government

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By Laura Kuenssberg, BBC political editor
Any government trying to deal with a terrible event like the Grenfell Tower disaster needs sensitivity and nimbleness.
Ministers have a complicated "to do" list - make sure help gets to where it is required, turn on the taps for emergency cash and show that it is willing and brave enough to work out how it could have happened, in order to give any credible answer to the common cry of "something must be done".
But this government is already so fragile, facing pressure on many fronts, the PM still reeling from the election result only a week ago.
Read more from Laura.

---

Rydon, the company that carried out the £8.6m refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, said it welcomed Mrs May's announcement of the public inquiry.
It said its refurbishment which "met all required building regulations as well as fire regulation and health and safety standards".
The tower is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation on behalf of the council.
In its latest statement, it offered its "sincere and heartfelt condolences" to those affected and said its immediate concern and focus was working with the council to assist the residents of the tower block.
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Housing minister Alok Sharma said the government was working with the local authority to ensure that "every single family will be rehoused in the local area".
On Thursday, officials said 35 people remained in hospital - 15 of whom were in a critical condition.
An emergency number - 0800 0961 233 - has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or family.
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[Raptor]

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Theresa May has pledged to "get to the bottom" of the London tower block fire amid mounting criticism of her response to the disaster.
The prime minister was jeered when she visited the Kensington site on Friday, and protests were held across the city.
Mrs May was criticised for not speaking to Grenfell Tower residents on her first visit following the blaze.
She told BBC Newsnight the government was doing all it could to help, as the death toll rose to at least 30.
'Terrible tragedy'

The PM said: "I've heard stories yesterday from the emergency services about the issues around the fire.
"That's why I came straight back to Downing Street and I ordered a public inquiry.
"And we'll make sure that takes place as soon as possible to get to the bottom of this."
The prime minister has committed £5m for clothes, food and emergency supplies but was heckled with chants of "coward" after she met survivors of the fire.
Asked on Newsnight whether she had misjudged the public mood over the tragedy, she said: "This was a terrible tragedy that took place.
"People have lost their lives and others have lost everything.
"What we are doing is putting in place the support that will help them."
The BBC understands those missing could number about 70, with the 30 likely to be among that number. Three of those who died have been identified.
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Protests were held in London on Friday as residents demanded support for those affected by the fire.
Between 50 and 60 people stormed Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall as members of the public said the homeless needed help "right now".
There were also angry scenes outside the Clement James Centre, in North Kensington, where the meeting with the prime minister and residents of the tower had been held.
Dozens of demonstrators surged towards the entrance and there were scuffles outside as organisers appealed for calm.
Later, hundreds of mourners stood arm in arm at a vigil and held a two-minute silence for victims of the fire.
Many wept openly as candles illuminated the road outside the Latymer Christian Centre, yards from the site of the blaze.
Earlier, emergency services spent a third day searching for bodies in the burnt-out tower in North Kensington.
The Queen and Duke of Cambridge met volunteers, residents and community representatives during a visit to the Westway Sports Centre.

• Queen shows how to respond to disaster

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Asked about the reaction of the crowd, Mrs May defended the government's response.
"What I am now absolutely focused on is ensuring we get that support on the ground," she said.
"The government is making money available, we are ensuring we are going to get to the bottom of what has happened, we will ensure that people are re-housed. We need to make sure that actually happens."
Mrs May had faced criticism for not meeting with survivors in the immediate aftermath, unlike Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
Mr Corbyn has written an open letter to the prime minister, calling for the public inquiry to ensure "all necessary lessons are learned".
The £5m Grenfell Tower Residents' Discretionary Fund, announced by Mrs May, includes the aim to re-house residents within three weeks as close to where they lived before as possible, to pay for temporary housing in the meantime and to provide extra financial assistance.
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So far in the investigation:

• Six victims of the blaze have been provisionally identified by police
• Of those killed, one died in hospital
• Fire chiefs say they do not expect to find more survivors
• A total of 24 people remained in hospital - 12 in a critical condition
• A criminal investigation has been launched
• UK councils are carrying out urgent reviews of their tower blocks, according to the Local Government Association
• The British Red Cross has launched an appeal to raise money for those affected
• The emergency number for people concerned about friends and family is 0800 0961 233

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First victims named

On Thursday, the first victim of the fire was named as Syrian refugee Mohammed Alhajali, 23.
The Syria Solidarity Campaign said Mr Alhajali, a civil engineering student, had been in a flat on the 14th floor when the fire broke out, and had spent two hours on the phone to a friend in Syria.
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The fire broke out shortly before 01:00 BST on Wednesday.
It tore through all floors of the building and took more than 200 firefighters 24 hours to bring it under control.
There was nothing to suggest the fire was started deliberately, police said.
Two other victims have also been named.
Five-year-old Isaac Shawo reportedly got separated from his family in the smoke and later died.
Artist and photographer Khadija Saye, 24, lived on the 20th floor and also died.
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[Bald Bouncer]

The flames hadn’t even been extinguished from Grenfell Tower before people started screaming that no one should “politicise” this tragedy. As I type this, though, at least 12 people are dead, and authorities expect that number to drastically climb. Most of those who perished, or who lost everything in the flames, were Black and Minority Ethnic people, and they were all poor (the nature of living on a council estate).

We are talking about some of the most marginalised and oppressed people in our society dying in a hellish inferno, so the very nature of the discourse around what happened at Grenfell Tower is innately political whether we want it to be or not. The fact is, Grenfell Tower - from the residents’ years of documented complaints about safety to the fact is lies in the richest borough in London - is a stark reminder of whose voices get listened to in modern Britain, whose don’t, and that this dichotomy can have deadly consequences.

We don’t yet know what caused the fire. But what we do know is that tenants had for years being raising concerns about how the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) - to which the local council had delegated management of the tower - were cutting corners on safety and refusing to listen to tenant concerns.

They did, however, just complete a £10million regeneration project to improve the aesthetic of the building. Planning documents note this was, in part, done to improve the view from surrounding conservation areas and luxury tower blocks. This refurbishment included adding a material
to the exterior of the building which may have allowed the blaze to quickly spread throughout the tower instead of being contained to the flat in which it originated, as was supposed to happen.

Despite this, resident concerns about smoke coming from electrical appliances and outlets, the state of fire escapes, and the elimination of a car park - which slowed emergency response vehicles getting to the tower - were ignored in the regeneration. Rather than catering to the actual needs of residents, KCTMO focused on improving the tower block for those who lived around, not in it - who just so happened to be largely white and wealthy individuals.

It’s clear who had the power and privilege here, and it wasn’t the tenants. What happened at Grenfell Tower is part of a larger issue of structural inequality in general, and housing in particular, in which the poor (who are often, though not always, BME) are pushed out of quality housing in favour of regenerating the city for affluent and largely white renters and buyers.

Earlier this year, the Conservative Party voted down a bill that would have required to make landlords provide liveable housing, and it’s easy to understand why. By the Guardian’s reckoning, 39% of Tory MPs were landlords, with nearly a quarter of MPs across all parties owning rental properties. There’s very clearly a disincentive for MPs to vote in favour of this.

Meanwhile, Right-to-Buy has allowed the number of council flats to fall to an all-time low and failed to replace them with adequate social housing. Throughout the capital, from Westminster to Walthamstow, poor people are being pushed to the fringes of Zone 8 and having their very real concerns about safety and quality ignored in favour if profit for buy-to-let landlords and a Tory government that wants to see social housing privatised.

In the case of Grenfell Tower, we can’t ignore the presence of so many poor BME people. We must look at structural inequalities that allowed this tragedy to occur. We don’t talk a lot about the intersection of race and poverty in Britain, in part because the British class structure is so entrenched. There are, after all, loads of poor white people too. But studies have shown that whilst 20% of white people are low income, this number increases for ethnic minorities. Across the board, BME people are twice as likely to be low income than white people.

Kensington and Chelsea is 71% white. It has a higher proportion of high earners than anywhere else in the country. More people work in banking there than anywhere else in Britain, whilst fewer people work in retail than anywhere else. The poor and BME community in Kensington and Chelsea, including those in Grenfell Tower, simply aren’t the core constituency of the local council and, evidence suggests, KCTMO - who should have been putting their interest above everyone else’s but clearly were not.

In the last parliament only 6% of MPs and peers were BME, compared to 13% of the country. This increased to one in 13 in this parliament, but the educational disparity between MPs is still stark - 45% of Tory MPs were privately educated, and a whopping 86% of MPs are university graduates - numbers far higher than the national average.

The residents of Grenfell Tower didn’t have much of a voice in Parliament, and they don’t have much of a voice in the local council. Yet they were trying desperately to make their voices heard. It’s why, according to Rachel Obordo - who grew up in Ladbroke Grove, where Grenfell Tower is - the constituency flipped to Labour for the first time in history, by a margin of only 20 votes. The borough’s low-income residents were fed up with being ignored, and they made their voices heard.

Obordo writes of a stark contrast between leafy South Kensington and more impoverished North Kensington, with everything from overcrowding to public services such as rubbish collection being better for the affluent South than the North. It seems that the local council, and the management company it employed to oversee Grenfell Tower, also cared more about the wealthy Sloanes of South Kensington than it did the impoverished BME people to the north. And now untold numbers of them are dead because of it.

The scale of this tragedy is yet to be known, but it looks to be utterly incomprehensible and heartbreaking. We can only grieve for those we’ve lost and demand that we never lose anyone again because the local government and parliament cares more about rich white people than poor Black and Brown people. The tragedy of Grenfell Tower is one of both race and class, and it’s time we acknowledge a few hard truths about systemic inequality in Britain - before another senseless and unbearable tragedy occurs.

Source:

[piggzy]

I read yesterday that the company based in Suffolk that manufactured and supplied the insulation panels for the tower block supplied a much less fire resistant type ( as requested by the borough council ) at a total saving of just £5000
That is disgusting if true.

[Bald Bouncer]

I read yesterday that the company based in Suffolk that manufactured and supplied the insulation panels for the tower block supplied a much less fire resistant type ( as requested by the borough council ) at a total saving of just £5000
That is disgusting if true.

Our local rag is claiming Worcester SOURCE

[piggzy]

Our local rag is claiming Worcester SOURCE

Maybe I imagined the Suffolk bit, I think this might be where I got the £5000 figure from : SOURCE

Edit: To add, the cladding used is banned in many countries including America.

[Raptor]

At least 58 people are now missing and presumed dead in the Grenfell Tower disaster, police have said.
This latest figure included the 30 already confirmed to have died in the devastating fire in a west London tower block on Wednesday.
Commander Stuart Cundy said that number "may increase" and that the "significant" recovery operation is likely to take weeks.
"As soon as we can, we will locate and recover loved ones," he added.
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[DJ OD]

Gonna take a lot of carpet to push this under. But the cynic in me says nothing will happen to stop the political element to this event. Councils will always favour their preferred demographic.

I just hope that they will learn that Health and Safety should be a higher priority. Other blocks will need reviewing, not just in London but in estates all over the country.


DJ OD