UK - Huge fire rips through Grenfell Tower, Latimer Road, White City, London, June 2017

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The enquiry has started, opening with a minute's silence.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick said he would not shrink away from making recommendations that could lead to prosecutions.
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The inquiry cannot undo any of that, but it can and will provide answers to how a disaster of this kind could happen in 21st Century London.
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Sir Martin said the inquiry would be split into two phases - with the first examining how the blaze developed and the second looking at how the building became so exposed to the risk of a major fire.

He said there was an "urgent need" to conduct phase one to find out what parts of the tower's design and construction played a role in allowing the disaster to happen.

"That's important because if there are similar defects in other high-rise buildings, steps must be taken quickly to ensure those who live in them are kept safe."
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Sir Martin told the hearing he recognised the "great sense of anger and betrayal" felt by those affected by the blaze and would examine evidence "calmly and rationally".

But he rejected calls from survivors to appoint a person from the Grenfell community to the inquiry panel, saying it would "risk undermining impartiality".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41262914
 
Some of the people attending really need to be reminded that they're at an inquiry not a panto.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I know that the focus right now is on the inquest into the fire itself and possible wrongdoing from the council and manufacturers but reading this today just stabbed me in my heart:

The remains of all children on the Grenfell Tower missing list have been formally identified 14 weeks after the deadly fire.
...
“It was a huge milestone today to be able to identify all of the children off this [the police] list and although it has taken a long time, 15 weeks, I am satisfied that all of those identities are secure and reliable and I wish to thank all of those who have worked so hard to achieve that and I particularly give thanks to all of those very many people who have been waiting,” Wilcox said in court on Wednesday.

She was speaking at the opening of the inquests into the death of eight-year-old Mehdi El-Wahabi and Rania Ibrahim, 31. As with all previous inquests, Wilcox immediately suspended proceedings to allow the police investigation and public inquiry to progress.
...
The remains of Rania Ibrahim, 31, were recovered from the 23rd floor, where she lived. Her daughters, Fathia, 5, and Hania, 3, are presumed dead. Her husband Hassan was in Egypt at the time of the fire.

Rania filmed harrowing footage from inside her flat on the night of the fire, which she streamed on Facebook Live. In Arabic and English, she spoke of being unable to get out of the block and recited the shahada, the Muslim prayer often said in moments of acute distress or danger.

Coroner’s officer Eric Sword said the provisional cause of her death was “consistent with the effects of fire”.
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...enfell-tower-missing-list-formally-identified

I remember watching the video that Rania sent her friend as the fire raged on and news reports were still coming in and hoping that she managed to get herself and her children to safety. For me, seeing the video somehow made the fire real and personal. It's hard to explain, I guess it became a story about real people and not just another news broadcast.

I guess the only good news is that the expected death toll may be lower than previously thought - because of fraud:

It emerged that the force is investigating eight fraud cases where people have tried to financially benefit from the fire - two people have been charged, one has been bailed, while the other allegations are still being looked into.

There have also been four allegations of theft from the lower levels while the building was under 24-hour security - one involving a "considerable" sum of money.
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The police have seized 31 million documents and identified 336 companies of interest.
Investigators have so far taken more than 1,000 statements, and identified 2,400 different people they want to speak to.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41318828
 
“Seventy people and a stillborn baby make up the final death toll in the Grenfell Tower fire, police have confirmed.

The last two bodies were recovered from the burnt-out building and were confirmed by the coroner on Tuesday.

The Met Police now believe all of those who perished in the fire have been recovered and the search operation is expected to finish before Christmas.
A baby, Logan Gomes, who was stillborn, has been recorded as a victim of the fire.”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...oll-Grenfell-Tower-fire-71.html#ixzz4yaR4O5wv

May they Rest In Peace.

I hope all necessary action is taken to prevent this tragedy happening again.
 
Lily Allen was way off the mark. Is she going to retract the hysterical figures she came out with now?!


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Ironside said:
Lily Allen was way off the mark. Is she going to retract the hysterical figures she came out with now?!
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Lily was just one of a considerable number of individuals on the hard left who cynically sought to make political capital out of the situation.

None of them will ever admit they were wrong on the numbers front.
 
For those unaware of the significant problem of domestic fires caused by faulty white goods, there's an article in the Mail today.

[h=1]Is our hunger for cheap white goods turning our homes into death traps? They cause ten fires a day - some lethal. Action is needed, and urgently[/h]
Given that we can land a probe on a distant comet or control a stealth drone from thousands of miles away, manufacturing a tumble dryer, washing machine or fridge-freezer that isn’t prone to bursting into flames is surely a simple task of good engineering?


Not so. Even before the Grenfell blaze in June that claimed 71 lives and is thought to have been started by a fridge freezer, the white goods industry had a serious problem on its hands, posing lethal risks to consumers.


MPs recently heard that up to a million faulty tumble dryers of a type that have been linked to large fires causing fatalities may still be in British homes, according to the U.S. manufacturer Whirlpool while giving evidence to the business committee.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...er-cheap-goods-turning-homes-DEATH-TRAPS.html
 
A number of English council have expressed fears that high-rise flats covered in Grenfell-style cladding could be targeted by terrorists and arsonists.

There are concerns at least 288 towers across England which home thousands and have failed combustibility tests after Grenfell Tower disaster could be targeted.

Freedom of information requests were sent to 36 councils across England known to have failed towers. One council tower block in Slough, Berkshire has already been attacked by arsonists several times, the local authority confirmed, while another private block has firefighters on guard around the clock.

The council refused to release details about which buildings had been affected, citing the government's 'concerns that vulnerable buildings could become a target for terrorist activity'.*


Read more:*http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-Grenfell-style-cladding.html#ixzz59yDogiIt

This is scary I never considered this before.
 
Absolutely greg! Very scary!

I hope the tenants at least have been informed of the failed tests so they can make the choice to move elsewhere.
 
Elainera said:
I hope the tenants at least have been informed of the failed tests so they can make the choice to move elsewhere.
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This is social sector housing, for which people go on the waiting list for years. It would be very difficult for them to just leave because the rents are subsidised and therefore cheaper than private rentals. Also if they left the property simply out of fear they would be regarded as having made themselves voluntarily homeless and would therefore be not eligible for further housing assistance. (This doesn't apply if people are effectively driven out of their homes by violence or intimidation, eg from neighbours or gangs of teenagers.)

What needs to happen is for the cladding to be removed as a matter of urgency. I've not seen any reports about what plans are being made to do so. One issue may be the need to remove so much cladding in a very short space of time, considering it has been installed over a 15 or 20 year period. The main purpose of the cladding was to provide energy efficiency, which was the obsession of the Blair/Brown government that was in power from 1997 to 2010.
 
A damning report into the Grenfell Tower fire has revealed that 'nobody wold have died had the building not been re-clad'.

A 210-page report into the fatal inferno in west London states the fire would have had "little opportunity" to spread from the flat it started in if the exterior of the tower had not been renovated with combustible material.

According to the report, seen by the Evening Standard , the 2014-2016 refurbishment of the tower block failed to meet fire safety standards and "deficiencies" in the new facade helped the fire to spread up the building's exterior.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/damning-leaked-grenfell-tower-fire-12372689
 
Wow how sad. So as suspected from the onset all these people lost their lives because the council tried to save money.

Just imagine you were now living in a tower just like Grenfell, with such cladding. What are these people doing to protect themselves? What can they do? Are they given any options, alternatives? Is the cladding being removed?
 
Elainera said:
Wow how sad. So as suspected from the onset all these people lost their lives because the council tried to save money.

Just imagine you were now living in a tower just like Grenfell, with such cladding. What are these people doing to protect themselves? What can they do? Are they given any options, alternatives? Is the cladding being removed?
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Legally the cladding has got to be removed due to health and safety laws and replaced with a more fire retardant version that should have been put on in the first place. It makes you so angry when people die because greedy people and companies tried.

There is a residential tower block in Glasgow which is fitted with the same cladding as Grenfell and people own their apartments. Because they were built over ten years ago the building regulations on cladding weren’t as good. So the builder is not legally responsible for replacing the cladding. The company which maintains the building wants each flat owner to pay £26,000 to replace the cladding and they are absolutely raging about it.
 
Wow that must be maddening (Glasgow situation). Stuck between a rock and a hard place uh?
 
“In the month after the inferno at Grenfell Tower, 20 desperate local residents tried to take their own lives, according to a new documentary.

71 people were killed during the blaze in Kensington, west London in June of last year.

Professor Steve Tombs spoke on a History channel documentary, looking into the Grenfell disaster.”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ill-weeks-fire-says-expert.html#ixzz5DP3ny7Qp
 
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