Grenfell Tower Block Fire

Supposedly with a malfunctioning fridge. There is an interview somewhere with someone saying the person from the next door apartment came to him and told him his fridge was on fire.

Or maybe it was started deliberately by the government? Which is just one of the crackpot theories ive been reading.. along with the "fact" that the emergency services took 2 hours to get there and then did nothing. That there are already "hundreds of bodies" stacked up in London hospitals.. Someone else was trying to tell me the Illuminati and the Freemasons are involved!

No wonder people are angry when others are pushing this ******** on them.

 

Thought this was interesting, haven't seen it mentioned in any of the reports I've read so far. You'd think that it would have appeared somewhere considering how many news outlets are reporting the tragedy.

 

Lily Allen, the self appointed public spokesperson for the poor victims, claimed a police coverup and that the death toll was about twice what reputable sources think it is.

 

Try searching on youtube for the "truth" behind the London bridge attack. Policemen dressed up as terrorists for a training exercise. Utterly mindboggling these people exist.

 

and then read the quotes below to realise just how screwed we are!

Scares me to see just how many people these days are gullible, miss-informed or just plain thick.

 

I see the far-left are planning a 'Day of rage' tomorrow to run alongside the Queens speech.

 

Give them something to do I suppose.

 

You will not be surprised to hear that I shall be supporting this Day of Rage.

I will be taking a day off work in support and encourage comrades to do the same.

 

You can keep us updated from within the Met Police kettle. Gonna be hot, could be time to break out the Boris water cannon!

 

We are all responsible for this event, we are the ones that accept the capitalist and consumerist state we live in where money is king and where corners get cut. The governments initial response reminds me of the US governments initial response to the Katrina tragedy, if this had been one of the tower blocks where the rich and powerful live in London would the response of been different?

One of the big positives to come out of this and all the other crap we have had to put up with recently has been the community responses and what happens when people pull together.

 

Doesn't seem to be 'raging' enough yet ...

 

Angry politics works. A 'luxury' block has been acquired to house the families in K&C rather than ship them to all points North.

Point well made Jeremy Corbyn.

 

Brilliant victory that. The first of many I hope.

 

This might be a Pyrrhic victory - ISTR (a few years ago) a "luxury" development in a tower block that had (or were more likely forced to have) a small number of units for social housing. The proles, sorry, social tenants had to use a separate entrance...

 

Yep, I did remember correctly - although it wasn't for those in social housing just those paying "affordable" (FFS!) rents.

 

And it may mean a reduction in the availability of low cost or affordable housing overall until Grenfell comes down.

 

Have they been given these flats or will they be expected to pay rent on them?

 

It's a load of spin as far as I can see

The block was built to include social housing apartments, instead of others in need getting these apartments the homeless from Grenfell are getting them

It's not a victory of any sort

 

Need the details, how many already in the social, affordable bracket and how many purchased.

You may be correct, but can't rule out good news yet. If the block was previously all sold you will be correct.

 

I think the important thing here is that 68 families have got (seemingly) nice and decent housing in the same area where they were. I don't care how they got it, they got it.

If we hadn't have made a fuss they'd have been sent to Lancashire with a £10 voucher.

 

Agreed.

 

True, but LTC might be right that it's a sleight of hand if 68 other families have to go to Lancashire in their place. We don't want the overall social housing stock to be diminished.

 

Caring local residents are up in arms about this decision:-

“I’m very sad that people have lost their homes, but there are a lot of people here who have bought flats and will now see the values drop. It will degrade things. And it opens up a can of worms in the housing market.”

So there you have it. Sad your friends and neighbours got burnt to death in a high rise firetrap and that you only escaped by the skin of your teeth, but will nobody think of the housing market? It'll be degraded if you're given somewhere to live. Absolutely degraded.

Rather than the can of worms being in the housing market, I'd suggest the worms are in this richie's soul.

 

Yes, but which forum member is that a quote from?

 

So Camden Council have told 800 families to "immediately" leave their high rise block flats as the same cladding has been used.

Is that a bit OTT, or not?

I would have thought that there may have been some personal choice in the matter?

 

There was choice I think ZZ. You were advised to leave, but could choose. That seems fair enough.

There were one or two who said on the news they were going to stay and of course the chances are 99.9% that nothing will happen. However if it did and the council knew it was dangerous and they hadn't been evacuated then there would be, quite rightly, hell to pay.

 

The (Labour) council leader is quoted as saying she made the decision because the fire service couldn't 'guarantee' the safety of the block. Seems like hysteria has set in to me.

Speaking of Grenfell I'm struggling to understand why the £1.25m Community Shield pot is being given to the residents in its entirety. The government have stepped in, however belatedly, and I understand the state is now underwriting all foreseeable costs. How does more money help?

 

Fair enough, I didnt realise there was a choice.

But media talking about "forced" and "evacuated", etc.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/camden-council-evacuates-161-homes-10678376

Personally, it looks like hysteria as UEA says, how can any fire service guarantee anyone's safety?

 

Or an excruciating, self-serving charity single?

 

I decided to go up there yesterday and take a look for myself. I discovered the Hammersmith and City line was closed so walked from Edgware Road, snaking through the back streets and just keeping the A40 to my right. The casual walk took an hour, and what surprised me was that until you're almost on top of the tower it is really difficult to see/find from that direction. I started passing the "missing persons" posters well before I spotted the tower.

Eventually I saw it and it the moment I did the horror of it literally took my breath away. As I got closer I started to be a little wary of the reaction of locals to people such as me who may have come to look and take pictures, but my worries were completely misplaced. The first of the memorial sites I passed the people there were saying thank you for coming down and seeing what happened, they wanted this to be spread far and wide. All of the other sites were the same and people wanted to talk, to see how others felt, to see who they were blaming and the effect it had had on them. There were many people doing exactly as I was, just wanting to see it for themselves, and we were pretty obvious.

This is about as close as you can get. You probably can't see it from the picture but from that spot you can clearly see inside every flat and relate it to where those people were waving from.



It's possible to walk most of the perimeter and there is no place where the sight becomes any less horrific, especially seeing the cladding close up where it's burned so badly. I can only relate what it's like to the war graves in France, everyone is totally respectful but very sad, it's very quiet even where groups are talking. There are political slogans posted all over the place but I certainly didn't feel any anger. There are still lots of news crews about.

I walked back to Shepherds Bush afterwards which is much shorter than the original walk I took, and as before, it's really difficult to see the tower once you're out of the immediate area.
I'm glad I went to see it for myself, I'd suggest you do as well. That's what the local people want.

 

A very good post Diamond. It is truly horrific and there is something obscene about its dominance of the surrounding area.

One thing I haven't heard is what is to become of it? Surely it must be demolished, but that can't be easy within that area and maybe means surrounding low rises have also to go.

 

It'll be there for the foreseeable as the police are saying it'll probably be around the end of the year until their work is done. After that I can only see demolition as an outcome.

 

Down in Sunny Portsmouth:

Portsmouth City Council has confirmed that cladding on Horatia House and Leamington House in Somers Town is being removed to ensure the ‘highest safety standards’ are in place.
Councillor Luke Stubbs, deputy leader of Portsmouth City Council said:
‘Like all councils, we have been working with government and fire service to review our buildings.
‘As a precaution we submitted some cladding for testing and the results that came back said the cladding on Horatia House and Leamington House was a fire risk. As a result we are removing the cladding from those buildings.
‘Protection of Portsmouth residents is our number one priority and we will not compromise on safety standards.’

Apart from putting cladding on their tower blocks that can catch fire you mean? How are these people still in a job? Seriously?

Link: http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/our-reg...re-risks-after-grenfell-tower-blaze-1-8023022

 

Certainly no need to set up a fund to support building surveyors, builders, scaffolders and fire prevention consultants. This is boom time for them and the magic money tree is raining gold.

 

Appears to be a compulsory removal of residents in Camden now:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40397302