Fire engulfs Grenfell tower block in west London

Incidentally, it's possible everyone is jumping to the wrong conclusions about the catalyst for the fire, and that it wasn't the fridge.

Was the gas supply competently installed? Well, no, as an unprotected pipe went up the side of the stairs, and blue flames can be seen in many videos. We simply do not know - and that's why it takes time, and investigation by experts, to get to the root causes, as well as other factors that contributed to the death toll.

This isn't CSI, where everything is 'solved' in an hour.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/sixtyeight-flats-in-2bn-luxury-block-to-be-given-to-families-whose-lives-were-devastated-in-grenfell-a3569876.html

Residents evacuated from Grenfell Tower are set to move into a £2 billion luxury complex in the heart of Kensington, the Standard can reveal.

Plans are pressing ahead for some of the families made homeless from the devastating fire to be housed in one of London’s most desirable addresses.

The Standard can reveal that new flats in a Kensington High Street development — where penthouses go for up to £13 million — will be used to provide accommodation for families following the huge blaze that destroyed the tower block last week.

Sixty-eight flats in the Kensington Row scheme have been acquired, at a cost of tens of millions of pounds, to permanently house families from Grenfell Tower, which is just a couple of miles away.....etc.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-tower-latest-600-high-rise-apartment-blocks-same-combustible-cladding-councils-estimate-a7802406.html

As many as 600 high-rise buildings have similar cladding to Grenfell Tower, councils in England have estimated, according to Downing Street.

More follows

I doubt if many of the councils are Tory - this could get a bit embarrassing for Corbyn......

It was pretty obvious that this was going to happen. Serves him right.

Quite, Sabot. This is what proper investigations are for - but Corbyn and others chose, instead, to shout and bawl, and whip up mob violence.

The Day of Rage doesn't seem to have gone all that well. The majority of people appear to be disgusted.

Looked to me like the usual rent-a-mob of ugly, unwashed rubbish shouting and screeching at the police - I suspect Corbyn's over-reached himself and annoyed a great many people - as well as not helping, practically, one bit.

As with all catastrophes, there will not be just one single factor which contributed to the death toll at Grenfell. The flammable cladding is one, a possibly dodgy gas supply is another.

But - it's been reported that the reason the firefighters struggled to get a water supply inside the building is that the 'wet' risers had been vandalised. That's got naff-all to do with Evil Tory Austerity.

Neither has illegally sub-letting flats in the building. Were all the corridors being kept clear, and the heavy fire doors closed? These are all contributory factors, and there will be more - there always are.

Corbyn and his rabble-rousers would be well advised to STFU till more is known.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/22/grenfell-tower-camden-council-to-remove-cladding-from-five-tower-blocks?CMP=twt_gu

Camden council in London will immediately remove cladding similar to that which burned rapidly on Grenfell Tower from five blocks in the borough, and accused contractors of fitting flammable materials below the standard requested.

The council leader, Georgia Gould, revealed the outer cladding panels on five blocks in the borough were also made up of aluminium panels with a polyethylene core – the kind which is believed to have helped the fire at Grenfell spread across the building.

The buildings on the Chalcots estate had been independently tested by the Building Research Establishment after the tragedy, which is believed to have killed at least 79 people last week.


Grenfell Tower fire: death toll raised to 79 as minute's silence held
Read more
The council also pledged round-the-clock fire safety patrols on the estate’s corridors “to reassure residents and carry out enhanced fire safety checks” until the cladding has been removed.

“The panels that were fitted were not to the standard that we had commissioned,” said Gould. “In light of this, we will be informing the contractor that we will be taking urgent legal advice.”

Not surprised - putting this right is going to cost a fortune, and it would seem only right that the cost should be born by whoever put on inferior cladding.

BREAKING NEWS: Grenfell Tower inferno was started by a Hotpoint fridge freezer and cladding FAILS safety tests, police reveal as they consider manslaughter charges
At least 600 tower blocks across the UK are wrapped in similar cladding found on Grenfell Tower death trap
Theresa May said tests had shown cladding at least 7 tower blocks 'combustible' - 100 will be tested per day
Sajid Javid has since confirmed the number of 'combustible' towers is 11, across eight local authorities
Camden Council says five blocks have dangerous cladding and work will start immediately to rip it all off
Residents tell MailOnline they cannot sleep at night but are being told to stay in the blocks during works
Camden likely to sue contractor Rydon - who also installed panels at Grenfell - claiming work 'not to standard'
Three blocks in Plymouth, Devon, have same panels and blocks in Barnet also having cladding torn away


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4632232/Grenfell-Tower-insulation-tiles-FAILED-fire-tests.html#ixzz4korGLQwM
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Camden evacuates tower block after Grenfell fire.

Camden Council will evacuate 161 households from a tower block tonight amid fire safety concerns.

The move follows news that similar cladding was used on the Chalcots Estate to that which spread the Grenfell Tower fire in Kensington earlier this month.

http://news.sky.com/story/camden-evacuates-tower-block-after-grenfell-fire-10925449

Sky News Correspondent Paul Kelso said: "It did not feel like a situation yesterday where they were going to be evacuating people but clearly they discovered something.

"It's obviously a tragedy and scandal in west London at the Grenfell Tower but it's now emerging as a picture of a national scandal."

It sure is - and as far as I can make out, it is a Labour scandal. Corbyn really should have waited for those boring old facts to emerge before he mouthed off.

Islington Council‏Verified account
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Islington Council Retweeted Richard Watts
Meeting with residents at Braithwaite House - ACM cladding to be removed, and fire safety patrols night & day http://islington.media/r/21519/updated_statement_-_cladding_at_braithwaite_house …

Oh. That's a Labour council.

Oh. That's Corbyn's constituency.

Camden London Borough Council was controlled by the Labour Party continuously from 1971 until the 2006 election.

That would cover the time in the middle/end of the 1970s when Labour were warned about the cladding danger as I recall. LL

Blair started the 'cladding' business because it was EU-approved and supposedly environmentally-friendly...

It's up to five blocks now:

http://news.sky.com/story/camden-evacuates-tower-block-after-grenfell-fire-10925449


Camden Council will evacuate 800 households from five tower blocks tonight amid fire safety concerns.

I wonder, has some other horror been uncovered besides the cladding?

Just seen on BBC that people are refusing to leave, others are angry at the disruption .... I despair!! LL

I ceased being surprised at the stupidity of many people long ago, LL.

Simple solution - if they want to stay put, get them to sign disclaimers saying they won't sue anyone if the building goes up, and they won't want any firemen risking their lives to rescue them, either.

Well, I think I will go watch some TV - lots of stupidity tomorrow, I guess. LL

The world is not short of stupid people. Enjoy the telly!

Any sign of Jezza turning up and hugging and crying over the displaced residents of Camden and Islington tower blocks? Is it different because these are Labour councils, and Islington is his constituency, and it's all a bit embarrassing after the act he put on while Grenfell was still burning?

Or is he too busy sucking up to rich kids who've paid hundreds of pounds to stand in muddy fields, and who worship 'Jeremy' like a bunch of braindead sheep, incapable of seeing what a charlatan he is?

Corbyn certainly hasn't done himself any favours this last week. Hahaha.

He's shown himself up as a complete hypocrite, frankly - though most of us knew he was already.

I must say, I have just enjoyed seeing an elderly Camden dog-owner giving some local Labour apparatchik a piece of her mind over this utter shambles. Pretty hard to blame Evil Tories for this one!

Frankly, all those people who rushed to judgement while the building was still burning would have been well-advised to STFU.

The whole world saw the damned cladding turn into a Roman candle, and that there were blue flames in some parts which suggest there was a problem with the gas; that much was obvious. But to think that cladding would only be on a building on one of the few Tory-controlled city areas was sheer damned bigotry and stupidity.

Labour council have been a by-word for corruption for decades, after all....

Incidentally, assorted Scots councils have been occupying themselves trying to set fire to cladding samples, without success, so fingers crossed, the dangerous stuff hasn't been used here. Though it still looks awful.

http://news.sky.com/story/london-tower-block-evacuation-4000-displaced-in-camden-10925745

Quote:

Ms Gould explained that the council had a conversation with the London Fire Brigade at 5pm on Friday who said the buildings were unsafe.

She said: "We offered to do anything we could to keep the residents there, such as 24-hour fire wardens, I even offered to pay for fire engines, but the fire brigade said there was nothing we could do to make them safe.

Quote:

Responding to mounting criticism over Camden's handling of the evacuation, Sajid Javid, the Communities and Local Government minister told Sky News: "After the Grenfell Tower tragedy, it is vital we carry out checks and make sure people are safe.

"The the local fire safety authority found alongside the cladding problem, which is a serious problem, multiple fire safety failures, including, for example, insulation of gas pipes, fire doors missing, plywood above doors and that's what makes Camden different and why the decision was made to evacuate."

Oh my God.