Huge west London tower block inferno – Grenfell Tower fire

[Ca.]

RT
https://www.rt.com/uk/392135-west-london-tower-inferno/

A 24-story tower block on Latimer Road in west London has been engulfed in a horrifying blaze, with reports saying people have been trapped in flats in the upper stories.

The massive fire has engulfed the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington from the 2nd story to the top floor, the London Fire Brigade has tweeted. It added that at least 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters have been battling the blaze.

Live

https://youtu.be/y60wDzZt8yg

 

[Ant22]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

The residents had warned the landlord about health and safety issues but their warnings were ignored. From Sputnik:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201706141054609190-london-fire-24-storey-block/

In November last year, a residents organization, Grenfell Action Group, ran an article accusing the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea of ignoring health and safety regulations. The council landlord was accused of being an "evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia" and of misconduct related to voting at annual general meetings. Grenfell Action Group said "the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord".

The group has published articles criticizing poor fire safety and maintenance at the tower and revealed that the landlord and council had urged the residents to stay in their flats in the event of a fire.

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201706141054614259-london-greenfell-tower-north-kensington/

Rescuers continue looking for people who could have been trapped inside the 24-storey apartment block in western London after a huge fire.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Work to establish the causes of a deadly fire that engulfed a 24-storey apartment block in western London is expected within days, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said Wednesday hours after disclosing an unspecified number of fatalities.

"This has been a very serious and a very complex fire. Our firefighters on scene have been working tirelessly and continue to do so to extinguish the fire and search the building for any remaining people inside," Cotton said in a televised press briefing.

The fire commissioner said a structural engineer and an urban search and rescue adviser on site have assessed that the building "at the moment continues to be safe" for the work of her crew.

"We will continue working closely in the coming hours and days to look at the cause of this fire and to investigate what has happened," she added.

Metropolitan Police were called to reports of the fire at Grenfell Tower apartment block on Latimer Road at 1:16 am local time (00:16 GMT).

 

[Can Won]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

Below is the full post from the Grenfell Action Group that sputniknews pulled the quotes from... (The Grenfell Action Group was formed in 2010 to oppose the Kensington Academy and Leisure Centre development which we considered, and still consider, to be a gross overdevelopment of an inappropriate site that would involve the destruction of Lancaster Green, one of the few local green spaces, and the only residential amenity space available for the residents of the immediately adjacent Grenfell Tower. We were, and still are, committed to defending the rights of the residents of Lancaster West Estate, a sprawling, inner-city, social housing complex of nearly a thousand dwellings, mostly working class, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. Our community is located in North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Our blog has recorded, and continues to record, our struggle and we hope will remain as evidence for future generations of how our community has been mis-treated by RBKC and its social housing management agents the Kensington & Chelsea TMO (KCTMO). in 2016...

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/

It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. We believe that the KCTMO are an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia who have no business to be charged with the responsibility of looking after the every day management of large scale social housing estates and that their sordid collusion with the RBKC Council is a recipe for a future major disaster.

Unfortunately, the Grenfell Action Group have reached the conclusion that only an incident that results in serious loss of life of KCTMO residents will allow the external scrutiny to occur that will shine a light on the practices that characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation. We believe that the KCTMO have ensured their ongoing survival by the use of proxy votes at their Annual General Meeting that see them returned with a mandate of 98% in favour of the continuation of their inept and highly dangerous management of our homes. It is no coincidence that the 98% is the same figure that is returned by the infamous Kim Jong-un of North Korea who claims mass popularity while reputedly enslaving the general population and starving the majority of his people to death.

It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice! The Grenfell Action Group believe that the KCTMO narrowly averted a major fire disaster at Grenfell Tower in 2013 when residents experienced a period of terrifying power surges that were subsequently found to have been caused by faulty wiring. We believe that our attempts to highlight the seriousness of this event were covered up by the KCTMO with the help of the RBKC Scrutiny Committee who refused to investigate the legitimate concerns of tenants and leaseholders.

We have blogged many times on the subject of fire safety at Grenfell Tower and we believe that these investigations will become part of damning evidence of the poor safety record of the KCTMO should a fire affect any other of their properties and cause the loss of life that we are predicting:

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/fire-safety-scandal-at-lancaster-west/

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/more-on-fire-safety/

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/another-fire-safety-scandal/

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/grenfell-tower-still-a-fire-risk/

In October 2015 a fire ripped through another KCTMO property, the 14 storey Adair Tower in North Kensington, causing mass panic and resulting in a number of residents taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. It is reported that had it not been for the swift actions of the London Fire Brigade the consequences of this fire and potential loss of life could have been much worse.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11967592/50-rescued-from-burning-flats-in-Kensington.html

In the aftermath of the Adair Tower fire the London Fire Brigade found that the KCTMO had not been looking after the safety of residents properly and issued an Enforcement Order compelling them to improve the fire safety in the escape staircases and to provide self closing devices to all the tower block’s front doors. A further audit by the London Fire Brigade of the neighbouring Hazelwood Tower (located alongside Adair Tower) found similar breaches of health and safety legislation and an Enforcement Order was also issued for this property forcing the TMO to address the serious concerns of the Fire Brigade’s inspectors. What is shocking is that a decade ago a fatality occurred due to a fire at Hazelwood Tower and the Fire Investigation Team ordered that the grills on the fire escape staircase be covered over. This never happened and it is believed that the uncovered grills at Adair House (Hazelwood Tower’s twin block) acted like a chimney and were responsible for the accelerated spread of the fire and smoke damage.

In the last twenty years and despite the terrifying power surge incident in 2013 and recent fire at Adair Tower, the residents of Grenfell Tower have received no proper fire safety instructions from the KCTMO. Residents were informed by a temporary notice stuck in the lift and one announcement in a recent regeneration newsletter that they should remain in their flats in the event of fire. There are not and never have been any instructions posted in the Grenfell Tower noticeboard or on individual floor as to how residents should act in event of a fire. Anyone who witnessed the recent tower block fire at Shepherds Court, in nearby Shepherd’s Bush, will know that the advice to remain in our properties would have led to certain fatalities and we are calling on our landlord to re-consider the advice that they have so badly circulated.

The Grenfell Action Group predict that it won’t be long before the words of this blog come back to haunt the KCTMO management and we will do everything in our power to ensure that those in authority know how long and how appallingly our landlord has ignored their responsibility to ensure the heath and safety of their tenants and leaseholders. They can’t say that they haven’t been warned!

 

[scotseeker]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

This is so sad, especially since it could have been avoided as the residents warned the building owner of the severe risk of fire. Blessings to all who lost their lives and those that were injured. :(

 

[SocietyoftheSpectacle]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

The BEAUTY of LIVE TV,
Captured for Posterity,
Listen to the Kid here,

https://youtu.be/Sg40RbVctb0

 

[Glenn]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

The BEAUTY of LIVE TV,
Captured for Posterity,
Listen to the Kid here,

https://youtu.be/Sg40RbVctb0

Peaky's appearance here is quite interesting. Maybe he was able to skirt the system, and get on TV and get some truths out there. But knowing how controlled the system is, I doubt that that is the case. More than likely he was put there on purpose, to sow some seeds of controversy. Kind of getting the first crack at it, if you will. Be the first to get it out there. It seems that controlling the counter narrative is just as important as controlling the narrative.

Who knows how this will turn out. But those are my first impressions, anyway.

 

[SocietyoftheSpectacle]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

Interesting to Note that Labour Won Kensington with Only 30 Votes !!

And this pekay Kid is not the PEEKAY of youtube fame,

Remeber too , this was LIVE TV; and probably not on the BBC site anymore,

 

[Ambrose]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

The BEAUTY of LIVE TV,
Captured for Posterity,
Listen to the Kid here,

https://youtu.be/Sg40RbVctb0

Peaky's appearance here is quite interesting. Maybe he was able to skirt the system, and get on TV and get some truths out there. But knowing how controlled the system is, I doubt that that is the case. More than likely he was put there on purpose, to sow some seeds of controversy. Kind of getting the first crack at it, if you will. Be the first to get it out there. It seems that controlling the counter narrative is just as important as controlling the narrative.

Who knows how this will turn out. But those are my first impressions, anyway.

I know at least a couple of kids that Peaky reminded me lots of, and no, neither of them feels even 1% like a controlled opposition guy. I've heard them described in NZ as rasta munters. Honest to the bone, much more so than an ordinary person. However, he didn't need to use that expletive at the end.

Nevertheless, it's good to put that perspective on the story out there, be it true or not. Gentrification of attractive locales can take many forms, and sometimes it can even be expedited by landlords using machiavellian means - this wouldn't have been the first time such a thing happened.

And real people died in this instance, so maybe his cussing would be seen as tolerable.

 

[SocietyoftheSpectacle]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

This is so sad, especially since it could have been avoided as the residents warned the building owner of the severe risk of fire. Blessings to all who lost their lives and those that were injured. :(

Sadly , neither the Council or the Company that runs the Building were willing to listen.

https://youtu.be/V5pPH5YWwIA

 

[Ca.]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

Glenn Greenwald Twitter
_https://twitter.com/ggreenwald
Theresa May avoids survivors of Grenfell Tower fire during visit to scene of disaster https://interc.pt/2sudkT7 by @RobertMackey

_https://twitter.com/theintercept/status/875426533111996416

A. Hannan Ismail‏ @A_Hannan_Ismail 9h

Glenn Greenwald Retweeted
Britain Elects‏ @britainelects 18h18 hours ago

Public opinion towards...

May:
Favourable: 29% (-13)
Unfavourable: 63% (+16)

Corbyn:
Fav: 46% (+10)
Unfav: 46% (-4)

(via @YouGov, 11-12)
213 replies 4,822 retweets 7,857 likes

 

[SocietyoftheSpectacle]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

OK this guy often goes way too far down the rabbit Hole but he did discover that Pekay went to Charterhouse School
( very rich and he is an ACTOR )
https://youtu.be/Y4wTUzdvs9M?t=6m44s

One thing to look out for are Calls for a Public Enquiry
BEWARE;
that will only be an attempt to white wash the event .
what is needed is an Inquest.

https://youtu.be/CZjL67VO8zs

 

[Ant22]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

(...)

A. Hannan Ismail‏ @A_Hannan_Ismail 9h

I must say I really struggle to understand private landlords who try to save money on maintenance. The cost of poor quality in most cases exceeds the amount of money saved - as clearly shown in this example. The damage to their reputation and financial loss caused by this tragedy are far greater than the money they saved. I'd factor in the tragic loss of human lives but if that factor entered their calculations we wouldn't have this thread here in the first place.

It makes me wonder what kind of properties the MPs who voted against the 'fit for human habitation' bill own themselves if ensuring minimum standards is not something they'd benefit from.

This case is a symptom of a bigger issue with landlords squeezing the property market whilst being quite liberal when it comes to their responsibilities. Here's some data from the Citizens advice Bureau website:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/media/press-releases/rogue-landlords-forcing-tenants-into-nightmare/

Despite private rented accommodation costing the most, the sector is most likely to have category 1 hazards - 17 per compared to 12 per cent of owner-occupied homes and 6 per cent of social rented homes.

The report, produced with New Policy Institute, shows:

There are more than 100,000 households who pay more than £900 per month to live in an unsafe private home.

The average monthly rent for an unsafe home in the private sector is £650, not much lower than the average overall cost of £720 for a home that meets minimum standards.

Just 210,000 of the households in unsafe privately rented homes have no one in work or are of pension age.

Private renters in England spend £4.2 billion a year to live in unsafe homes that fail to meet legal standards.

Half a million children live in unsafe privately rented homes.

 

[RedFox]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

Some footage from the protests that have been going on:

https://youtu.be/uTh2In3_0Kg

https://youtu.be/8L-8omfEU-Q

There is a huge amount of anger boiling under the surface of this one, and I can't help wondering if it's a bit of a lightning rod event.
One of the main points of friction seems to be the death count (which understandably will be low until a body count is done), and it seems to be making a lot of people question MSM.

https://youtu.be/9ag1v5kL_6U

As such it seems the main focus of the anger has bee the local council (hence the storming of it's offices), the media and the Conservative government.

https://www.rt.com/uk/392629-ruptly-producer-attacked-kensington-grenfell/ (not quoting the full article)

“Some protesters got a bit heated and people were starting pushing around at the entrance of the town hall,” he told RT, adding that he saw “an AFP staff photographer getting attacked and pushed to a wall by the crowd” and attempted to get closer to the assaulted man when he was “suddenly attacked from behind.”

“Somebody tried to grab my camera from my hands and pull me down to the bottom. People started actually kicking on me and started kicking on my head and on my camera,” the producer said.

The producer managed to record the moment of the attack. In a video, one can see as someone kicks the producer’s camera as well as angry protesters rushing towards him.

However, other protesters quickly came to the journalist’s rescue and tried to “build a circle” around him as well as to “push [the attackers] back until one police officer moved in and took me to a safe spot inside the council” building.

“If it was not for the protesters, who tried to build a circle around me and the police officer, I might have suffered heavier injuries,” the producer admitted, adding that he escaped the beating lightly and even the camera seemed to be still working.

There have also been other reports about journalists being targeted by the angry crowd.

Theresa May leaving St Clements Church, being called a coward by angry crowds. This was meant to be her visiting the public (she's failed to Actually meet the public without it being stage managed/controlled) - which is feeding the anger towards her.

Strong Language Warning.

https://youtu.be/gycv_eHKrqo

Lastly a very articulate unedited interview with Sky News, which sums everything up. The anger at feeling ignored, lied too and marginalized for so long.
Extremely Strong Language - (mostly at the end used to describe the media).

https://youtu.be/qcJPlkqOYX0

 

[Gwenllian]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

Thank you so much for these videos, RedFox. I had the same impression. It could be a bit of a lightning rod event, we will have to wait and see how it turns out. What Ishmael said in the last video was excellent and really sums it up.

About 25 years ago there was a massive fire in an apartment building after an Israeli plane hit it in Amsterdam South-East, which is called the Bijlmer and which also housed the disenfranchised and downtrodden. According to the authorities only about 45 people died, which is impossible, since it was a pretty big block of flats. Also, it was a Sunday Night, so lots of people must have been at home when tragedy struck. It is outrageous how they are downplaying the number of fatalities, airbrushing the crimes and complicity of these greedy psychopaths.

I read some heartbreaking accounts on the site of the Daily Mail, mothers throwing their children out of the windows, yelling for help and asking bystanders to catch them.

 

[angelburst29]

Re: Huge west London tower block inferno – reports RT

According to the Metropolitan Police commander, at least 58 people are still missing after the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London.

At Least 58 People Missing, 'Presumably Dead' After London Grenfell Tower Fire
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201706171054729149-london-fire-grenfell-tower/


Grenfell Tower blaze in pictures: Grief and anger following massive fire at west London block of flats (72 photos)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/14/grenfell-tower-blaze-pictures-firefighters-tackle-massive-fire/


'Only a catastrophic event will expose the neglect': Action group called for Grenfell Tower to be pulled down FOUR YEARS ago but say their warnings about appalling safety 'fell on deaf ears' (Video - Photos)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4602442/Action-group-raised-concerns-fire-four-years-ago.html


Eight failures that left people of Grenfell Tower at mercy of the inferno (Video)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/15/eight-failures-left-people-grenfell-tower-mercy-inferno/

Reports suggested fire alarms didn’t work and sprinklers failed

London Fire: Grenfell Tower’s Controversial History Emerges After Devastating Fire
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/london-fire-grenfell-towers-controversial-history_uk_5940f98ee4b003d5948c1137

And the 400-500 residents, spread over the 20 residential levels, had been advised to “stay put” inside their flats - possibly because there was only one exit.

“The entire building doesn’t have an alarm and the fire brigade were telling people not to come out. I saw people jumping from the top floors without anything because the only way out was down the stairs, which has a gas pipe next to it.”

The company responsible for the safety and maintenance of the block of flats which turned into a raging inferno and killed at least 12 people was paid £11million last year from taxpayer's money.

Four managers at company paid £11million to manage inferno tower block shared more than £650,000 pay last year
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4603626/Taxpayers-11MILLION-company-managing-Grenfell-Tower.html

Grenfell Tower is owned by the borough council in Kensington and Chelsea, but the management of the building is the responsibility of an independent company - Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO).

Robert Black is the company's Chief Executive Officer and he took office in 2009 having previously worked as Executive Director of Service at Circle Anglia for five years where he was responsible for services for 45,000 homes across seven companies including asset management.

He is a father of two who lives in a £1million house in South East London with his wife of almost 20 years.

Barbara Matthews is the Executive Director of Financial Services and ICT, Yvonne Birch is the Executive Director of People and Performance and Sacha Jevans is the Executive Director of Operations.

They are the four most senior members of KCTMO and according to papers seen by MailOnline, they earned £650,000 between them last year.


'We don't know whether to stay or get the hell out': Terrified residents of buildings with the SAME cladding as Grenfell Tower fear for their safety as fire expert calls for 'deadly' tinder box sheets on high rises to be ripped off immediately. (Photos)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4606068/Cladding-company-covered-six-blocks-London.html

Doomed Grenfell Tower was equipped with cladding by East Sussex-based company Harley Facades in 2016
Same company did the same work at dozens of other buildings including scores of blocks housing thousands
It has since come to light that the firm used a similar aluminium composite material to clad several high rises
Four 23-storey tower blocks in Camden and a 23-storey block with 115 flats in Newham refurbished by the firm
Material set to be at centre of investigation into the blaze after witnesses claimed it 'went up like a matchstick'
Labour MP David Lammy branded Grenfell blaze 'corporate manslaughter' and demanded arrests are made


Revealed: Original Grenfell Tower contractor was DROPPED to save council £1.6 million off the cost of refurbishment project
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4610158/Grenfell-Tower-contractor-DROPPED-save-council-1-6m.html

Leadbitter told local council the required works would cost £11.27 million
Kensington and Chelsea bosses said it was £1.6m more than they would spend
Rydon would later win the work for £8.7million - saving the council £2.5million
Public inquiry will consider if the cheaper deal led to any impact on safety
Rydon and Harley Facades Ltd say the work 'met all building regulations'

Properties deliberately kept empty by millionaires within a stone’s throw of the Grenfell Tower disaster should be used to accommodate survivors who lost their homes, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says.

Jeremy Corbyn: Give empty luxury properties to the Grenfell fire homeless
https://www.rt.com/uk/392548-corbyn-grenfell-luxury-homes/

After touring the scene of the fire and speaking to residents on Thursday, Corbyn told journalists: “Kensington is a tale of two cities – it is among the wealthiest parts of this country, but the ward where this took place is one of the poorest.

Residents must also be rehoused, using requisition of empty properties if necessary, in the community they love.”

One lesson from the Grenfell Tower tragedy is that HSE approvals and Business Awards mean nothing. Another is that politicised mouthing off on Twitter is a hostage to fortune.

Grenfell Tower managers had another fire in April, & won a Murdoch business award in January
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2017/06/15/grenfell-tower-managers-had-another-fire-in-april-won-a-murdoch-business-award-in-january/

Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation Limited (KCTMO) is responsible for the management of nearly 10,000 properties on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and as such is in the Top Ten UK property management firms.

In 2017, KCTMO got voted into The Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies to work For list. Newscorp has the sort of form in this Awards scheme* that has raised the odd eyebrow over the years, especially in these columns. And this “milestone” Award contrasts somewhat sharply with the description in yesterday’s London Economic of KCTMO as “an evil, unprincipled mini-mafia”.

Equally odd is the management company’s Home page, which features this shot of the Sunday Times win: (Photo)

I’ve ringed the “error” there, because it does suggest – the clue’s in the wording – that KCTMO won as a not-for-profit company, whereas that is not what the Articles of Association say. The arts say it’s a Limited company there to make money – but limiting the money liability thing to £1 per shareholder.

When I put this to the company’s press office today, they put the phone down on me. There wasn’t any drama or haranguing or me doing a Nick Ferrari, there was just the beep-beep-beep of a replaced receiver.

This was a shame, as I also wanted to ask whether they’d been rattled by the fire just two months ago at another of their high rise properties, Trellick Tower:

In the tradition of unbiased, ideology-free reporting at The Slog, I should make it clear that the London Economic is never going to win an award for, um, unbiased, ideology-free reporting, as it is very much to the Left of Left.

Their follow-up story, for example, says ‘Council penny pinching and accepting the lowest bid was to blame for a huge blaze in a tower block which killed at least 12 people, a former worker claimed’. The lady involved is not named, so they may have invented her. That said, I did tweet this last night:

Equally, the action group that provided London Economic with its gripping headline is not, one suspects, staffed by Young Conservatives….not that this should detract from what they appear to be doing, viz, trying to hold gargoyles to account.

Referring back to the * above, a former winner of the Diggersunday Times Wonderful to Work For gong bollocks is our old chum Jeremy Shunt, for his company Hotcourses. You may also recall that Hunt was central to ensuring Newscorp backing for the Camerlot régime that brought such unalloyed joy to Merrie Olde England. Former Hotcourses employees tend to point out that the “employee satisfaction” questionnaires were in fact forgeries. You must make your own minds up.

I am making a valid point here, which is that these days, no media award or Health & Safety clean bill of health is worth anything. I have been able to establish beyond reasonable doubt this morning that Grenfell Tower’s refurbishment fulfilled every last HSE criterion. Further, Slog threaders and other sources confirm that the cladding used is indeed a fire accelerant….but remains on the HSE safe list, and has been installed elsewhere.

Again, whether this means that HSE doesn’t know which way is up or developers have found ways to hoodwink them remains to be seen. My hunch is that both are probably true, but either way it is another cause for concern: tick-boxing is a national sport in Britain, but it’s never going to make it into the Oympics.

Finally, it is inaccurate to suggest that the cladding was only applied to make Grenfell more attractive to look at “for the rich” in Kensington & Chelsea. Its primary purpose was “to greatly improve insulation efficiency for the Tower’s residents”.

The usual promises of “full” enquiries and “rigorous” investigations have emanated from Downing Street today. I’m not holding my breath on the Justice aspect of all that guff. But I will be following up any lead, from whatever angle, that offers the prospect of light piercing the fog on crony protectionism and knee-jerk agitprop allegation.