Tower Tragedy
 

Have just heard the terrible news of the tragedy at Grenfell Towers.
How the hell could a fire take hold and spread so rapidly in a concrete building !? ... surely some soul-searching questions will have to be asked re this, and heads should roll.

I think you are right and heads will, indeed, roll, truly appalling, how can any amount of money be put against peoples safety, in this country, in the 21st Century.
Sickening.

It looks like the sort of thing that would happen in a third world country, not Britain.
David

The phrase, corporate manslaughter, is being branded around the press today.

Truly horrific. Doesn't the fire service have fire engine ladders anymore? None of the images I've come across show any. Surely this isn't even the highest building in the wider area?

Rgds, Thomas.

I remember a fire fighter friend (LFB) a few years back moaning about the ladders they now had were 2 level rather than 3 to account for the weight.... but even so I don't think the ladders would have made much difference to a 20+ storey tower block. Personally I think the lack of external fire escapes is rather poor.

That doesn't bid well for other high rise dwellers. What about those inflatable jumping cushions? Or have high rises been planned without consulting the fire services?

Rgds, Thomas.

High rise buildings are well above the reach of ladders. The higher the ladders the greater the risk to the firefighters from flames, smoke and falling debris and wind changes.
The only way to tackle such a fire is from inside the building.
What really surprises me with this particular fire was the absence of a sprinkler system, I would have thought this would have been a requirement in a block built since the 1960s.
There is only one set of stairs in these blocks. With the lifts out of action during a fire, is this sufficient as an escape route for residents and an entrance for emergency services with their equipment?
A lot of lessons need to be learnt from this fire if it is not to be repeated elsewhere.
Eddie

Absolute tragic disaster, it must be hell on earth not to know if friends and relatives have survived or not and I cannot imagine how it must feel to lose everything except the ( night ) clothes you are standing up in.

One of the last jobs I did before I retired completely was a mortgage valuation of a flat in the Beetham Tower in Manchester, it was high up but nowhere near the top, a couple of pictures I took of the views are attached.

I was happy to get back down to ground level after a short time but people who live in Tower blocks similar to The Grenfell Tower must now be feeling uncomfortable in their own homes knowing what might the result might be if the worse happens.

P.B.

They seem to be saying that if an extra £5,000 had been spent on the £8.6m refurbishment this tragedy would never have happened:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a7792781.html

Not strictly to do with the fate of the Grenfell Tower but along similar lines and a bit of deja vu involved. Only the night before I was watching a Russian film (English language) on YouTube entitled "The Fool" and the plot centred around a conscientious building maintenance chief who was also studying building engineering, and a 27-Floor high rise dilapidated residential tower. While investigating a burst water pipe the protagonist discovered a massive crack going up from from ground level to the roof, and the whole block tilting.
To cut a long story short, the plot concerned the sleaze, graft, indifference, incompetence, et al that the authorities weltered in at the expense of the tenants whose lives were at stake. I am not inferring by any means that this is what happened in Kensington, I am just drawing an analogy with hundreds of souls asleep in a high-rise tower building unaware of the death-trap around them and a tragedy waiting to unfold. I recommend the film, it's an eye-opener.

GTB

The figure quoted was £200,000

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/grenfe...e-cost-200000/

So £5000 for superior materials and £200,000 for a sprinkler system, the latter, does seem very little, I dare say to actually fit it would cost a great deal more, but, what price the lives of all those living there?:mad:

I think that today, they are a great many who actually would, infer, exactly that.
We shall see, in due course.

According to what you have posted the £200,000 would have paid for a sprinkler system.

According to what I posted the £5,000 would have paid for a better quality cladding. A cladding that did not mellt in a fire and cause the building to burn like a Roman Candle.

I posted the Independent. The BBC, Telegraph, Mirror etc all agree with £5,000.

So does much of the foreign press:

http://gulfnews.com/news/europe/uk/a...ower-1.2045257