http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-fire-dramatic-images-show-devastating-impact-as-blaze-engulfs-27storey-grenfell-tower-in-a3564566.html Photo: Jeremy Selwyn
From Twitter: #GrenfellTower statement from London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton: http://bit.ly/2rpKoMH
#LondonFire #NorthKensington
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-fire-dramatic-images-show-devastating-impact-as-blaze-engulfs-27storey-grenfell-tower-in-a3564566.html (AFP/Getty Images)
The block is near Ladbrook Grove, Notting Hill. It cannot escape notice that this area of London appears to be regularly associated with terrorist incidents and their supporters as a brief search on Google will confirm. Of course there is no suggestion at this stage that this incident is terrorist related, although the severity of the blaze, and its visual similarity to the New York towers, cannot fail to raise questions in the mind. The timing also is suspiciously ominous, chiming as it does with the anniversary of the killing of Jo Cox MP and all the media interest in it, including national campaigns aimed at "Hope not Hate" and "Togetherness". As we all no fires and their aftermath leaves a distinctive and repellent stench and this one will be no different I fear.
I wrote the following just prior to discovering the fire tragedy: Jo Cox anniversary. "Hope not Hate" Campaign. "Togetherness" slogan. All a little too contrived and predictable perhaps? Or am I being too cynical? See: https://www.greatgettogether.org/ Now get together over this London fire tragedy. #GrenfellTower Victoria Derbyshire on scene providing emotional support which is reassuring.
ADDED: Just one example: http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/local-news/ladbroke-grove-student-arrested-plotting-7907490
Another: "Police called out to burning Union flag posters
Sick idiots have daubed a London bus shelter with a photo of a burning Union flag - just one day after the Westminster Bridge attack. The UK flag was pictured in flames in the sick stunt. It was plastered on the side of a bus shelter in Ladbroke Grove in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea." NB. These were 'professional' posters. See: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parliament-shooting-live-updates-after-10076508
ADDED: Just one example: http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/local-news/ladbroke-grove-student-arrested-plotting-7907490
Another: "Police called out to burning Union flag posters
Sick idiots have daubed a London bus shelter with a photo of a burning Union flag - just one day after the Westminster Bridge attack. The UK flag was pictured in flames in the sick stunt. It was plastered on the side of a bus shelter in Ladbroke Grove in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea." NB. These were 'professional' posters. See: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parliament-shooting-live-updates-after-10076508
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parliament-shooting-live-updates-after-10076508
The following is taken from: https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/another-fire-safety-scandal/
"When we published our two recent items on Fire Safety in the Grenfell Tower area we expected to see some serious repercussions. Our earlier complaints to Siobhan Rumble had, of course, been copied to senior figures at RBKC, including the Director of Housing and the Cabinet Member for Housing, so we fully expected to see evidence of some kind of seismic upheavel following our revelations. Nothing of the sort happened. There wasn’t so much as a peep out of Coleridge or his deputy Laura Johnson.
The following is taken from: https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/another-fire-safety-scandal/
"When we published our two recent items on Fire Safety in the Grenfell Tower area we expected to see some serious repercussions. Our earlier complaints to Siobhan Rumble had, of course, been copied to senior figures at RBKC, including the Director of Housing and the Cabinet Member for Housing, so we fully expected to see evidence of some kind of seismic upheavel following our revelations. Nothing of the sort happened. There wasn’t so much as a peep out of Coleridge or his deputy Laura Johnson.
"We did get a reaction from Rumble herself. Following her earlier failure to provide us with contact details for Steve Cunningham, the Station Manager at North Kensington Fire Station, she did so immediately, once she had been publicly embarrassed by our first blog.
"Unfortunately, and for reasons that we don’t fully understand, we got a very poor response from Mr Cunningham, who seemed inclined to cut Ms Rumble and her cronies rather a lot of slack. He even suggested that we call the police next time we saw vehicles parked illegally in the Grenfell Tower area. Perhaps someone forgot to tell him that the enforcement authority for fire safety issues is not the Metropolitan Police, but the London Fire Brigade, which has the power to issue an enforcement notice requiring the Lancaster West authorities to comply with their own fire safety rules.
"Imagine our consternation, therefore, when we then saw the recent report in the K&C Chronicle of a special fire safety exercise organised by the London Fire Brigade, not at Grenfell Tower, which we had been desperately trying to flag up to anyone who cared, but at Trellick Tower, a mile up the road from us.
Ironic don’t you think?" QUOTE ENDS.
IT GOES ON TO ADD:
"At that time we copied the Grenfell Tower Fire Risk Assessment to Councillor Blakeman (and various others including the LFB) and she replied on 18th February informing us that she had asked for;
IT GOES ON TO ADD:
"At that time we copied the Grenfell Tower Fire Risk Assessment to Councillor Blakeman (and various others including the LFB) and she replied on 18th February informing us that she had asked for;
“…a full and comprehensive report once the emergency fire test at Grenfell Tower has been conducted and also for this to be an item on the Lancaster West EMB meeting agenda… (and) also asked for the likely timeframe within which we can expect a response.”
As expected we got no reply from anyone else in authority, so we’ll just have to wait and see what develops out of this. Needless to say we won’t be holding our breaths while we wait.
In the light of this official report, which is strongly suggestive of years of ongoing neglect and criminal negligence of the fire safety systems at Grenfell Tower, we would suggest that the managing authorities need to tak a long hard look at themselves, and how they manage this estate. We would also strongly suggest that they seriously reconsider their earlier facile dismissal of the concerns we raised regarding their lax attitude to the emergency access arrangements also.
We note from the account of the Trellick Tower exercise that four fire appliances attended on that occasion. We would be very interested to see whether LFB can fit four appliances into the Grenfell Tower emergency access zone, particularly if it is obstructed with multiple parked service vehicles, as it so often is during working hours.
Given that Lancaster West management and LFB have both dismissed our concerns about such obstructions, we would even dare to suggest that arrangements are made to ensure that a minumum of six service vehicles are deliberately parked in this area, for the duration of the Grenfell Tower exercise, including three in the gallows-gated area, to test access and manoeuverability of fire appliances under emergency circumstances.
ONE THING IS CERTAIN – THEY CAN’T SAY THEY HAVEN’T BEEN WARNED." END QUOTE.
Just one example: http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/local-news/ladbroke-grove-student-arrested-plotting-7907490
ReplyDeleteAnother: "Police called out to burning Union flag posters
Sick idiots have daubed a London bus shelter with a photo of a burning Union flag - just one day after the Westminster Bridge attack. The UK flag was pictured in flames in the sick stunt. It was plastered on the side of a bus shelter in Ladbroke Grove in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea." NB. These were 'professional' posters. See: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parliament-shooting-live-updates-after-10076508
The Towering Inferno was released in theatres on December 14, 1974. The film was released on DVD on April 15, 2003, initially and later on May 9, 2006, as a special edition by 20th Century Fox.
ReplyDeleteA near-complete release came on the Film Score Monthly label (FSM) on April 1, 2001 and was produced by Lukas Kendall and Nick Redman. FSM's was an almost completely expanded version remixed from album masters at Warner Bros. archives and the multi-track 35mm magnetic film stems at 20th Century Fox. Placed into chronological order and restoring action cues, it became one of the company's biggest sellers; only 4000 copies were pressed and it is now out of print.
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Towering_Inferno#Release
"Explosions" reported here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiMHWwTkudg "Gas?"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buV929MqlWc
ReplyDeleteThis interviewee thinks "It wasn't an accident." He claims the intention is a redevelopment and 'social cleansing' one. To support it he claims only this block was refurbished with the plastic cladding that was clearly flammable about a year before.
I do find the circulated explanation that it was a "washing machine that exploded" hard to believe. Even if an appliance caught fire within the kitchen of the flat it would have to break out through the window to ignite the cladding and thence up the outside of the building.
It is clear fire rages INSIDE most of the flats, so from the outside back in again with enormous speed apparently. Even on an old block such as this there should have been adequate fire separation between floors and compartments within them, so this is a very basic failure that will have to be investigated.
In any event appliances tend not to "explode" although they can and do catch fire from overheating in driers for example. But in my experience of several these tend to be extinguised fairly quickly with only local damage restricted to the flat in question. How if this was the initial cause did the fire get out of control so quickly?
Other issues raised related to fire alarms and lighting. Some report there was no fire alarm sounding. Others that there were only small domestic alarms operating within individual flats. This clearly needs looking into. Alarms within flats may be useful to warn the respective family but are of little use to warn the rest of the block. To be effective there should be both and they should be linked.
Similarly people report there was no lighting in the access stairways and they fumbled in the dark. This should never happen as emergency lighting should immediately come on in case of power failure. It also tends to confirm the the reservations and complaints of residents association that these systems were not maintained - a common enough feature of housing providers.
Another aspect is the provision of portable fire extinguishers and mains hydrants within the block which if swiftly and corectly used can stop a fire in its early stages and provide firemen with the means to fight the fire floor by floor from inside. Were they available? Were they used?
Finally the signage is standard for this sort of building but has caused controversy in the past. What is clear is that many more would have died if the instructions had been followed. I am pleased to say that my advice on these issues in the past has been vindicated, even if not necessarily followed.
On FB: Ian - I wonder who paid for and put up those very professional 'burning union (jack) flags' in the immediate vicinity? Someone/thing obviously went to some considerable lengths to do so and why just in that area? The Mirror described it as "daubed" but this was a quite inappropriate verb as they were professional poster INSIDE an advertising frame attached to a bus shelter. Immediately behind it is a concrete building that I take to be a multi-storey car-park, but visually it could equally be a burnt out shell. Then did you spot it was eleven (11!) years since that limited edition of the 'Towering Inferno' was released on the 9th of May, 2006, providing (yet again) a 9/11 numerical (not to mention the 36 days between the two dates) Finally I happened to notice that the stated time the fire started was 00.54 BST or otherwise 12.54, which happens to make 66. All of these little features are probably coincidental of course but we should be alert to them I think, given the recent run of very suspicious events leading up to the election and now this on the well publicised death of Jo Cox and its impact on the Brexit negotiations. What is beyond doubt is that the event is emotionally and visually reminiscent of the 9/11 disaster in a number of respects as reported by the firemen themselves; they both follow extensive interior and exterior renovation work; safety failures have been reported on numerous occasions; and fire experts are baffled that the fire could have spread as it did and described it as "unprecidented". It also just happened to house what appear to be a large proportion of foreign born individuals, many of whom seem to be of muslim faith. Now if all this combined doesn't make us question how such a thing could happen, including the possibility - until proven otherwise - of evil intent, I am doubtful what would!
ReplyDeleteThe Royal FamilyVerified account @RoyalFamily 24m24 minutes ago
ReplyDeleteMore
On June 13th 1917, Upper North Street School was hit by the 1st daylight air-raid during the First World War. 18 children were killed.
Tim Veater Ian Davis Of course as always WE are not in the know. I had quite a lot to do with buildings and Housing law enforcement in my time so I am fairly aware of the realities. All the stuff that has gone off in recent years has taught me to be very wary of these high profile iconic events in contrast to all the "run of the mill" accidents and deaths from one cause or another. The central questions in this apalling fire are how did it start; how did it catch light to external cladding and why did the material not meet fire retardant standards; how the external blaze in turn set light to a large number of flats; whether all the fire precautions were in place, adequate and working; and whether the standing advice, common to all such buildings, is appropriate in all the circumstances. Underlying everything is the question, was this 'purely' accidental, or did it involve some element of intentional planning? If it was a 9/11 look-a-like for evil deceit, then presumably it started way back with the agreed specification at the time of refurbishment. I notice the Royal Family Twitter a/c has just tweeted a memorial service for the 18 deaths and many injuries connected to the first daylight air raid on the 13th June, 1917. It has delayed BREXIT, Queen's Speech and probably Trumps visit. All these factors (and all the earlier ones referred to, particuly the Jo Cox business which shouts manipulation for political purposes) indicate as never before big issues are at stake, for which mass terror are weapons. We also know that national secret agencies that have BILLIONS of virtually unaccountable currency, will as Ronald Bernard, an illuminanti 'insider' put it "Literally stop at nothing. NOTHING!" if so inclined. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRuKmxQSPSw It is the awful reality that government will not admit and the public is largely ignorant of.
ReplyDeleteA further interesting aspect to this Millbank Tower business in which this 'Crisis Solutions' operation took place and from which the very suspect "Hyandai crossing bridge and woman falling in the Thames" video was taken is that (and I don't believe this has been referred to by anyone to date) it is owned by two Jewish billionaires, David Reuben, Simon Reuben, who made their money from Russian metals and later transferred to London property when Putin came to power. So in respect of crucial initial filming of these 'terrorist' events immediately made available on the internet, in stark contrast to the absence of all other CCTV footage, we have yet again a distinct Jewish connection and footprint. Another interesting and unremarked fact is of course that Millbank Tower is bang next to the headquarters of Britain's internal security service - MI5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millbank_Tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Simon_Reuben https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_House
ReplyDeleteI certainly question the ferocity of fire INSIDE the flats which appears to be still happening! There seems to be additional accelerant somehow. And it happens on the "Global Action Clean Air Day"!!!!
ReplyDeleteNearly 50 years since Ronan Point collapse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronan_Point It changed construction methods. Amazing that lessons have not been learned regarding fire retardant materials and fire precautions.
ReplyDeleteThe technical aspects of the cladding discussed here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icIfkoIzcJQ
It's no secret I'm a John Locke aficionado. (Not that anyone would take notice of that!) He certainly had a way with words and with them, he made his name and had a profound effect on thinking and government. He had some notable friends and acquaintances, one of whom was William Molyneux, who lived in Ireland. After many years of long distance correspondence, they were finally able to meet in 1698 when Locke was 66 and Molyneux was 42. After five weeks together, on his return, the Irishman described it as the, "Happiest scene of my whole life." Sadly, despite Locke's expectation of meeting again, within a month, Molyneux was dead. Locke was genuinely stricken. In a letter to his late friend's brother he wrote: "Death with a violent hand... snatched from you a dear brother ... I bear too great a share in the loss, and am too sensibly touched with it myself ... to do anything but mingle my tears with yours. I have lost in your brother, not only an ingenious and learned aquaintance that all the world esteemed, but an intimate and sincere friend, whom I truly loved. And what a loss that is, those only can be sensible who know how valuable and how scarce a true friend is and how preferred to all other sort of treasure." The quote seems particularly appropriate at this time of repeated tragedy and separation it creates.
ReplyDeleteInsurance parallels? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2muOH2CHXbM
ReplyDelete