Background
Grenfell Tower
The 24-storey brutalist Grenfell Tower was designed in 1967, with Kensington & Chelsea Council approving its construction in 1970 as part of phase one of the Lancaster West redevelopment project.[7][8][note 1] Contractors AE Symes, of Leyton, London commenced construction in 1972 with the building completed in 1974.[9] It was built under the council housing system.[10] It contained 120 one- and two-bedroom flats [3] (six apartments per floor on twenty of the twenty-four stories, with the other four being used for non-residential purposes) and was renovated in 2015–16.[1][11] The tower is managed by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), the largest tenant management organisation (TMO) in England, on behalf of Kensington & Chelsea Council. The TMO has a board comprising eight residents, four Council-appointed members, and three independent members.[12] The building was an isolated public housing accommodation in a locality of otherwise expensive houses.[13]
Plans for a “regeneration project” for the tower were publicised in 2012.[14] The £10 million refurbishment, undertaken by Rydon Ltd, was completed in 2016.[15] As part of the project, in 2015–2016, the concrete structure received new windows and new aluminium composite cladding (Arconic Reynobond and Reynolux material) with thermal insulation.[16][17] The work was carried out by Harley Facades of Crowborough, East Sussex, at a cost of £2.6 million.[18]
In the hours following the fire, one of the companies involved in the refurbishment, ventilation company WITT UK, removed all references to the refurbishment from its website.[19] They had been involved with the smoke ventilation and extraction system that was fitted to the building during the refit.[20]
Safety concerns
There were significant safety concerns prior to the fire, with criticism levelled against the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council for fire safety and building maintenance. A residents’ organisation, Grenfell Action Group, published a blog in which it highlighted major safety problems. In 2013, the group published a 2012 fire risk assessment done by a TMO Health and Safety Officer that revealed significant safety violations. Firefighting equipment at the tower had not been checked for up to four years; On site fire extinguishers were expired, and some had “condemned” written on them in large black letters because they were so old. The Grenfell Action Group documented its attempts to contact KCTMO management; they also alerted the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) Cabinet Member for Housing and Property but said they never received a reply from him or his deputy.[6][21]
In a July 2014 Grenfell Tower regeneration newsletter, the KCTMO instructed residents to stay in the flat in case of a fire stating “Our longstanding ‘stay put’ policy stays in force until you are told otherwise” and also that the front doors for each unit could survive a fire for up to 30 minutes.[22]
The May 2016 newsletter had a similar message, adding that it was on the advice of the Fire Brigade:[23]
The smoke detection systems have been upgraded and extended. The Fire Brigade has asked us to reinforce the message that, if there is a fire which is not inside your own home, you are generally safest to stay put in your home to begin with; the Fire Brigade will arrive very quickly if a fire is reported.
In November 2016, a residents’ organisation, Grenfell Action Group, published online an article attacking KCTMO as an “evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia” and accusing the Borough Council of ignoring health and safety laws. The Group suggested that “only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of [KCTMO]”. The group had also published articles criticising fire safety and maintenance practices at Grenfell Tower.[24][25][26]
In January 2016, the Grenfell Action Group warned that people might be trapped in the building if a fire broke out, pointing out that the building had only one entrance and exit, and corridors that were allowed to be filled with rubbish, such as old mattresses. The Group frequently cited other fires in tower blocks when it warned of the hazards at Grenfell.[27]
Fire
Fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats on the Lancaster West Estate in North Kensington, west London early in the morning of 14 June 2017; the London Fire Brigade were first called to the fire at 00:54 BST (UTC+1).[27][2] The fire reportedly began on the second floor but spread at a “terrifying rate” upward and to the other side of the building.[28][29] A team of 250 firefighters from forty fire engines attempted to control the blaze and rescue people, the first responders arriving six minutes after the alarm, but the fire’s extreme temperature hindered rescue attempts. At 04:14, officials from the Metropolitan Police addressed the large crowd of onlookers and urgently instructed them to contact anyone they knew who was trapped in the building—if they are able to reach them via phone or social media—to tell them they must try to self-evacuate and not wait for the fire brigade.[30] Firefighters entered the building to try to rescue people but reported they were hindered by the extreme heat.[15][2]
According to witnesses, there were people trapped inside, waving from windows for help, some holding children. There were two witness accounts of parents dropping their children down to people below, including a baby who was caught after being thrown from the ninth or tenth floor, and a small boy thrown from the fifth or sixth floor.[31] There were also eyewitness reports that some people were jumping out.[1] At least one person used knotted blankets to make a rope and escape from the burning building.[32] Frequent explosions that were reported to be from gas lines in the building were heard.[2]
After three hours, the original crew of firefighters were replaced by a new crew. By sunrise, the firefighters were still battling the fire and trying to spray areas where people were seen trapped. The watching crowd were pushed back from the building because of falling debris. At 05:00, the building was still burning and severely damaged.[30][1]
The fire continued to burn on the tower’s upper floors into the afternoon of 14 June. Firefighters were expecting to continue tackling the blaze for at least a further 24 hours.[33] Although fears were expressed that the building could collapse, structural engineers determined that it was not in danger and that rescue teams could enter it to search for survivors and casualties.[2]
Casualties
By 05:00 BST, police reported that several people were being treated for smoke inhalation.[1] The London Ambulance Service sent twenty ambulance crews to respond to the incident,[34] and one hundred police officers were on site. At 06:30, it was reported that fifty people had been taken to five hospitals: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, King’s College Hospital, Royal Free, St Thomas’s, and St Mary’s Hospital.[15]
Around 09:30, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton reported that there were fatalities resulting from the fire, but she could not specify how many had been killed because of the “size and complexity” of the building.[1][4] Cotton said, “This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale.”[2] Residents who escaped claimed hearing other people trapped and screaming for help.[35]
Councillor Nick Paget-Brown, the leader of the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council, said he was attempting to find out how many people were in the building at the time of the fire. He said, “Several hundred [people] would have been in there. It’s a question of establishing how many were in there at the time of the fire… This is a very, very, very severe fire.”[1]
At noon, the Metropolitan Police announced there were six people confirmed dead, and more than seventy in hospital, with twenty in critical condition.[1][15] A large number of people were reported missing. At 17:04, the number of dead was increased to twelve.[1]
Cause
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.[29] Several media outlets reported that it may have been caused by a faulty appliance. A fourth-floor resident told the media that it was his neighbour’s refrigerator that caught fire around 1:00 am, and that they immediately began knocking on doors to alert people.[36] He said that within half an hour the building was entirely engulfed in flames.[15]
While there was much criticism of the lack of sprinkler systems, Geoff Wilkinson, the building regulations columnist for the Architects’ Journal, wrote in a comment on 14 June, before the cause was known (“we should avoid speculating”), that if a leaking gas riser or the cladding were at fault, sprinklers would have had little effect. He said he had seen extracts of a fire risk assessment and talk of combustible material stored in the common walkways, suggesting poor overall management.[37]
Criticism
Some residents said no fire alarms went off when the fire started.[1][36] Residents said they were alerted to the fire only by people screaming for help or knocks on the door and not by a fire alarm.[36] Others reported that they survived by ignoring the council’s “stay put” policy, its directive instructing residents to remain in their flat in case of fire.[2]
The London-wide Radical Housing Network, a citizens’ action “group of groups… fighting for housing justice across London”[38] of which the Grenfell Action Group is a member, said that the fire was “a horrific, preventable tragedy” that was the result of a “combination of government cuts, local authority mismanagement, and sheer contempt for council tenants and the homes they live in”.[1]
Grenfell Action Group warnings
After the fire, the Grenfell Action Group complained that its years of complaints to warn the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), who own the building, and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation who “supposedly manage all social housing in RBKC on the Council’s behalf” had been ignored, posting a message on its website:
Regular readers of this blog will know that we have posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere in RBKC. ALL OUR WARNINGS FELL ON DEAF EARS and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time.[39][40]
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea threatened the Grenfell Action Group with legal action in 2013 in a bid to prevent the group criticising the council, claiming that such criticism amounted to “defamation and harassment”.[41]
Official policies and maintenance
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, told BBC Radio 4 that he wanted answers about the fire safety condition at Grenfell Tower, and criticised the official “stay put” policy. “Thankfully residents didn’t take that advice but fled,” he said. “These are some of the questions that have to be answered. We have lots of people in London living in tower blocks… We can’t have people’s lives being put at risk because of bad advice or lack of maintenance.”[5]
Fire safety review shelved
Former Housing Minister Gavin Barwell faced criticism after it was revealed by Joe Watts in The Independent that he had delayed a fire safety review, and that a report into fire safety in tower blocks had been shelved for four years; Barwell had been due to meet the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group to discuss the review in 2017, but the meeting was postponed after the snap general election was called,[42] and he was appointed Downing Street Chief of Staff shortly afterwards.[43] However, in his report Watts also noted that, “even before [Barwell] came to office a review into the fire safety regulations had been outstanding for years”.[42]
Cladding
Fire safety experts have speculated that the building’s new external cladding was a possible cause of the rapid spread of the fire.[44] Experts said the cladding essentially worked like a chimney in spreading the fire.[45] The cladding could be seen burning and melting, causing additional speculation that it was not made of fire resistant material.[15] One resident said, “The whole one side of the building was on fire. The cladding went up like a matchstick.”[46]
Records show that a contractor installed “over-cladding with ACM cassette rainscreen” during the recent refurbishment at Grenfell Tower. The ACM stands for aluminium composite material, the combustibility of which depends on the choice of insulation core material.[47] Several tower building fires have involved the same external cladding, including the 2009 Lakanal House fire in Camberwell, London, the 2009 Beijing Television Cultural Center fire and the 2015 fire at The Marina Torch, Dubai.[47] Sam Webb, the architect who investigated the Lakanal fire and who sits on the All Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group, said “This tragedy was entirely predictable, sadly.”[48]
Some residents had reported concern that the new cladding on the building was fixed onto it with wooden battens.[49] There is widespread concern amongst residents and fire safety experts about the increasing use of timber, even in high-rise buildings, following a change to building regulations.[50][51] It was reported that one reason for the new cladding was to improve the view for people living in the surrounding area.[52]
An application for demolition work at Grenfell Tower was deposited with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Building Control department on 22 May 2014; no decision date had been entered as of 14 June 2017.[53] By 4 September 2014 a building regulations notice for the recladding work was submitted to the authority, and marked with a status of “Completed – not approved”.[54] The use of a “Building Notice” building control application is used to remove the need to submit detailed plans and proposals to a building control inspector in advance, where the works performed will be approved by the inspector during the course of their construction. Building inspector Geoff Wilkinson remarked that this type of application is “wholly inapprpriate for large complex buildings and should only be used on small, simple domestic buildings”.[55]
Sprinklers
Harriet Harman told the BBC’s The World at One, “Councils want to fit sprinklers in their tower blocks, but it comes down to money. The government has been cutting the money to councils. If you cut money to councils, you can’t put in sprinklers”, whilst Judge Frances Kirkham, who dealt with the inquest into the Lakanal House fire deaths, maintained the government should “encourage providers of housing in high-rise residential buildings” to “consider the retrofitting of sprinkler systems”.[56]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire
È difficile immaginare la disordinata mescolanza che si fa beffe di ogni urbanistica razionale, l’ammassamento, per cui sono letteralmente addossate le une alle altre. E la colpa non è soltanto degli edifici sopravvissuti ai vecchi tempi di Manchester: in tempi più recenti la confusione è stata portata al massimo, poiché dovunque vi fosse un pezzetto di spazio tra le costruzioni dell’epoca precedente, si è continuato a costruire e a rappezzare, fino a togliere tra le case anche l’ultimo pollice di terra libera ancora suscettibile di essere utilizzata. […] In basso scorre, o meglio ristagna l’Irk, un fiume stretto, nerastro, puzzolente, pieno di immondizie e di rifiuti che riversa sulla riva destra, più piatta; con il tempo asciutto su questa riva resta una lunga fila di ripugnanti pozzanghere fangose, verdastre, dal cui fondo salgono continuamente alla superficie bolle di gas mefitici che diffondono un puzzo intollerabile anche per chi sta sul ponte, quaranta o cinquanta piedi sopra il livello dell’acqua. Per di più ad ogni passo il fiume si trova ostacolato da alti argini, dietro i quali si depositano e imputridiscono in grandi quantità il fango e i rifiuti. In capo al ponte, stanno grandi concerie, più sopra ancora tintorie, mulini per polverizzare ossa, e gasometri, i cui canali di scolo e rifiuti si riversano tutti nell’Irk, che raccoglie inoltre anche il contenuto delle attigue fognature e latrine. È facile immaginare, dunque, di quale natura siano i depositi che il fiume lascia dietro di sé. A piè del ponte si vedono le macerie, l’immondizia, il sudiciume e la rovina dei cortili che danno sulla ripida riva sinistra; una casa segue immediatamente l’altra, e, per l’inclinazione della riva se ne vede di ciascuna un pezzo: tutte nere di fumo, sgretolate, vecchie, con le intelaiature e i vetri delle finestre in pezzi. Lo sfondo è formato da vecchi stabilimenti industriali simili a caserme. Sulla riva destra, più pianeggiante, vi è una lunga serie di case e di fabbriche; già la seconda casa è diroccata, senza tetto, piena di macerie, e la terza è così bassa che il piano inferiore è inabitabile e quindi è sprovvisto di finestre e di porte.
Lo sfondo è costituito qui dal cimitero dei poveri, dalle stazioni delle ferrovie di Liverpool e di Leeds, e dietro ad esse è la casa di correzione, la «Bastiglia della legge sui poveri» di Manchester, che come una cittadella guarda minacciosa dall’alto di una collina, dietro alte mura e merli, verso il quartiere operaio che si trova di fronte.
Engels Friedrich – La situazione della classe operaia in Inghilterra