The picture was taken about an hour into the fire which completely destroyed a 24 storey block of council flats in Ladbroke Grove.
The Grenfell Tower Action Group blog has been warning of the acute fire risk at these flats for the last four years - last November they blogged that it would take a catastrophe for
any action to be taken.
It wasn't.
The problem here is that this is a very poor area which is administered by a Tory council representing some of the wealthiest people in the country. Naturally, administration of the block has been farmed out to a privatised management group.
The recent refurbishment of the block cost £8 million pounds of public money but did not involve any improvements to fire safety. Instead, cladding was put around the block; a purely cosmetic measure.
Worse, the fire appears to have spread through the cladding, which is why it took hold so quickly. It looks as though the cladding included flammable materials.
It's not unusual in cases like this that, after several years of enquiry, some public body (the taxpayers) gets fined.
In this case, at least 12 people and probably many, many more, have died.
At the very least people need to go to prison for this.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
That's just horrible!
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