Horrific fire in council tower block, west London, UK

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We have some warehouses, which, to the best of my understanding, were never completely built. I was hopeful that jobs might come to the area, and, by a long shot, they might hire, locally, from the majority demographic.

It collected graffiti, became occupied, with squatters, who tapped the gas lines, on local, independent news.

For some reason, we are able to budget, for half an industrial park, and for free gas. Also, for airplanes, which dump fire retardant. They made several, low passes, over my house, yesterday.

There's not enough money to go around, for people who wash behind their ears, and know that the plaque of the shirt, lines up with the fly of the pants? By what standard were people able to buy and use the building?

Agreed, the savage government cuts have caused widespread misery and consequences which ripple into endless repercussions like a stone in water. This government have done terrible things which have most affected the poor, the disabled, the disadvantaged. The poor decisions historically thrown the way of this building and others like it are also part of that tapestry.

It was reportedly an Islamist tenement, in the OT.

That resulted from spending, if not overspending.

You're throwing out your own people, to make room for the new ones, or can't account for primal living needs.

To friedmacguffins -- There appear to be many Muslim tenants of this building, but also white Londoners -- it's a council building meaning social housing for people of low income, and unfortunately they come in all colours and creeds, including indigenous Londoners. I'm a white Londoner and I too live in social housing due to low income and extreme unaffordability of alternative housing/better housing.

it's also true that there is a severe overpopulation problem in London, which does partly drive the problem of the housing crisis - I actually agree about that. But right now deaths have occurred in a tragic accident that should never have happened, and could happen to any of us in similar housing. The main thing is, whatever creed or colour, people living in this building were given little respect, like other disadvantaged people all over the UK, and some of the short shrift they received resulted in unnecessary deaths of people. It's never okay that in one of the richest cities in the world, people are still left to burn to death in a building whose materials were unsafe and cheaply sourced.

Well, it stands to reason why it happened and its not just the cladding that is responsible for it, I think that maybe the cladding was old or kept impoperly in storage, who knows its just a guess, but the gas would have been the main reason, someone did a boge up job on the pipework and all one tenant had to do was to turn their gas on at a time when the faulty pipes would have started to leak and burn out of control. It happened from the fourth floor up and so someone must have been seeing or sensing something and went to take a look.

It's reportedly from a fridge explosion. No idea how a fridge actually explodes though.

Yes, almost immediately there was a tenant who escaped saying on TV that he actually spoke to the guy in the 4th floor flat, who said his fridge exploded and he (the owner of the fridge) thinks that started the fire.

What's tragic, though, is that even an appliance fire should never have spread like this. Ideally, a fire can be contained to the apartment it started in, whereas witnesses say they saw the whole building catch alight within as little as fifteen minutes. That's so shocking, and to do with the cladding, it seems to point to.

About the fridge exploding too -- apparently some tenants have complained before about power surges -- that's something to look into.

Maitlis looked really upset in this interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftY1NlPk5YY

I really like seeing when an interviewer does get passionate! And puts the tough questions to the interviewee, like being unafraid to say "they called you a coward" to the Prime Minister's face. Note how May just repeats the same stock answers over and over, like something someone wrote down for her to parrot.

It's terrible that these people are being rehoused outside of not only their borough but London wholesale. Even with the horrible lack of available housing, something ought to be done to avoid sending these people away from their entire universe. Many will even have jobs they can't now get to if they can't stay within range. It's huge.

Someone clearly forgot to upgrade Maybot to Empathy 2.0

Me too! She was pointing the finger at her (not literally) while remaining professional, and having a go at her. Well, May is a coward. And yes, all she did was keep repeating the same things. None of her responses had detail in them, she didn't care. She wasn't remotely upset. Just generalised answers about the "awful situation". She is like a parrot.



It is huge. I'm glad people are very angry. Obviously I don't mean I wish them to be hurt, but their anger might effect some changes, hopefully be rid of this tory government and the blood on their hands. I'm not saying tories are evil, but this government is. I mean, £2 more per part for the non-flammable material?!

"Welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic have discovered that largesse to losers does not reduce their hostility to society, but only increases it. Far from producing gratitude, generosity is seen as an admission of guilt, and the reparations as inadequate compensations for injustices - leading to worsening behavior by the recipients."
-- Thomas Sowell

English people went without, while foreigners were housed and fed, at public expense.

The tenement is improved, May pays a visit, but is still shamed by the ungrateful recipients of largesse.

Maybe, largesse is an inappropriate figure of speech. I felt that it conveys a sense of extra or over abundance. You don't have it.

I'm still sticking to the gas explosion theory. All someone had to do was, open a fridge door, light the gas, or any other appliance in that building. It just so happened that someone was feeling just a bit peckish and opened the fridge, should it have been utilizing the toaster? A shorter fuse might have enabled faster access routes, but obviously not.
The deathtoll is near to thirty now I presume.

Smudge: I know -- a couple of extra quid for the stuff that won't actually ignite 24 stories in fifteen minutes! It's disgraceful.

Biscuitman: "Maybot" empathy upgrade -- love it!

As for fridges, there have actually been recalls on certain brands of fridge in the UK, over the last several years. For some reason there have in fact already been a lot of faulty fridges going up in flames, which is why I personally don't find it odd or unlikely that someone claimed his fridge did something faulty that cause the fire -- it's something I've been hearing about once in a while in the news here and has become a "thing".

While there are a lot of possibilities for the cause, the fridge exploding being one of them actually doesn't strike me as unusual or unlikely, as there have been cases in the news every once in a while.

http://www.itv.com/news/2014-09-26/beko-appliances-households-still-at-risk-from-faulty-white-goods-that-caused-deadly-fire/

I googled on fridge recall and got all these results:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=UK+fridge+recall&t=ffnt&atb=v37-2b_&ia=web

F***, my fridge is a Beko. I thought they were good. Time to turn it off.

Gosh, it's a bunch of brands. How can companies be so careless?