Grenfell Disaster: Criminal Neglect Is Manslaughter

9 Comments

1. 

   Oui on June 16, 2017 at 9:04 am

   Cladding for Grenfell Tower was cheaper, more flammable option | The Guardian |

   Material used in the cladding that covered the Grenfell Tower was the cheaper, more flammable version of the two available options, an investigation of the supply chain has confirmed.

   Omnis Exteriors manufactured the aluminium composite material (ACM) used in the cladding, a director, John Cowley, confirmed to the Guardian.

   He also said Omnis had been asked to supply Reynobond PE cladding, which is £2 cheaper per square metre than the alternative Reynobond FR, which stands for “fire resistant”.

    « click for more info »

   “We supplied components for a system created by the design and build team on that project,” said Cowley.

   Harley Facades confirmed it had installed the panels bought from Omnis in the work it performed on Grenfell Tower. Omnis sold ACM cladding to Harley Facades, which was responsible for installing it.

   Construction firm Rydon Maintenance was the lead contractor on the project but sub-contracted elements of the work to smaller companies, including Harley.

   The supply chain was revealed in filings at Companies House that reveal CEP Architectural Facades – which has since been bought by the Worcester-based Omnis – was a supplier to Harley Facades’ sister company, Harley Curtain Wall.

   CEP’s name appears on a list of firms that were owed money when Harley Curtain Wall collapsed into administration in 2015.

   CEP is owned by Omnis Exteriors, which describes itself as a “leading UK manufacturer and supplier of exterior building products and systems”.

   Its website states: “With almost 400 multi-storey projects completed, you know that you are in good hands.”

   ○ ACM panels are banned in American high-rise buildings for fire safety reasons

   Posted earlier in my diary …

   ○ Devastating Fire Engulfs West London Tower – 120 Flats

   • 

     esquimaux on June 16, 2017 at 1:46 pm

     thanks for finding this. I’d been wondering if this shit met US fire codes and I’m glad to see it does not.

     but since it does meet existing UK codes, nobody did anything wrong, at least in a legal sense.

     • 

       The Voice In The Wilderness on June 16, 2017 at 3:27 pm

       Thank God, nobody important died. /snark

     • 

       Oui on June 16, 2017 at 5:04 pm

       From my previous diary and post about a neglected advisory report:

       ○ Tory Housing Minister Sat on Report Fire Safety

       Southwark council pleads guilty over worst ever tower block fire | The Guardian – Jan. 2017 |

       A London council has pleaded guilty to four counts of breaking fire safety regulations over a blaze in a 14-storey tower block that killed six people.

       Southwark council admitted it failed to address fire risks at Lakanal House in Camberwell, south-east London, in the years leading up to the UK’s worst ever tower block fire on 3 July 2009.

       The fire, which an inquest previously found had started in a television in a ninth-floor flat, spread through the 1958-built block of 98 maisonettes with a ferocity that baffled firefighters and terrified residents.

       Those who died had been told to stay in their homes by 999 operators, who believed fire safety measures would be sufficient to prevent flames and smoke from reaching them.

       “Tragically, six people, including three children, died on the 10th and 11th floors. But it’s of great importance that I make the point that this prosecution is concerned with the risks that existed prior to the fire, because that’s what the fire safety order is concerned with.”

       …
       Dan Daly, London fire brigade’s assistant commissioner for fire safety, said their advice in the event of a similar incident remains the same.

       “If buildings are built and maintained correctly, walls, floors and doors in flats and maisonettes give you protection from fire – a minimum of 30 to 60 minutes – so, if there is a fire elsewhere in the building but not inside your home you’re safer staying in your flat unless heat or smoke is affecting you. Stay put and call 999,” he said.

       “If you leave your flat you could be rushing into choking smoke, the fire itself or firefighters using equipment to bring the fire under control in another part of the building.”

       Council fined £570,000 for Lakanal House fire failures

       • 

         The Voice In The Wilderness on June 16, 2017 at 8:18 pm

         Do the Council members pay the fine or does it just go into the tax budget?

2. 

   Oui on June 16, 2017 at 1:07 pm

   First Grenfell fire victims named as search for the missing continues | The Guardian |

   As death toll rises, desperate family and friends are appealing for news of loved ones who have not yet been found

    « click for more info »

   Khadija Saye and Mohammed Alhajali are the first people to be named as victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. The family of Saye, an artist whose work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, told Sky News that she had been killed. The death of Syrian refugee Alhajali was confirmed by Albdulaziz Almashi, the co-founder of the Syria Solidarity Campaign in the UK, where he worked.

   ○ Many more would have died in London tower block blaze if it wasn’t for Ramadan: ‘These Muslim boys helped us’

   Many more are still unaccounted for. On Thursday, Cundy would not give an estimate of the total number missing, beyond saying it was significant. Responding to speculation that the number of dead could exceed 100, Cundy said: “I hope it is not triple figures, but I can’t be drawn on the numbers.” There are dozens of posters with appeals for missing people on the side of the Latymer community church in the shadow of the tower.

   ○ More than 70 still missing and 30 dead in Grenfell Tower fire

   Police released updated figures on the deaths on Friday as anger in the community grew over what residents said was a lack of information being released to them. Scores of protesters entered Kensington town hall in the afternoon chanting: “We want justice.”

   In a press briefing during which residents shouted their own questions at police and fire service representatives, Metropolitan police commander Stuart Cundy said 30 people have been confirmed dead, including one victim who died in hospital. But he acknowledged that the death toll would increase.

   The scale of the disaster came into stark focus as it was revealed for the first time that 70 people are believed to be unaccounted for since the blaze. Police fear the fire was so intense and devastating that some victims may never be identified.

   Cundy said 12 bodies were in the mortuary but a number still remained in Grenfell Tower, where a dignified and careful retrieval operation would take place in hazardous conditions. But, he said, this could take many weeks.

   He said the victim in hospital had died despite the best efforts of medical staff. At least 24 people are being treated in hospital, 12 are in a critical condition.

   ○ Gavin Barwell, ex-housing minister, refuses to answer questions about Grenfell Tower – video

   A picture says a thousand words …

   ○ The difference between Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May’s visits to Grenfell tower in two pictures?

3. 

   Oui on June 18, 2017 at 2:43 am

   ○ Here’s the difference between Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May’s visits to Grenfell Tower

   ‘Jail those responsible’: how Grenfell Tower residents’ grief turned to rage

   By 4am on Wednesday, three hours after the fire started, Grenfell Tower was a hellish sight: flames poured from all sides of the 24-storey tower block under billowing smoke and charred debris fell from the upper storeys.

   On the streets and estates below the tower, the entire neighbourhood seemed to be out, many in their pyjamas and dressing gowns, mesmerised by the horror and trying to shout to people still visible in the windows.

   In the hours and days that followed, anger that such a tragedy could have happened mingled with chaos on the streets of north Kensington, as a close-knit community attempted to compensate for an apparent vacuum of official information or support.

   The tower was an “accident waiting to happen”, said a man that night who asked not to be named, wearing everything he now owned and wrapped in a blanket. “For years they’ve abused our community.”

   Firefighters and the emergency services worked tirelessly to save lives but from the start there was a striking absence of official coordination on the ground. Local churches and community centres threw open their doors. By 6am, five hours after the fire took hold, at least three centres were taking people in, but news spread by word of mouth rather than through official channels.

   At the Rugby Portobello Trust on Walmer Road, knots of dazed people filled the street. Some had escaped from the tower with only the clothes they stood in, while others frantically searched for family and friends. They described speaking to relatives who had been told to stay in their flats, and who were no longer answering their phones.

   Amid the shock and desperation, there was immediate anger: anger that the residents’ fears had been ignored, and that even at 6am it appeared there were no officials present, nobody from the council or the landlord – the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO).

   Theresa May did not speak to us, angry resident tells Jeremy Corbyn

   ○ Complex chain of companies that worked on Grenfell Tower raises oversight concerns
   ○ How a specialist firm won the deal to refurbish Grenfell Tower

   Couple whose company was paid £3m for cladding refurb at Grenfell Tower are holed up at their £1m mansion

   Raymond and Belinda Bailey were director and secretary of Harley Curtain Wall, responsible for a £3million cladding project at the block of flats.

   The business went bust in 2015, shortly after the work, owing creditors more than £1million. It was bought by another of Mr Bailey’s firms, Harley Facades, based in East Sussex.

   The businessman, 58, boasts of more than 25 years “practical experience” as a specialist curtain walling contractor. At their home yesterday Mrs Bailey, 56, denied any knowledge of Harley Curtain Wall or its work at Grenfell Tower.

   Bosses of company that installed Grenfell Tower cladding ‘pumped £2.5m into tax avoidance schemes’

   The bosses of the company that installed Grenfell Tower’s allegedly deadly cladding was accused by HMRC of pumping £2.5million into tax avoidance schemes, MailOnline can reveal today.

   Ray Bailey and his wife Belinda were director and secretary of Harley Curtain Wall, which went bust in 2015 allegedly owing creditors £1.1million.

   Despite being liquidated with significant debts it was later bought by Harley Facades Ltd., Mr Bailey’s other firm, who did the Grenfell Tower job in a contract valued at £2.6 million.

4. 

   Oui on June 23, 2017 at 10:55 pm

   Government-backed ‘red tape’ group looked at EU fire safety rules on morning of Grenfell fire

   Red Tape Initiative considered push to dismantle regulations on construction materials including cladding after Brexit

   For years successive governments have built what they call a bonfire of regulations. They have argued that “red tape” impedes our freedom and damages productivity. Britain, they have assured us, would be a better place with fewer forms to fill in, fewer inspections and less enforcement.

   But what they call red tape often consists of essential public protections that defend our lives, our futures and the rest of the living world. The freedom they celebrate is highly selective: in many cases it means the freedom of the rich to exploit the poor, of corporations to exploit their workers, landlords to exploit their tenants and industry of all kinds to use the planet as its dustbin. As RH Tawney remarked, “Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows.”

    « click for more info »

   A government-supported initiative to cut red tape considered a push to dismantle EU regulations on the fire safety of cladding and other construction materials in the weeks before the Grenfell Tower fire.

   A document obtained by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, and seen by the Guardian, singled out EU regulation which covers the safety and efficacy of construction materials as among the first to target for dismantling. Among the products covered in the EU regulation is cladding.

   The document was produced on 10 May for the Red Tape Initiative, a body supported by the government, to “seize the opportunities” of Brexit to cut red tape. Entitled The EU’s Impact on the UK Housing and Construction Industry, it picks out the Construction Products Regulation (EU 305/2011) as “red tape folly” which is “expensive and burdensome for small businesses”.

   The regulation aims to harmonise the quality of construction materials, including external cladding, across the EU, to make sure they are safe and fit for use. It states:

   “The construction works must be designed and built in such a way that in the event of an outbreak of
   fire the generation and spread of fire and smoke within the construction works are limited.”

5. 

   Oui on June 23, 2017 at 11:20 pm

   How `amazing’ Islington responded to Grenfell Tower disaster

   The Grenfell Tower disaster happened seven miles away from Islington. It would have been easy for our community to look the other way. But it didn’t.

   After waking up to the horror of the tower block blaze in west London, the people of Islington took just hours to take action. By 1pm, a collection point had been set up at Mildmay Community Centre, in the Mildmay Estate.

    « click for more info »

   Throughout the day, an “endless stream” of volunteers and people visited to donate clothes, food, toiletries and bedding for the people of Grenfell Tower. The final donation came at 9pm.

   It was organised by Lisa Prest, who lives on the estate. She said: “Londoners have taken some knocks recently, but there’s a great spirit within this city. People’s generosity and kindness today has proven this.”

   Volunteer Nicoletta Wylde added: “The response has been overwhelming. With just one tweet we got the word out and we have filled hundreds of bags within just a few hours.

   ○ Fears for residents as cladding on 14 tower blocks fails fire tests
   ○ Cladding stripped from residential towers across UK in wake of Grenfell Tower fire
   ○ Braithwaite House: ACM cladding on Islington high-rise similar to material implicated in Grenfell Tower inferno – Ilsington council

   Five tower blocks evacuated over cladding safety fears – Camden Council

   An entire housing estate in north London was being evacuated on Friday after a fire inspection ordered in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster found its tower blocks to be unsafe.

   Emergency accommodation is being sought for about 800 households from the five high-rise blocks on the Chalcots estate in Swiss Cottage in the borough of Camden.

   The buildings were in the process of being emptied on Friday evening after firefighters said they “could not guarantee our residents’ safety”, the leader of Camden council, Labour’s Georgia Gould, said.

   Those affected are being placed in temporary accommodation, including in hotels.

   “At the moment, all we care about is getting people to safety. The cost we can deal with later,” said Gould. The work to make the blocks safe is expected to take three to four weeks.

   The council initially announced on Friday that only one tower, Taplow, which contains 161 households, was to be “temporarily decanted”.

   But within the hour, Gould said the decision had been taken to evacuate the whole estate. She said: “We think at the moment it’s about 800 [households], but it’s an emerging picture.”

   Camden flats: Confusion as evacuation begins | BBC News |