mikelincs

Current statements are 'a number of fatalities' but seeing as it was the 4th floor where it started, it was nighttime, the fire and smoke alarms didn't work, then I would suspect, unfortunately, that the fatalities will be 50+ and maybe up to 100, 27 floors, 6 flats on each floor, and most of them multi-occupancy, with a lot of elderly people and also young families. 140 flats, probably 300 - 350 people living there. Remember this is the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, possibly one of the most expensive areas in the UK and with, one would assume, a corresponding income for the council, so why given the number of warnings wasn't anything done about fire safety.

Miss Ann Thrope

Dame Shirley Porter anyone?

scrubbedexpat141

6 dead sadly, but likely to rise in number.
50+ in hospital.

eastrunner

London Ambulance Service says it has taken 64 people to hospital across six hospitals, and 20 are in critical care

Inselaffen

building run by a TMO chaired by Juliet Rawlings who was given an MBE by the Brown government. wonder if she'll be getting stripped of that?

flood2

could have been first call to 999. "hi is that the fire brigade? My fridge has just blown up...."

Bahtatboy

One fridge-freezer fire per week in London, according to LFB.

So: at night, in a kitchen with lots of flammable stuff around, in a tower block without a sprinkler system or (allegedly) a working fire alarm system, even with individual smoke detectors one kitchen could be fully-engulfed before anyone knew, and up(wards) it goes.

One cabinet minister's position is looking a tad vulnerable.

Unsafe fridges 'risk lives', warns London Fire Brigade - BBC News

Arnold S

I surmise there's a few on here who are on the tools, so what is the deal with this cladding then? Is it safe under certain circumstances or is it cost cutting and taking what appear to be very dangerous risks?

mrken30

This article may be of some help

Whats Makes Rainscreen Cladding A Fire Risk?

NorthernLad

I saw one of the tenants interviewed, he said a neighbour alerted him that his fridge blew up and stared a fire. They got out, but looks like a lot of people won't have.

jam25mack

Theres aso stories about people jumping \ throwing their kids out the windows. I read one where a mother dropped her baby from the 9th floor..... and a guy caught it. Like good work that man!

Millhouse

but did the mother get out in the end?

mikelincs

Many people were woken and helped out by Muslims living there, it's Ramadan and lots of them were awake as they had been having their evening meal, they knocked on doors and helped people out.

jam25mack

Don't know. Read it when the building was still burning so.....????

al dente

Just thinking of that poor mother being so desperate that she threw her baby out of a 9th floor window makes me weep. It's just so heart breaking.

Well done the man who caught the baby. I sincerely hope the mother is found safe and well.