London Fire: The UK triply unlucky... and a Ramadan link

What a horrible tragedy to happen in the UK so soon after two others. Has anyone seen the movie "Towering Inferno"? Well, this is the real-life version... much more nightmarish than could be imagined.
Nevertheless, there are small miracles that happen even in those horrific circumstances. One woman dropped her baby from the 9th floor, and a passerby caught it. The baby is fine. It is unclear whether the presumed mother made it out alive or not. Let us pray that she did.

I am really at a loss of words to describe this gruesome tragedy so I will just post a link to the story:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...partment-block-north-kensington-a7788851.html

An interesting side-note: Many Muslims who were awake for Ramadan were among the first to notice the fire around 1 am and to help out. An interesting coincidence and another small bit of good news coming out of this horror: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...dent-live-save-north-kensington-a7789111.html

It is crazy.
I was listening to the BBC radio, and some of the witnesses told really horrible stories.
It seems that a bunch of people could have gotten out, but the fireman told everybody to stay inside.

Some of the people living there had made complaints about the risk of fire. There were gas pipes out and about - not closed off in the stairs and so on.
The cladding seemed flammable.
Just awful all around.

^ It is a crazy, surrealist story. The stuff of nightmares really. The way that building burned... just like a matchstick. There was definitely something highly flammable pervading in that building. I just hope my building doesn't have cladding like this one had - made of some kind of flammable plastic. It is not very reassuring for people who live in high-rises :hmm:

Snow said:

It seems that a bunch of people could have gotten out, but the fireman told everybody to stay inside.

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That´s normal advice when there is a fire in the multi-storey building: smoke kills fast when people go out from their flats to the stairways. But at that stace firemen may not know how widely the fire will spreads.

I know but at times, it is not the smart thing to do.
Maybe they need to reassess the standard protocol.
One guy said that he was in a phone conversation to his family.
They were in no real trouble, they just saw smoke. Then when they went out and they were told to stay in.
It just escalated. The smoke started coming in. They put their children in wet blankets and the guy said that the phone died and he had not heard from them since.

the council are tho blame on this one!!!


they used highly flammable material to build the building!

sister herb said:

That´s normal advice when there is a fire in the multi-storey building: smoke kills fast when people go out from their flats to the stairways. But at that stace firemen may not know how widely the fire will spreads.

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It is good advice when the fire can be controlled and and when the firemen have a way to get the people out afterwards, for instance, getting people on the rooftop and trying to evacuate with helicopters (is that a thing?). But when there's an uncontrollable fire and the smoke just gets worst minute to minute, your only chance is to leave the building as soon as possible. I don't think anyone thought the fire would be that bad at first. The firemen probably thought that they would get the fire quickly under control but that clearly didn't happen.

I also wonder about the role that the new gas pipes that had apparently just been installed in the central stairwell played. Maybe there should be a rule that in a high rise building, there should not be any natural gas at all - just electricity. But of course, that would be more expensive.

AbdullahAziz said:

the council are tho blame on this one!!!


they used highly flammable material to build the building!

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I'm waiting for the investigation to happen, but the fact that many residents voiced concerns over and over again about the fire safety and the KCTMO repeatedly chose to do nothing will be extremely difficult to justify. This is why I hate these kinds of bureaucratic organizations; nobody ever feels responsible for anything. They just shift paper around in their offices and don't give a crap because the bureaucratic apparatus shields them from responsibility.

Well, we weren´t there at the present during the fire and if some advices have given from the professionals (fire depertment) it´s better to trust they knew better than we as this might not be the first fire they were. We all of course have to do what is the best if we at any time will happen to be in the fire (and I wish none of us never will happen to be in such situation). Every situations as well buildings are different, so also how to act is different. We can speculate how many more victims there was because of such kind orders but as well we can´t know how many human lives such orders safed.

Assalamu alaykum,

SubhanAllah...this fire was just horrible, and it is so frustrating that it was so, so preventable. Listening to what the people who had fled to tower block had to say, there were some really harrowing stories and I was crying listening to a Syrian man who had lost his younger brother....inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon.

People are frustrated and angry and you can understand why....this fire is down to the negligence of the council and architects involved in renovating the tower - they were trying to cut costs because the people in that tower were poor, working class, or from ethnic minorities. It's well-known that Kensington, the neighbourhood it is in, is one of the wealthiest places in the UK - and residents of Grenfell tower had been warning the authorities for *years* how much of a fire hazard the building was, and yet their warnings fell on deaf ears.

This incident has really opened up the issue of inequality in British society - it's just sad that things like this need to happen before such things are discussed.

Theresa May wants to open up a public inquiry, which will be led and controlled by the government. An independent inquest would be a lot better to really get down to the truth.

fromelsewhere said:

I'm waiting for the investigation to happen, but the fact that many residents voiced concerns over and over again about the fire safety and the KCTMO repeatedly chose to do nothing will be extremely difficult to justify. This is why I hate these kinds of bureaucratic organizations; nobody ever feels responsible for anything. They just shift paper around in their offices and don't give a crap because the bureaucratic apparatus shields them from responsibility.

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I don't want to be pessimistic, but I'll be very surprised if this 'inquiry' (which could take years) ever leads to any prosecutions. Every organisation involved is just going to put the blame on each other's heads because these private businesses have little democratic accountability. It'll probably end up with some written apologies and a lump sum of money.

I'm thinking of those families and individuals which have been affected, in'sha'Allah they'll be given the full support to rebuild their lives.

The Grenfell Action Group's warnings over the past few years are really telling and on their blog for all to see. I mean this article of theirs from 2016....reading it now, after all this, gives you goosebumps: https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/

fromelsewhere said:

What a horrible tragedy to happen in the UK so soon after two others. Has anyone seen the movie "Towering Inferno"? Well, this is the real-life version... much more nightmarish than could be imagined.
Nevertheless, there are small miracles that happen even in those horrific circumstances. One woman dropped her baby from the 9th floor, and a passerby caught it. The baby is fine. It is unclear whether the presumed mother made it out alive or not. Let us pray that she did.

I am really at a loss of words to describe this gruesome tragedy so I will just post a link to the story:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...partment-block-north-kensington-a7788851.html

An interesting side-note: Many Muslims who were awake for Ramadan were among the first to notice the fire around 1 am and to help out. An interesting coincidence and another small bit of good news coming out of this horror: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...dent-live-save-north-kensington-a7789111.html

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...not my sort of film really..

But guess what?

If you read what the residents thought about the blocks safety and how the "mods" regarded their lives...

You will find..


A world stranger than fiction.


...i hate the place already.


Peace peace.. knives in hand..

This was once.. a promised land.


Honestly, by the one in whos hands my life is in.
..
..
Would you really leave me in the care of these people?

Whos tongues dont care if its good or bad that they write.

As long as they can see there own plate at the table.
..
..


Why is intercession so rare? In a blind world.

...maybe the one eyed man is king?

..
..
..why so apprehensive to give the news? Did you ever wonder?

Anyway, value the freedom of anonymity.

..value the freedom.


Be warned of days when people are put into boxes and dictated too..

Its not money in the front they lacked.

...its money in the back.

Word.

Id maybe have titled it.. the vicegerents but maybe id have come full circle.

And some words are better left unspoken.
..
..
In effort to learn..not slipping..

And the weight of all my sins.

Long live ISLAM!