Yesterday's fire in Elm Road, Wembley Central
From the Fire Brigades Union
At least 125 firefighters and 20 fire engines were called to a cladding fire in Wembley yesterday, 29 January.
Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said:
Firefighters have once again been called to cladding fire which could have resulted in tragedy.
The Fire Brigades Union warned of the risks of flammable cladding many years before the terrible Grenfell Tower fire. Decades of deregulation have created unnecessary risks to residents and firefighters, and put homes and lives at risk.
Government ministers and building companies have been criminally complacent. We will continue to demand justice for the victims of this situation, and urgent action to ensure that buildings are safe.
Our worst fears have happened. The nightmare that residents have been living with has become a reality.Octavia Housing, who manage the block, were repeatedly warned this could happen. Yet they sat on their hands and did nothing. This will be traumatic for all the residents who live in Elm Road.
Six years on from Grenfell, three years on from being advised the cladding was unsafe, Octavia has done nothing to remove the cladding or even make any attempt to advise residents trapped in their small flats when the work would commence or who would pay for it.
Octavia responded to me in December and said they were unable to share any information on the fire safety reports on the advice of their solicitors
On Twitter Peter Apps commented:
Brent Council have a statutory duty to publish a safety case report for all the 41 buildings in scope of the Fire Safety Act by the 6th April 2024.
15 comments:
Has Mr Gardiner campaigned for a larger fire service in Brent to cope with all the hundreds of tower blocks being built here???
Elm Road, Wembley Hill ward
Indeed - if there had been another major fire its doubtful that 125 firefighters would have been able to attend this fire.
Are the fire service required to carry out annual checks on tower blocks to ensure smoke alarms and water sprinklers are working and that fire exits are not blocked?
Good point from anonymous. Where are the new fire stations/ fire appliances for the Great Western Imperial City 70 storey/ 4 bedroom houses in the sky?
Developers and freehold management companies probably regret their inflammable cladding mis step. But as regards poor build quality it fits well with the unique English leasehold system whereby flat buyers never own and developers and management companies self certify poor quality 'sick' buildings which suit their tenant extraction needs.
The brand new one staircase 17 story tower on Carlton Vale, adds poor design quality into this toxic mix, again un care built as if Grenfell never happened. As long as duty of care failure is in London 'growth areas' zoned, government can carry on with conservation, resilience, de-risk, freeholder, de-populate areas elsewhere in parallel process? Growing urban inequalities.
Why would this responsibility fall to the fire service? As with HMOs there must be some sort of regulation in place that landlords of tower blocks need to adhere to - fire safety checks every few months for example.
The Fire Service must surely be responsible for managing the amount of fire fighters and response vehicles based on the number and type of buildings we have in Brent so surely they must be checking these tower blocks on a regular basis for their own officers health and safety if nothing else.
I still don’t see why they would. Getting reports from said tower blocks maybe. But definitely not doing the work themselves.
Why would they not? The more knowledge the local Fire Service has of these tower blocks the better - it protects the residents and firefighters, and based on what they find they could help put pressure on Brent Council and the building owners to improve fire safety.
The new tower blocks going up on Alperton Bus Garage site look pretty poorly constructed - earlier today we noticed 'wind proof' insulation boards stuck onto the concrete frame with what looks like bitumen tube sealant - trust all of this has been fully checked for fire safety?
Isn’t that what the building control department is for? Do you seriously believe these services have the sort of time to be checking everything for the entire population they serve? It seems as though you’re asking for double checks. You’ll be asking the same of the police and ambulance services next. “Are there too many fast food restaurants in any one particular area that are causing more people to be obese who will then be more likely to go on to have heart attacks?” Regulations based in law are in place for a reason. You say they manage the amount of firefighters and response vehicles based on the number and types of buildings we have but budgets exist, just look at what’s happened with policing in Brent. You can’t just wish up more members of a workforce.
Anonymous 2 February 2024 at 02:28 says
"Isn’t that what the building control department is for?" - do you honestly think Brent Council building control officers have the resources to check all the new buildings going up in Brent???
News today..
.Grenfell: £20m compensation agreed for firefighters
BBC News - Grenfell: £20m compensation agreed for firefighters
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68166338
You would think though that the Planning Committee would have the capacity to spot a single staircase 17 story tower seeking (sneaking) permission?
Fire fighters going one way, residents escaping the other way using one staircase in a new in 2024 post-Grenfell tower build. Reads as "design by greed" with the second staircase better for business as an extra 17 flats no Grenfell lesson learned.
Do you think the fire service do?!
What does local authority building control do? Building control surveyors check that building work complies with the building regulations, a set of standards intended to protect people's safety, health and welfare in and around built environments.
Maybe they don’t have adequate resources, but the job lies with them, no one else.
Perhaps you could Google a few things yourself before commenting absurdities.
The South Kilburn new single staircase tower is PA 19/3269 submitted Sept 2019 planning permission Feb 2021. Tower completion summer 2024.
Grenfell fire June 2017, there was extensive news reporting on the single staircase danger.
It would be interesting to know how many single staircase towers passed planning permission and building control in UK since June 2017?
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