General News London apartment building fire

Had to turn the news off. It's too distressing to watch.

 

So heartbreaking! My heart goes out to all those affected but it is so nice seeing so many people willing to help the displaced.

But how the hell did it burn up so quickly? It's horrifying to know that people have died in such an excruciatingly painful way. Hopefully those who died passed out due to the smoke before being consumed by the fire.

 

It's absolutely heartbreaking, I'm deeply disturbed by what has happened. The last month in London and UK has been quite heavy.

 

Right, they covered up the whole building with this cheap high inflammable material just because it "looked nice" for all those rich people living in the luxury flats nearby during the last so-called "refurbishment" (apparently only aesthetic). As you said the sprinkler system wasn't working, neither the fire alarm and there weren't any fire escapes, except for the main staircase. The local council and the government were fully aware of the poor safety conditions of the building but they simply didn't care because the tower was inhabited by immigrants and working-class people.
The story about the man who caused the fire apparently is only press speculation because nobody still knows what caused the blaze. A lot of people in high positions may be involved and I'm afraid they will try to cover the truth as much as they can.
I'm so devastate, this tragedy could have been completely avoided just respecting the basic safety rules. People cannot die in such horrible way, I do hope they will get justice at least.

 

my thoughts go out to every one in the UK ,going thru some hard times right now..

 

I think at this point condolences add little to the discussion. It's horrible and shocking that so many lives were needlessly lost. But those deaths mustn't become a challenge between public figures to prove who's most emotional. That turns victims into pawns and grief into a mockery.

This highlights two problems - the first is the self-contradictory nature of cost-cutting in basic social and physical infrastructure where the outcome is an expensive, tragic and trust-eroding loss of life. The repairs, inquiries and compensation will cost many millions more pounds than savings on council spending ever would. Class antagonism and a reasonable unwillingness to trust local authorities have many hidden costs.

The second thing is that there has to be a fundamental level of protection for vulnerable people. You do not have to believe in an expansive welfare state to believe it is inhumane to provide dangerous housing to those on benefits. Unsafe and unpleasant housing is not just unsafe, it's undignified and demoralising regardless of whether tragedies like this happen.