London Fire

You beat me to it Oneputt. Sounds horrendous and confirms my belief it's not a natural way to house people.

Thoughts and prayers with anyone concerned with it, especially the emergency crews - running into the building whilst others run out.

Quite scary that there was no central fire alarm system. Let's hope they'll work out what went wrong quickly and ensure that other tower blocks are equipped as necessary as fast as possible regardless of cost. It's far more in compensation after the event.

Terrible news ,the block was refurbished inside and out very recently, and residents were worried since about lack of evacuation problems it had raised 

This is such a tragedy - and unbearable listening.  I'm afraid I haven't been able to watch any of the footage on television.  My heart goes out to anyone affected by this terrible event.

There are some terrible stories - apparently new 'gas risers' were installed in the stair wells, intended to be 'boxed in' but that was never done.  There was no sprinkler system, and no other means of escape, and many residents said it would take a tragedy to make people sit up and listen to their concerns.  Sadly, they were only too right.

I'm getting sick of hearing that "lessons will be learnt". Why the hell can't they learn them before tragedies? People joke and moan about Health and Safety but if corners have been cut by the owners then I hope they face some sort of criminal charges and that where peoples' lives are put at risk that Health and Safety becomes less of a joke.

Totally  agree  WN,  the  other  thing  that  gets  MY  goat  is  allowing  possibly / probably  guilty  parties  to  retire or resign  before  any  punitive  action  can  be  taken.

 ..... like Hillsborough?  

If  the  cap  fits,  MM  then  so  be it  !

Whilst there hasn't been any definitive analysis yet, there are reports of gas being installed via the service shaft(lifts/stairwell). I'm not a structural engineer/ architect but this sounds a particularly stupid idea.

Hope this fund will bring some relief to the people so tragically affected.

link below

RED CROSS. LONDON FIRE RELIEF FUND, GRENFELL.

Possibly not that stupid as the stairwell is one of the best protected parts of the building.  Gas pipes have to be easy to access too in case of a problem.  In an older building, the choices would have been limited.

It certainly does not sound to me (retired structural/civil/offshore engineer) as though the cladding used was a good choice, or it may not have been correctly installed.

I would be amazed if regulations did not demand that there should have been a decent fire alarm system for the whole building, and these days sprinklers would have been mandatory.

There is certainly a lot to look into.