Message from hell on earth
IT’S not easy to read about the fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London. And it’s even harder to look at the pictures, the blurred images of desperate people trapped behind windows in blazing flats. Your imagination fills in the gaps all too easily.
Because of mobile phones we know so much more, much more than we might want to know, about what went through the minds of all those who knew there was no way out. There were the Syrian brothers who had escaped the war in their own country. In the confusion one was trapped in Grenfell Tower while the other made it to safety. Weeping uncontrollably this man remembered his brother’s last anguished phone call asking: “Why did you leave me behind?”
Many used their phones simply to make a last contact, like the handsome Italian couple ringing their parents. The young man tried to reassure his father, telling him rescue was coming. It wasn’t. What do you say as the blackness crawls under the door? Now we know. It’s the moment you need to make everything right, say everything you’ve never said because you didn’t dare say or always thought you’d have time to say. I love you, I love you, I love you. The investigation must find out how and why and who – and yes it is a political issue. Was the inflammable cladding there to needlessly prettify a building and meet energy conservation requirements that had not been thought through? Who in heaven’s name rations sprinkler systems in a tower block? We need to know. It’s also a moment to give a thought to your fire awareness. I don’t know about you but I’ve been mentally working out how my kids could escape from their various dwellings… in the event.
We sneer at ’elf and safety laws but in terms of fire prevention since the 1980s they’ve been a
THE new series of Poldark got off to a cracking start. But I’m not convinced Ross will avoid Elizabeth as he promised. Where would the show be without him going gallopy gallopy over the cliffs? Answer: about 15 minutes shorter.
success. Yet the complacency about fire risks is amazing. In 1705 the London Cooking Fire Byelaw banned open fires in the attics of thatched buildings. OK, it’s now laughable to think of anyone lighting an open fire in an attic. But more than 250 years later at the time of the King’s Cross fire in 1987 which killed 31 people, smoking on the London Underground was still allowed. That’s equally as mad as lighting a fire under a thatch.
We live surrounded by volatile electrical gadgets, left on standby or plugged in. It’s believed an exploding fridge may have started the Grenfell Tower fire. The London Fire Brigade describes fridge-freezers as the most dangerous appliances and has spoken of a “white goods time bomb”. More than 250 recall notices have been issued for electrical products in the past six years but the response rate is low.
I know a family whose little girl died in a house fire. It has made me cautious. When the smoke alarm bleeps I’m up there changing the battery. Do the same.