NO ONE WILL PAY FOR FIRE DISASTER
A CARDIFF dad who lost his daughter in a burning building has warned the families of those killed in Grenfell Tower that they may never get justice.
Sophie Rosser died as she tried to save her boyfriend, Oscar Silva, when she saw flames and smoke coming from their fifth-floor flat.
Mr Silva and the couple’s flatmate were rescued by firefighters.
But Sophie, 23, died after being overwhelmed by smoke and collapsing on the fourth floor.
Now her dad, Julian Rosser, has expressed his horror regarding the London blaze.
Yesterday it was confirmed that at least 58 people are now missing and presumed dead in the Grenfell Tower.
“It’s a very similar situation, isn’t it, but on a much larger scale,” Mr Rosser said.
“I think that the great sadness for those people involved is that they will go through the same process we did, where they find no one will be brought to book because they will all blame each other. That is what happened to us.
“There are so many parties involved in these things – leaseholders, freeholders, management companies etc.
“Nothing has ever happened as a result of Sophie’s death.”
The blaze that killed Sophie broke out in the upmarket Meridian Point block, in Canary Wharf, London, in August 2012.
“London Fire Brigade were hopeful they would be able to bring prosecutions to bear but they were frustrated,” dad of two Mr Rosser said.
“The coroner, Mary Hassell, said she had huge sympathy but she did not know who to blame.
“All these people who are terribly upset and anxious and want action they are not going to get it because it cannot be done this quickly.”
Speaking in 2014 he warned “this could happen all over again”.
“It will take ages to establish the cause of the fire and whose responsibility it is,” Mr Rosser, a management consultant, said.
“They have not even talked about aspects like fire doors, which are bound to be a huge aspect.
“The problem in Sophie’s case was that there was a problem with the fire door in the flat where the fire started.”
This week service dogs were sent to the top floors of blackened Grenfell Tower to join the search for the dead.
They are being used because they are lighter, can move fast and can sniff out flammable substances.
“It brings it all back for us,” Mr Rosser, from Cardiff, said.
“The same circumstances apply, no sprinklers because they are not a legal requirement, no proper alarm systems monitored by a central source, just fire alarms in each flat.
“If you take a look at the legal requirements they are defective in themselves.
“And people are famous for not even adhering to those lazy standards.”
The Grenfell Tower inferno quickly engulfed the building. It housed some 600 people. Questions have been asked over flammable plastic cladding used on the building.
Mr Rosser said the cladding on Grenfell tower “certainly seems to be a contributory factor”.
“If you look at those pictures of the flames racing up the outside of the building, it does seem to indicate that they helped spread the flames,” he said. “But they cannot be sure wheth- er there were backdrafts and all sorts of other things involved.”
Mr Rosser added: “Life is never the same once you have lost a child.
“What we had hoped was that as a result of Sophie’s death something would change.
“Former MP Jonathan Evans tried to push things forward but nothing happened.
“There comes a point where you have to put it aside because if you keep pursuing it you will never come to terms with it.
“In a way this may be something that forces changes but it will take years.
“If you think how many blocks of flats there are in the UK, billions and billions will be required to put basic things like alarm and sprinkler systems in.
“There is a reluctance to introduce new laws, and the reason is the uproar from landlords there would be over retrofitting things like sprinklers.”
Since Sophie’s death Mr Rosser’s outlook has altered.
“Your whole perspective on life changes,” he said.
“You don’t plan for the future, you just live day by day.”
What we had hoped was that as a result of Sophie’s death something would change JULIAN ROSSER