Muslim boys saved peoples lives: Ramadan early risers played key role in Grenfell Tower rescue

[applegrove]

NOOR AL-SIBAI at Raw Story

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/muslim-boys-saved-peoples-lives-ramadan-early-risers-played-key-role-in-grenfell-tower-rescue/

"SNIP..............


Though it’s unclear who was first to notice the fire, Fusion reported that many Muslims who woke up before dawn to eat before fasting during daylight for Ramadan noticed the flames coming from the bottom floor of the building.

According to an unidentified Londoner who spoke to HuffPost UK, Muslims were leaving mosques for their early morning prayers to alert people to the fire.

“Muslim boys saved people’s lives. They ran around knocking on people’s doors. If it wasn’t for all these Muslims boys round here helping us, coming from mosques, people would have [died]…they were the first people with bags of water, giving to people. Helping people,” she told HuffPost. “Thank God for Ramadan.”

According to Zeinab Jafari, a London resident who lives near the towers, the fire either didn’t set off fire alarms, or the alarms were very faint.

...............SNIP"

[LisaM]

1. Wow, that kind of brings tears to my eyes.

Just something good in an absolute flood of bad news.

[procon]

2. Last night the TV panned over a couple waving frantically from an upper story window.

There were flames all around them. I don't think they could have survived. The image is still stuck in my mind and I want to cry.

[applegrove]

4. I watched only antiseptic clips last night. Thank god. Vibes to one an all.

[Warpy]

3. More likely the evening meal

The fire started at 12:54 per BBC. Since sunset is late at London's latitude, likely the evening meal wasn't started until 10 PM. They'd have been awake and cleaning up at midnight, and not quite asleep at 1 AM. But yes, the Muslims were awake and alerted their neighbors. They were also among the first to provide aid like clothing, food, and sanitary stuff like diapers.

A bigger story than the fire is the massive generosity of people across the UK to the survivors.

ETA: There were no fire alarms. They weren't standard when the place was built in 1974.

[applegrove]

9. That is terrifying. No fire alarms.

[Warpy]

10. It might not have been a huge problem until they put that stupid siding on

with those triangular bump out bits that acted just like chimneys, spreading the fire upward very quickly.

You smell smoke, you close your metal door, put wet rags around it to stop any more smoke, and call the fire department. In concrete buildings, there's usually enough separation to keep people safe until they're rescued. Unfortunately, that didn't work for a fire that traveled outside the building and then laterally inside the building.

I shudder to think about how many people they're going to find when they can get in there.

[applegrove]

13. Hopefully that will be the end of lax building codes. My parents lived

in a retirement home and they retrofitted all floors with an add on sprinkler system a few years ago. Very expensive but that is the law in Ontario. I don't think sprinklers would have been much help in the London case as the fire ran up the outside. I can't even think about what the victims went through. Too horrifying. Vibes to all the families.

[Warpy]

14. Living units were around the outside, halls and stairwell were interior.

Sprinklers not only keep the fire from spreading into escape ways, but also cool off the superheated gases from the burning units.

They would have bought more time for people to get out once they saw the fire coming up the outside of the building.

[applegrove]

18. The sprinklers in my parents place were inside the apartments too.

[Warpy]

19. That might have helped a bit

but with the fire roaring up the outside, maybe not. In any case, full sprinkler systems would be prohibitively expensive to retrofit into a Council building. Corridor and stairwell sprinklers would be doable.

[applegrove]

20. True this.

[politicat]

21. Not necessarily. They retrofitted in a full building heating system during the "rehab".

Most full building heating systems are radiators, not forced air, because water retains heat better than air. They spent a lot of time drilling through the walls to run the piping.

Adding sprinklers to that system is trivial, maybe another 10% of the cost of the system. Pop-downs don't even have the exposed heads that are prone to getting swatted or having things hung off of them. When heat isn't needed, one turns off the boiler and let the water continue to circulate.

Of course, the heating system itself may have contributed to the spread, since they drilled through the concrete, which compromised the envelope, and modern radiators use pex (plastic) piping rather than copper or steel. If the lines are empty (for summer) that piping is just another line of fuel and a pathway for fire.

And one stairwell. In the center. Which becomes a chimney if even one fire door down low has to be held open to get people out.

But yes, the cladding. That's a highly probable cause.

[ismnotwasm]

5. K&R

[malaise]

6. Yep this is everywhere

Some were on BBC asking for water, clothes and food for victims.

Most folks lost everything.

[luvMIdog]

7. During Ramadan some of them pray all through the night and are awake all night.

[democrank]

8. From the horror of the flames, shines the brighter light of compassion.

My heartfelt thanks to all those wonderful people who reached out to help.

[TrogL]

11. CBC was reporting the building had no fire alarms or sprinklers

Residents had been complaining for years.

[ailsagirl]

12. OMG

[killbotfactory]

15. It was low income housing in the middle of one of the richest boroughs

The rich borough residents didn't want them there, and the residents felt like that is the reason their pleas were being ignored.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/06/grenfell-tower-fire-inequality-housing

[politicat]

22. I wonder what the redevelopment is going to look like?

And who is going to profit?

It's not like strategic fires haven't been used before.

[montana_hazeleyes]

17. There is just no excuse for that!

How in hell not to have alarms or sprinklers in a high rise housing families. It should have been done, required or not. This is so devastating and horrific.

[Warpy]

23. The excuse was that the building was built in 1974

and designed in such a way as to be fireproof with the original Stalinist exterior and units sealed off from each other. If they'd left well enough alone, that refrigerator (or whatever caught fire) would have been confined to one flat. As it was, fire shot up the exterior and it was all over with no alarms, no sprinklers, and walls and floors compromised to allow interior spread.

[montana_hazeleyes]

24. This makes it all the more tragic.

[bdamomma]

16. it was horrible

so much death and destruction.