Massive Grenfell Tower fire claimed 71 lives, police say

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Massive Grenfell Tower fire claimed 71 lives, police say

By Amanda Erickson November 16 at 10:30 AM

In the days after a fire swept through Grenfell Tower last June, it was hard to identify the number and names of the victims. There was no master list of who was in the tower when the blaze started shortly after 1 a.m. There are records of tenants. But some weren't home, and others had guests.
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On Wednesday, police announced that they had accounted for everyone in the building at the time of the blaze. The total death count, they said, was 71. That number includes Logan Gomes, a stillborn baby born at the hospital the day the blaze broke out. A family of six was also killed by the fire, along with three families of five. One mother died clutching her infant daughter. The oldest victim was an 84-year-old woman.
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The last victims identified were Victoria King, 71, and her daughter Alexandra Atala, 40. In a statement, their family said they were “devastated” and that the pair were “devoted to each other.”

“They died at each other’s side, and now they can rest together in peace,” their family said. “We will remember them always.”

Amanda Erickson writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. Previously, she worked as an editor for Outlook and PostEverything. Follow @AmandaWaPo

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/16/massive-grenfell-tower-fire-claimed-71-lives-police-say/

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Massive Grenfell Tower fire claimed 71 lives, police say

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[Boilingpots]

1. White Privilege kills.

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Color me confused. NT

[Skittles]

3. that building went up like a bonfire

something was very, very wrong

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Building codes? NT

[jmowreader]

5. The cladding was very, very wrong

The contractor on this job used Reynobond cladding as exterior finish. There are two kinds, PE and FR.

Reynobond PE, which was used, is two thin aluminum sheets with a polyethylene foam core. Polyethylene foam is combustible and, at the temperature it burns at, so is the aluminum. I also think they glue it to the building, and that increases the fuel load. (On edit: Arsonists who want fires to go to certain points in the building...like under the computer that’s full of incriminating information...will set “streamers” to direct the flow of the fire. That’s exactly what happened here. The fire started in an apartment on the fourth floor. The fire brigade put out the fire it could see in the flat, not knowing the foam-filled siding had ignited. Once the fire in the siding got going good, the building became totally involved in just a few minutes.)

Reynobond FR, which should have been used, has a rock wool core. It won’t burn but it’s more expensive and it’s harder to install.

Who really needs to go to prison, besides the siding contractor, is the sales rep who wrote a contract for that much combustible siding to go on a high rise. The company that makes it says it’s not to be used on a building that tall.

[Skittles]

6. a fireman friend of mine, the night it happend, bet it was cladding

someone certainly needs to be held accountable, this must not happen again

[jmowreader]

7. It will happen again, because we dont learn

If you look at a history of big fires and other big disasters, you quickly notice the same things pop up over and over: bad building materials and bad engineering.

I have no doubt someone’s going to do something this stupid again, and people are going to die because of it.

[Blue_Tires]

8. It was an institutional failure all around

Poor oversight, the fire department response and fighting was mismanaged, and even without the cladding the building layout had the potential to be a deathtrap