Fire Critic An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service
The building was designed so that fire did not spread quickly between floors. Picture from BBC News
Officials are questioning the design of a 12 story flat in England. The building sustained a fire recently that killed 6 people. In all, 30 people were rescued and 120 others were evacuated. It is unclear on how many units there are in the building, but it is clear that they all share 1 staircase.
The first thing that comes to mind is Billy Goldfeder’s favorit saying “WTF”. However, I am sure that there are many buildings across the globe that have similar building design. That does NOT make it ok though. The people who died had little chance for survival.
I guess we can hope that lessons are learned and that EXPERIENCE will provide stricter building codes to keep this tragedy from happening again.
The report and photo (right) are from a BBC News Article: Safety questions after flat fire.
There is video available at the link above during the fire.
More than 100 firefighters tackled the incident, some of who suffered from heat exhaustion, he added.
Resident Carol Cooper, 38, who lives on the seventh floor, described “seeing people and children waving for help”.
She added that the tenants had called for the block to be demolished two or three years ago – but had been told it was a listed building, and had to be preserved.
Southwark council’s executive member for housing, Kim Humphries, said the tower block had undergone a £3m refurbishment programme two years ago.
This is understood to have included fitting new windows and electrical cabling.
