Comments by "" (@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684) on "" video.
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The WHOLE strategy of fire protection in high rise buildings is one based on three basic aspects.
1. Fire compartmentation and containment,
2. Pre installed firefighting equipment namely what are called "wet" or "Dry" "Risers" which quickly get firefighting water to the scene of the fire,
3. Fire and smoke protected "means of escape",
This complete strategy was finally enshrined in law in the 1970s after several fatal fires in high rise buildings in the UK in the 50s, 60s & 70s.
Each and every flat built in the UK from the 1960s onwards had fireproof reinforced concrete boundary walls, floors & ceilings. Window frames were originally steel, there were fireprotected stairways/landings aka "means of escape", and there was to be NO uncertified comprimise of the structural fire compartmentation between adjacent flats (so NO holes drilled through fire protected walls and floors). All of this meant that if an individual flat was involved in a fire it would NOT spread sideways or downwards, with only a possible small secondary involvement of the single flat immediately above at most. The resident of the flat affected by the fire would obviously evacuate, while all the rest of the block's residents were to stay safely in their flats. A system which worked on many occasions during my own 30 years of service in the UK Fire Brigade many many years ago.
ALL of this fire safety planning was enshrined in UK law and building regulations, and enforced by the HIGHLY trained and experienced Fire Safety officers of the individual county Fire Brigades.
Fast forward to the early 1990s when the UK fire safety regulation & enforcement was REMOVED by the govt from the British fire services, and placed into the hands of clueless local councils. This was followed by the "deregulation" of fire safety in public buildings with many of the carefully thought out rules quietly ignored, as they were a "hinderance" to private businesses.... "Deregulation to streamline the construction industry environment" as it was euphemistically described. but known to the rest of us as "cutting corners on safety".
From then on, UPVC windows were fitted into high rise buildings which deform in heat and allow the entry of flames and smoke from external fire sources, MANY unregulated holes were drilled through solid reinforced concrete walls and floors to allow the installation of new electrical wiring/phone cabling/central heating systems.... holes which also allowed the passage of fire, heat and smoke from one flat into the next. External cladding that had NOT been properly tested for combustibility, and which in some cases chemically resembled "rocket fuel" was fitted to the outside of many blocks. Such cladding of tired old blocks of flats could cynically be described as "polishing turds with rocket fuel".
At the time of the fire the local council had committed to a program of "improvement" on the flats, during the course of this "improvement" all the fire doors had been removed from the "protected means of escape" (the main staircase) and were not due to be replaced until the completion of the work as they hindered the ongoing improvement work, the dry & wet "risers" (the vertical water mains built into the block of flats) were also temporarily out of commision... and ALL of that was unknown to the local fire brigade because "it wasn't their business anymore", it was instead supervised by the CLUELESS local council. THAT is the reason the Fire Brigade call handlers were telling the individual residents to "stay in their flats", because that was the normal procedure when the original fire safety precautions were in place.... but at Grenfell (and many other blocks of flats), as I described above, unbeknown to the Fire Brigades those original fire precautions were no longer there.
Then at Grenfell, much the same happened as when people who don't bother with "insurance" get caught out. All had gone well until someone had a fire and all the wrong factors line up and then "all of a sudden" the "powers that be" have pushed their luck too far, the long enforced sound & logical structural methods of fire control and safety via compartmentation and containment are suddenly not there anymore..... and LOTS of people then die, usually those at the bottom end of the social scale.
The clueless fire service management was also TOO slow to realise that the whole original system of fire compartmentation had been comprimised and was so spineless that NO-ONE was prepared to order a rapid but staged evacuation of residents because of the alternate known risks that rapid evacuation entails.
So in short OUR politicians both nationally AND locally completely undermined public safety legislation that was laid down many years ago for ALL of our protection, and they undermined that legislation for the benefit of their CORPORATE financiers.
The Fire Brigades Union and firemen were crying out about this thoughout the 1990s, but the corporate media ensured that it was NOT brought to the wider public attention.
So once again the powerful shaft the poor to enrich the powerful..... then blame it on everyone else but themselves.
And you lot STILL vote for "the major political parties"?
You all need to wake up to how they all REALLY see us.
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