Key witnesses at the Grenfell Tower public inquiry must not be allowed to give evidence “from their sofas”, survivors of the disaster have warned as hearings restart remotely over Zoom next week after a two-month Covid suspension.
With witnesses due to appear from Arconic, which made the combustible cladding, and the tower’s owner, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Grenfell United said fully remote hearings meant traumatised members of the community would miss out on the catharsis of seeing figures with responsibility before the fire being held accountable in person.
The aim is to find out what happened, not to provide psychiatric help…..
Part of their objection is perhaps valid – that witnesses could somehow ‘cheat’.
If ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ can solve this issue, I’m sure the justice system can do likewise…
Fuck the bogus pandemic and the “Inquiry”.
It is a big enough farce without phone-in bullshit.
Make them attend. They can pretend it is fear of the lurgie making them nervous not the lying bullshit they are mouthing.
Imagine still going on about Grenfell in 2021 tho. How many people have died in house fires since then?
Problem is, Steve, that lots of people live in flats with similar cladding outside and are unable to move because no bank will finance a new mortgagor. Effectively, their property is worthless. The useless government is of course just sitting on its hands waiting for the outcome of this witch-hunt
Dio – ah. Explains why institutional racism / evil Tory austerity / Brexit / capitalism / whatever is to blame here, and definitely not the wacky green agenda or the practice of bringing hordes of low-skilled migrants into London and cramming them into high-density housing units
I wonder how many translators will be employed to ensure all former residents are able to follow proceedings.
When are the Fire Brigade officers due to give evidence?
Ah well, you can’t have a Green Revolution and save the planet without breaking a few eggs
Does that make Grenfell victims ‘climate martyrs’?
Maybe I should copyright that….or is it too late (I suspect so)
I think I know what happened. Someone did some creative electrical wiring, or alternatively, being homesick had an open fire on the floor in the middle of the room.
The owner of the fridge has been exonerated https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10244353/man-grenfell-tower-fire-started-cleared/
Are there any stats for fridges suddenly catching fire due to faulty wiring?
I believe, Philip that they have already given evidence. However, here is something from Wiki that suggests the hand of Cressy Dick
Let’s put the blame on the Fire Brigade
The scale of the cladding problem on the housing market moves into Sunak territory. From my window in a town in Herts I can see 3 buildings of about 100 flats, asking price ca. £100,000, current value nil. I know of another 3 similar buildings on the other side of town. That’s £60 million for one town. Say 10 similar towns in Herts and we are already at £600 million for one county. It’s not chump change
The companies that manufactured and sold the cladding aren’t blameless here. There some wide tactics being used to get approval and fire safety clearance
@ Diogenes
Hotpoint, which manufactured the fridge-freezer in question, was acquired by an Italian company Indesit in 2001.
According to this morning’s paper our house is worthless, or soon will be. Unletable too. Something to do with energy certificates, whatever they may be. They should do sumfink abaht it.
“Are there any stats for fridges suddenly catching fire due to faulty wiring?”
The modern “green” e-pentane cooled fridges can conceivably catch fire, or even explode under the right circumstances. If and when…
Mind… Even then they are far more likely to turn into a smouldering, noxious smoke bomb than set your room on fire. Unless the fire immediately reaches a secondary fuel source, it’s highly unlikely a fridge can start a major fire in a room by itself.
It’s not impossible with a built-in fridge, but even then there’d be so much smoke already the fire would be a nasty secondary problem.
I wonder if the inquiry is taking such a long time and dragging on because the findings will not be as advertised.
They really have let the publicity go to their head and continue to act like a group of over-privileged teenagers complaining about everything just because they can.
The one thing we do know is that regardless of what happens no resident (real or otherwise) of Grenfell will be in any way to blame or have done anything whatsoever that was wrong.
” There some wide tactics being used to get approval and fire safety clearance”
Nope. This is a prime example of the EU’s general incompetence and corruption.
British Standards wanted to introduce a tougher standard for fire resistance in cladding. Were told they couldn’t because its an EU competence. The Eu standard is lagging because the EU wanted to protect German manufacturers.
So the tenders were issued with the EU standards – which were insufficient. But no one went any further than checking the cladding had a EU approved tick in the box.
The greens are literally out to break your will.
MA Climate Czar Says the Quiet Part out Loud in Private Meeting: We Must ‘Break Your Will’
Now Bidarris is in the don’t need to hide it anymore.
Link didn’t work:
https://redstate.com/kiradavis/2021/02/05/322524-n322524
Dearieme, it’s Debenism in action. He makes the rules. His companies benefit, strangely enough. However, he is either mentally defective or a psychopath who hates humanity.
Are you making a point or just being Roger Irrelevant?
@grikath – doesn’t mention the fact that opening the windows so the flames set fire to the cladding, nor the fact that he packed his suitcase before leaving and leaving his front door open to get a nice through breeze. Nor the fact that why we need an ethiopian taxi driver living in central london.
“Nope. This is a prime example of the EU’s general incompetence and corruption.”
Ummm.. Nope.. And that whole shebang has already been addressed in a previous post about the fire by our host..
The EU certification applies to [stuff] regarding a single panel.
It is up to the building engineer/chief contractor to decide whether or not a certain panel is suited for the actual application, according to local regulations that may apply.
In this case, panels meant for use on low-rise office buildings were used on a high-rise residential tower block.
And no-one in the whole approval chain noticed this… And that one is definitely on the UK side.. Nothing to do with EU..
I know that after Brexit the EU is the Fourth Reich and all, but please do stop to try to pin your domestic incompetence on, well, anything, solely on us poor continentals.
Especially since we completely fail to have towering inferno’s under the same regulations that seem to be the cause of this one…
@moquifen I was merely stating what was technically possible given modern e(n)-pentane fridges and known risks.
What people may or may not do in the rare occurrence where one does catch fire because Murphy knocks is another matter entirely.
Diogenes
“ Problem is, Steve, that lots of people live in flats with similar cladding outside and are unable to move because no bank will finance a new mortgagor. Effectively, their property is worthless. The useless government is of course just sitting on its hands waiting for the outcome of this witch-hunt”
Many of them have mortgages sponsored by the government. One of them happens to be a Speccie journalist and she’s written at length about it and the Speccie is on their side.
@ Diogenes
You were querying how many fridge-freezers caught fire due to faulty wiring as if that was unthinkable. If the mafia or its unpronounceable Calabrian equivalent is involved it’s not unthinkable because the wiring checks may be skipped.
@Flubber
“Nope. This is a prime example of the EU’s general incompetence and corruption.”
Kingspan have already admitted they relied on incomplete/ invalid tests to msrket their cladding. One board member has been defenestrated with more to follow.
John77, thanks. So you think it was a mafia plot
@ Diogenes
*Not at all*
I think that one cannot rule out faulty wiring due to incompetence in Italian-made fridge-freezers.
However, I am also disinclined to rule out the possibility that the owner had been culpably negligent despite the “Sun” exonerating him.
One thing we know is that the death rate in estates managed by bodies majority-elected by tenants have a higher death rate than those managed by “evil capitalists”. Of course that could be because the TMO managing Grenfell Tower was elected by tenants of *other estates*, who looked down their noses at tenants of the tower.
@Grikath
The Cloggies may have escaped so far, but the Krauts have had towering infernos.