A disaster waiting to happen

Subject: A disaster waiting to happen.

There are landmark moments when even the complicity of the politician is not enough to explain why, in the 21st century, a building in the centre of London, which we are often reminded, is one of the "great cities" in the world, should go up in flames like a Brazilian favela. In no time the fire spread right across the building, flames consuming something which burned like a candlewick bedspread, something which shouldn't have been part of the structure of a high rise building.
Work had just finished on the "refurbishment" of this tower block. Tarting up would be a better description. Cladding had been applied to hide the concrete structure which dated the building. A school to one side had been similarly cladded and I have seen many buildings in Newham with the same makeover.
The block contained 150 flats housing between 600 and 700 people, people from a sub-socioeconomic strata who's concerns are rarely heard. (Eat your bread and dripping sandwich and be thankful).
The council responsible for the housing of these people is one of the wealthiest councils in Britain, Chelsea and Westminster and of course the flats were something of an anomaly to where their real interests lay. Having recently walked through the wealthier part on my way to listen to the Karmapa I can vouch for feeling I was in a different part of the universe with Bentley's parked on the street and Gucci and Prada the main lines in the shops with small flats selling for 3,4 5 million.
What chance the resident association when the Borough is dealing with issues of dog mess on the pavement. What chance has a partition handed to the council detailing with  flaws in the fire escape issues, the lack of an alarm for the building, the emergency stairwell lighting not maintained, and vitally no sprinkler system for at least the flats higher up the building where the fireman's hose pipes couldn't reach and were hopelessly inadequate.
Towering Inferno, the 70s block buster depicted the inadequacy of building design back then and it seems we have learnt nothing from it.
Money is at risk and builders and architects build to a clients affordability. Of course the affordability of having a small footprint in a rich expensive Borough is never considered when you can have a win win situation, a cheap as chips building set on a postage stamp sized plot.
The variable is the people who will occupy the flats. They are not the millionaires who occupy the blocks just down the road who's own safety arrangements are the best in the world. Heaven forbid if we killed one of them, imagine the litigation.
No the Borough has an image problem. Let's clad the building and encourage greenery all around. Let's not pay too much attention to the worthiness of the cladding "who's was the cheapest quote ?" And let's not envisage the fire service arriving blockaded by flowerbeds and bollards.
What chance getting through to people who have come up through the private education system and wouldn't recognise a sprinkler if they saw one, other than in the vast lawns around their country retreat.
How is it that my daughter has to jump through all kinds of safety hoops to let her house to 5 students, has to have annual inspections and yet a high rise building housing hundreds of people slips through the cracks.
The fire chief applauding her team who fought the fire should have been the main proponent of the regulations that are on the books. I remember in South Africa the Fire Chief was god when it came to getting authority to open a public building. His word was scripture. How come this female fire chief was not insisting on access to the building or ensuring the alarms were in place and working.
Bills have been floated in Parliament regarding the need for a sprinkler system in high rise buildings but the political will is missing. How many politicians will feel the fear of living in a high rise block of flats, none.
The cladding was combustible,  no doubt about it watching how quickly the fire spread. Who passed the installation of combustible material when one knows of the ridged controls effective in the furniture industry.
Which Architect said okey, when one of the reasons we use an Architect is to monitor such things.
Already the Council are trying to find space behind their pawning of the running of the building to another company. "Outsourcing their responsibility" a common term these days of multi interlocking arrangements where nobody is responsible other than on pay day to ensure the cheque gets into the bank.