By Chris Williams-
The coroner’s report and other calls to review fire regulations were deliberately ignored, Labour MP, Jim McMahon has said. The 2013 coroner’s report instructed the need for sprinklers to be fitted in all 4,000 of Britain’s tower blocks.
His comments came after Mp’s blamed the government for failing to respond to a 2013 coroner’s report calling for sprinklers to be fitted in tower blocks after a blaze that killed six people at Lakanal House in Camberwell, south-east London, in 2009.
And the fact Tottenham MP, David Lammy, may have personally lost a talented friend in the fire whose exhibition is on display in Venice this weekend, has added to the well of anger pouring in after a dreadful incident that could and should have been avoided.
Harriet Harman, MP for Camberwell and Peckham, said the similarities between the two tragedies were unmistakable.
‘This was not an act of God, and if the lessons had been learned from Lakanal House I truly believe those people in Grenfell Tower would not have died,’ she said.
‘Those big tower blocks where people work in the City, they’ve all got sprinklers, they’ve all got two staircases to make people safe. We need to spend the money… all of us are culpable if we don’t make that happen.’
And Labour MP, Ruth Cadbury joined the angry voices to call for an urgent review into the use of potentially flammable material on refurbished tower blocks. The true statement that the coroner’s report was ignored is extremely unfortunate and reckless. Such level of recklessness must not go unpunished . It won’t either. Not when so much loss of life occurs due to failure to take professional and wise advise.
It also emerged that the government had previously written to local authorities to encourage them to consider retro-fitting sprinklers. However, an encouragement and instructions are two different things. Specific instructions should have been given instead of the lukewarm stance of merely ‘’encouraging’’ local communities to fit sprinklers.
Meanwhile Theresa May who attended the scene of the fire was criticised for not speaking to any members of the victim’s family- a fundamental failing that raises questions as to what she was thinking. However, the prime minister in fairness may still have been in shock over the whole tragedy, but she should have been advised to speak to some of the victim’s families.
However, there is also the possibility that if she spoke some families, it could have opened the door to a separate criticism that she didn’t speak to all of them. A no win situation perharps, but each one of the family victims will need a lot of support and compensation to get on with their lives. The Coroner in 2013 will be rightly appalled to hear his advice was ignored instead of taken seriously.
Less than ten of the victims have been identified and it may take months to identify everybody. In fact, many may sadly never bee identified. Victims of the fire range from babies to adults. A Syrian refugee, 22 year old Mohammed Alhajali, a co-founder of the Syrian Solidarity Campaign, was a civil engineering student at the University of London.
He fled war torn Syria for a better and more peaceful life. He has been named as one of the victims of the fire. He called He called his friend to say goodbye when the fire had stretched to the 14th floor. Among the dead is a six year old baby and 12 year old Jessica Urbano Ramirez, who last was terrified when she spoke to her relatives during the height of the fire.
News that many of the dead called friends and relatives to say their last goodbye’s is so sad , all because the coroner’s report was ignored. Ignoring legitimate complaints for help is a show of thoughtlessness and selfishness since nobody would like their own complaints to be ignored. All eyes and ears will be on this public inquiry, although landlord bosses should really begin to tender their resignations if they have any humanity in them and sense of responsibility.