The Grenfell Tower building was completely destroyed in a massive blaze, killing at least 79 people.
The London tower block fire that led to the death of at least 79 people and injured many others did not occur without warning. The insurance industry in the United Kingdom had previously warned the British government that the external surfaces like the one on Grenfell Tower and several other buildings are flammable and dangerous.
The insurance industry’s warning was issued a month before the killer blaze that shook the city and shocked the world.
Earlier this week, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) released a statement. In it, they underscored their previous and lengthy efforts to urge the government to review their building fire safety regulations. They claimed to have started this call for changes in 2009 and had issued a warning to the government as recently as May 2017. That warning specifically pointed to the dangers of combustible external cladding on high rise structures that would allow a fire to spread easily throughout the building. That problem has been blamed for the rapid spreading of the London tower block fire.
In fact the types of issues that led to the spread of the London tower block fire are proving to be commonplace.
Last Sunday, the British government released a statement saying that 60 high rise structures in London had failed safety tests. Every one of those tests had been conducted following the June 14 Grenfell tower blaze.
Last Friday, thousands of people were required to evacuate their north London homes. Approximately 4,000 residences of tower blocks were told to pack up and leave for temporary housing until their buildings could be brought up to code. Fire brigades had tested the buildings and found that their blocks were not only unsafe, but that they were dangerous enough that residents shouldn’t even be able to spend another night there.
By the time of the writing of this article, the British government had not made itself immediately available for comment on the issues identified in the London tower block blaze that occurred in Kensington, in the west part of the city.
