I haven’t seen this reported yet, so I thought I would post something brief about this. Most here have probably already heard by now about the horrific Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington, in London. There are multiple confirmed fatalities and many more expected to be reported soon.
The Washington Post has a good article about what happened to the 24 story residence, but now it’s come to light that that the management organization responsible for the public housing project, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organization, has been aware of deficiencies and safety issues regarding the property since at least 2013.
A blog posted by the Grenfell Action Group, has been warning KCTMO and the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council about fire hazards on the property for years. The response of the Council was to threaten the GAG with legal action if they didn’t remove these allegations about fire safety from the blog. The KCTMO finally, grudgingly, agreed to look into some of the issues last November, but it was too little, too late, as recent events prove.
GAG’s warnings fell on deaf ears, and KCTMO’s response was to attempt to shoot the messenger, rather than fix the problems. Here is a copy of the warning letter sent to the Grenfell Action Group bloggers by the attorney for the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council.
This tragedy is monstrous, and it’s made even more so by the extreme negligence of the British housing authorities.