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Thursday 6 July 2017

Friday



In Today's Issue

A piece from Lynda McCraight about the recent tragedy in London.




THE GRENFELL TOWER FIRE DISASTER

On June the fourteenth, twenty seventeen,
At nearly one a.m. flames were first seen
On Floor Four, Grenfell Tower, Kensington.
Many people’s lives would soon come undone.
First Responders arrived very quickly,
Put out the fire, but the flames spread thickly.
Straight up the outside they licked at fast pace.
Two fifty brave firemen joined in the race
To extinguish the flames, get people out.
Fasting Muslims had been able to shout
To alert their neighbours, help them escape
Before their high-rise homes suffered a rape-

By fire, by flame, by the thickest of smoke,
Enveloping their homes in a grim death-cloak.
Firemen entered but were hindered by the heat
On twenty-four floors – that’s two-twenty feet.
Fire-crews with breathing aids searched for the trapped
But zero-visibility handicapped
Their efforts, so new crews were put in place.
THEY rescued sixty-five and made all haste
To reach every floor. Riot Police came
But not for quiet. They each held that same
Shield, flat above the head of each fire-lad,
Stopping dropping debris in which the flats were clad.

The main hindrance to the rescue was that
Rule for tenants to stay inside their flat.
At four o’clock the Met Police addressed
The growing crowd outside: “Please do your best-
Use phone or social media to contact
Tenants still inside, and make clear the fact
That they must – say MUST – self-evacuate
And no longer for rescue sit and wait.”
Straightway there began more evacuation,
Children being dropped without hesitation.
A baby caught, thrown from floor ten - or nine.
One man knotted blankets, made a life-line.

On floor eleven, a half-blind old man
Was pictured waving by a camera-van.
Moments later -and to the crowd’s great relief-
He was rescued at last, but the Fire Chief
Was concerned the building might not be sound,
What with the fire and gas pipes all around.
The fire continued on the block’s top floors,
Only tamed after full twenty-four hours.
Next day, amid fire-pockets being smothered
Structural engineers soon discovered
The block was no danger and fire-crews could
Enter and search. At last - news that was good.
After the fire, the brigade flew a drone
Round the silent structure, as still as stone.
On June twenty-eighth, presumed deaths were eighty
And by UK fire records, deemed most weighty.
Only eighteen dead were identified
Some of those from help calls made from inside.
Most of the victims were from the topmost floors,
But, due to unknown sublets, maybe more.
After June’s slow-release information,
Survivors began their own investigation-
Grenfell United said: “The total is
One twenty or more fatalities.”

A fourth-floor fridge fire was doubtless the cause
But several issues broke fire safety laws.
There was no sprinkler system in this block,
Few alarms- other than a neighbour’s knock,
Poor management issues were suggested
And the cladding was sent away and tested.
Also the Grenfell Action Group, or GAG,
Had a list of other issues in the bag:
Fire-fighting stuff not tested for four years,
“Condemned” extinguishers also raised their fears.
Failed response from Landlord or Minister
Made them feel it was all a bit sinister.
 They repeated warnings from recent years

But said,” ALAS THEY FELL UPON DEAF EARS.”


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