Over the weekend there was the terrible fire in Camberwell where I live, which claimed the lives of 6 people, including several children. It happened in a 1960s tower block and the site was visited by local MP, Harriet Harman, plus the Leader of Southwark Council, Nick Stanton. Harman, together with many locals, has called for a public enquiry into these blocks and the fire hazards which they represent. To add force to this, an electrician who visited me this morning and who works in many of these blocks described them to me as "deathtraps". Clearly something needs to be done and soon. What is even stranger is that the Conservative councillor who is the Executive Member for Housing in Southwark, said at the weekend that £4 million pounds had recently been spent refurbishing the blocks. This begs the question - why was nothing done about fire safety? It appears that there was only one stairwell and that this is the only exit in the event of fire.
Jenny Jones the Green Party London Assembly Member and Chair of the Assembly's Planning Committee gave an interview about this today on Radio 4 - Jenny is also a Southwark councillor.
As there are many thousands of similar buildings across Britain, questions need to be asked and soon. One local residents spokesperson suggested regular fire drills and it does seem strange that unlike many other large buildings, such as the one containing a number of voluntary sector organisations which I work in at Brixton, there are no regualar fire drills in large Local Authority housing blocks. Perhaps this is something which requires legislation or for local councils individually to decide upon. It may be too late to save the lives of these six unfortunate victims but not too late to save the lives of others.
No comments:
Post a Comment