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Five London tower blocks to be evacuated over safety fears after Grenfell fire Five London tower blocks to be evacuated over safety fears after Grenfell fire
(35 minutes later)
A tower block reportedly containing 161 homes is to be evacuated over safety fears in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, in which at least 79 people are believed to have died. An entire estate in north London is being evacuated after a fire inspection in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster found the tower blocks to be unsafe. Temporary accommodation is being sought for about 800 households from the five high-rise buildings on the Chalcot estate. Work to make the blocks safe is expected to take three to four weeks, the leader of Camden council, Labour’s Georgia Gould, said on Friday.
People living in the Taplow block on the Chalcots estate in Camden, in north London, are to be moved from their homes for three to four weeks after a fire brigade inspection revealed that work needed to be done to make the building safe, the leader of the local council said. Those affected are being placed in temporary accommodation, including in hotels, Gould said: “At the moment, all we care about is getting people to safety. The cost we can deal with later.”
“Last night, the chief executive and I led a public meeting to listen to the concerns held by residents of the Chalcots estate. Upon hearing from residents we immediately instructed a joint fire inspection with the London fire brigade,” said Labour’s Georgia Gould on Friday. The council initially announced that only one tower, Taplow, which contains 161 households, was to be evacuated. But, within the hour, Gould said the decision was taken to evacuate the whole estate.
“Today, the London fire brigade completed a joint inspection of the blocks with Camden council technical experts. Together we decided that the Taplow block needs to be temporarily decanted while we undertake urgent fire safety works so that residents can be fully assured of their safety. This means that we need to move residents from their homes and into temporary accommodation. She added that residents had shared fire safety concerns that she had not previously been aware of and, after the inspection that was ordered following the Grenfell disaster, fire safety experts had informed her that they could not guarantee the residents’ safety.
“We anticipate that these works will be completed within three to four weeks. We realise that this is hugely distressing for everyone affected and we will be doing all we can, alongside the London fire brigade and other authorities, to support our residents at this difficult time. The Grenfell fire changes everything – we need to do everything we can to keep residents safe.” Gould said: “We realise that this is hugely distressing for everyone affected and we will be doing all we can, alongside the London fire brigade and other authorities, to support our residents at this difficult time. The Grenfell fire changes everything – we need to do everything we can to keep residents safe.”
More details soon … The council’s safety inspection found that, while the cladding and insulation were different from that used on Grenfell Tower, where at least 79 people are believed to have died, the former “did not satisfy our independent laboratory testing or the high standards we set for contractors”.
Prior to the decision to evacuate people, the council said it would start removing the cladding panels from the Chalcots Estate.
Gould said that those people affected by the evacuation should go to Swiss Cottage library for more information and asked anyone who was able to stay with friends or relatives to do so. “People are on the ground now talking to residents, working with them to move them to the rest centre. It is happening immediately.” She was unable to say exactly how many people were being removed from their homes.
Michelle Urquhart, a resident of the estate’s Bray tower, told the Press Association: “It’s a bit frightening. They are talking about evacuating all five blocks. At the moment they haven’t done it and they are saying they will knock on everyone’s doors when they are ready.
“I don’t know where we are going to go. One man in a suit said to me, ‘You can’t stay here tonight.’ I’m so angry because we had the meeting with the council last night and they tried to reassure us. We have been living in these flats for the last 10 years with this cladding.”
The evacuation comes as four more victims of Grenfell Tower were formally identified, taking the known victims of the fire to nine. Scotland Yard also revealed that detectives investigating the blaze were considering bringing manslaughter charges.