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I always felt quite safe in the tower block I grew up in, we had two fire escapes on opposite sides of the building... South Westminster tho', so they probably spent a bit more cash on it than a lot of other places... We were on the fifth floor too, not far to escape in an emergency...
It's unbelievable that this kind of cladding satisfies building regs if it's so flammable in these situations... So fucked...
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5th floor is great. Within reach of a ladder unit.
When I looked into right to buy, I was advised that I could not get a standard mortgage for properties above the 8th floor due to the fire risk.
That speaks volumes. When I did investigate mortgages, I discovered it's in the same risk class as canal boats. So a flat above the 8th floor is in the same risk category as a property, as something that can sink and whose build quality is largely unregulated.
I still feel safeish. You have to. Anyone in a tower block didn't have much day in the matter. I'm very lucky to now be paid enough that my deposit savings are coming on alright and I should have moved out within a year.
Velocio
What systems do you think exist?
In my tower we have a single smoke alarm per property. During testing it's obvious it's loud enough to be heard within a property but not beyond.
There is no central fire alarm that I know of. In my twenty years as a resident there has never been a fire drill.
We have dry risers, but they are inspected infrequently. During the fire in our building the first thing the fire brigade did was run up and down the building to check visually that no one had stolen the brass fittings and that the riser was fit to use.
There are no hoses on our floors, and the riser would be dry in any case.
There is a single fire escape staircase, which the fire brigade would want kept clear of residents as they need to go up it.
The extent of repairs to compartmentalization was to use expanding foam to seal gaps left by years of maintenance work. And a bit of MDF board near the chimney/service riser in the kitchen (near, not around).
As residents we are told there is no money for improvement. We even have scaffolding around the towers to catch the bus of concrete falling off.
Nearly all tower blocks built in the sixties across the UK are like this.
There is nothing special about Lancaster West or the Brentford Towers.
All of these old blocks had poor fire safety designed in, which overly elites on compartmentalization which has been degraded by poor maintenance.
All of this is exacerbated by councils seeking off the estates to part private entities to manage.
With a fixed income, the only scope for profit is to reduce the costs of maintenance.