Absolutely terrible 
This will again raise the whole questioned about the safety of these tower blocks. In this case it seems the main fire escape staircase was overcome by fire and smoke; it was the only means of escape 
. This should never be the case in the 21st century. These ridiculous 1960/1970 experiments in housing should be demolished, as many have been. But that will take so much money, but to still have families with young children at high levels in the ruddy blocks is beyond comprehension.
When you look at the pictures it is clear that still the fire brigade have not acquired the equipment to fight the fire and provide people with a means of escape at high levels. The Towering Inferno film of 40 years ago has still not got through to the authorities; if people are still going to live in these blocks, then high level fire fighting equipment must be at last provided!
Just terrible!!! 
I was watching this disaster unfold this AM and could not believe that some 8 or 9 hours after the fire was reported, there was, apparently, only one fire hose playing, somewhat pathetically, on the 10th or 11th floor. I cannot believe that our fire services have nothing better in this day and age. Films of firefighting during the WW2 blitz appeared as efficient. Where are the high ladders as in New York?
Standard pumping appliances, the everyday kind seen driven around the streets have 13.5 metre ladders (category 1 appliance), which at full extension reaches the 3rd floor (as in g-1-2-3), and 10.5 metre ladders (cat. 2) which reach the 2nd floor. When behind an appliance you can tell the difference as the 13.5 has a jack beam, a horizontal spherical bar at the foot of the ladder.
Turntable ladders or TLs (old, mostly phased out) and aerial ladder platforms (ALPs) extend to about 32 metres max, subject to conditions and electronically limited. This would get to about the 10th or 11th floor. Some ALPs with greater reach (50m) have tipped up in North America and I don't believe are used here.
2 firefighters with a charged 70mm hose will be working hard directing it anywhere, let alone the 4-5th floors, which is probably as high as it will reach and still be effective. The higher it goes, the more pressure is needed and the harder it is to control. A monitor (device the squirts the water and doesn't need holding) won't go much higher.
Due to the structure of high rises, the only way to effectively fight fires in them is from inside. There are tried and tested procedures for this. 2 teams of 2 BA wearers from 1 and 2 floors below the fire enter with hoses charged from dry risers (used to be wet risers but maintenance too expensive). The dry riser usually has only one inlet. This allows 1 firefighting team and one covering jet. Dry riser outlets on different floors are fed from the same riser. The higher you go the more pressure you need due to gravity and friction loss. Open an outlet lower down and you'll get no or very little pressure higher, assuming of course the riser is capable of delivering the desired amount of water.
There's loads of other factors, but the most important and obvious ones is lack of access and egress from higher up, and crucially, firefighting and rescue capability. Obviously due to a whole range of reasons, like anything, reasonable control measures need to be taken. I can't imagine the logistical nightmare and the level of search and rescue coordination that needed to undertaken at this incident, never mind the difficult decisions that OiCs needed to take, and the moral pressure.
Based on what I know of this incident, and my knowledge of firefighting and the high rise procedures that my brigade has, unfortunately it seems to me that once the fire had spread to 2 adjoining floors above 10-11, the residents above will have been doomed.
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Topic: Tower block fire (Read 31397 times)