Could be a very good idea.

Chinese fire fighting drones for high rise buildings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFqThcMIN7A

It seems after Grenfell nobody really listened.
4 dead so far...

And we're still ripping the stuff off left, right and center here, but we're also very close to having it gone as well.

So much for privitisation.
Why is Thames Water in trouble?
Bills need to rise by 40% says boss
Greedy ******

Boss being pushed hard by the shareholders who have trousered large piles of dough while customer services have gone down the pan.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

There should be no profit-making shareholders in waterworks. Not a market with multiple providers, but a natural monopoly. ...from the basics of economics...

Shocked?...


Post Office pays £250m to law firms over Horizon IT scandal
wrote:

Amount paid to 15 firms and two barristers chambers since 2014 is almost equal to payouts for victims

The Post Office has paid out a quarter of a billion pounds in legal fees in relation to the Horizon IT scandal – almost equal to the amount that has been given so far to victims, some of whom were imprisoned and made bankrupt...

... paid out £256.9m to 15 law firms and two barristers chambers between September 2014 and March 2024...

... £261m has been paid so far to 2,800 claimants...

... A spokesperson added: “The Post Office and the government have so far paid £260m to 2,800 postmasters..."

... A public inquiry into the Post Office is looking into what was known by its executives about problems in the IT system after it was rolled out to branches. The inquiry is due to start its seventh phase later this year...

And for the greatest miscarriage of Justice of all time, will any of the executives go to jail?...

Only in the UK?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Just been doing my usual lunchtime net surfing, mainly BBC news then BBC sports page, saw a live report on a major fire in East London.
Reading the report, a thought instantly came to mind.
Freshwater Road is not a residential area but an industrial one with no flats. Practically the whole road, all the way to Selinas Lane is industrial with the exception of the other end not far from Chadwell Heath station, & they are houses.
I know this because I worked there for 15 months before the firm relocated here.
However time moves on so does "progess".

Looking at the images on that report, popped onto Google Maps. The only building I could see that looked similar was in Kinvara Business Park & it was offices.
The thing from the report that stood ouit for me was the statement from a resident, a pregnant woman living on the 6th fllor.
She was awake at the time & heard no fire alarm or warning but smelt smoke.
On checking , saw people rushing down the stairs so she did the same.

The BBC also put up a seperate viodeo of drome footage & at the bottom of the small write up was a link to more on the story.
Clicking on....

He said: "The building has a number of fire safety issues known to London Fire Brigade."

Grenfell Tower happened in 2017.
Google Maps shows the conversion starting in July 2014 & looked completed in Aug 2015.
It is not known yet what started the fire but this statement...

t's not yet known what caused the fire, but the building's "non-compliant" cladding was in the process of being removed, according to a Facebook post from a contractor.

Freshwater Road fire

Edit: @Martin. In answer to your question, I doubt it very much.

Update.

The LFB has announced that everyone is accounted for. No fatalities.
There is this though.

The first question to Patrick Goulbourne is over the known fire safety issues.
It's not yet known what caused the fire, but the building's "non-compliant" cladding was in the process of being removed, according to a Facebook post from a contractor.

He answers that he doesn't want to "preempt an investigation" and says it is going to require a "very complex investigation", not just to get to the cause, but to understand the spread of the fire.
It's too early to speculate, he says, but adds looking at cladding will form part of the investigation in the coming days.

I’ve been covering that inquiry since 2018, listening to hundreds, possibly thousands of hours of evidence about the layers of opportunities missed and warnings unheeded at every level.
This is a story of corporate deceit, government deregulation drives and a construction industry in a race to the bottom.

As always the government will have no obligation to carry these out. Nor is there a formal process to monitor what they reject or why.
It is another opportunity for change. One we may yet reflect on after future fires.

A shocking report

Buildings wrapped in solid gasoline

Seven years after the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people, its lessons have gone unlearned.

Well, it's finally here, all 1,700 pages of the Grenfell Report phase 2.

The final report on the Grenfell Tower fire shows victims were "failed by calculated dishonesty and greed", bereaved families and survivors say.
In November 2020, lawyers for the bereaved told the public inquiry that companies "assiduously and cynically manufactured or provided products which they knew or suspected to be dangerous, in pursuit of profit".

Victims failed by greed

"assiduously and cynically manufactured or provided products which they knew or suspected to be dangerous, in pursuit of profit".

Ford Pinto.

A tired & well used excuse.

Who is responsible for this catastrophe?

• companies
  
• legislation
  
• governments for enforcing laws
  

Who is responsible for this catastrophe?

• companies
  
• legislation
  
• governments for enforcing laws
  

All the above, plus:

• Individuals
  

People involved in designing, building, refurbishing and managing high-rise residential blocks are traditionally referred to as the 'professional' class. They are (or should be) educated, trained, examined, accredited to standards set by professional bodies. That implies that personal responsibility enters the discussion: people who are complicit in the criminal activities outlined in the report should have their accreditation withdrawn, so that they never work in similar positions in the future.

That should improve behaviour in architecture, manufacturing, inspection and so on. I'm not sure that it would help in financing, if the current professional standard requires simply maximisation of profit and shareholder return.

Absolutely shocking if true.

Caller, who lives near Grenfell, says home not compliant with safety regulations published at 10:59 British Summer Time
A resident who lives in West London, 15 minutes away from the Grenfell Tower, says the building she lives in is not compliant with safety regulations, and "everybody is terrified."
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, the caller - who doesn't want to be named - says the relevant bodies have been informed and her local MP, but claims "no-one is interested".
"I cited Grenfell in one of the court hearings," but the judge was not interested, the caller adds. "Real people have to live with the consequences."

Quote from the BBC's Live report page.

No balls to order a million homeless for years to fix it and no balls to order it paid for.

Call if what it is, greed and the fiduciary duty to the shareholder.

Grenfell is simply explained: firms chased profits, ministers sat on their hands, innocents paid with their lives

But I believe the dark heart of this catastrophe lies in this simple, depressing narrative: the state stepped back, corporate greed stepped in and innocent people died.