Did anyone see this terrible fire in London?

Really appalling.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...wer-block.html

Incredibly sad, was watching a film last night and when finished I usually turn straight to the BBC news and first thing up on the screen was this massive tower block, was watching live at 2ish in the morning a tower block entirely up in flames.

Looks like it's due to one fire in a flat that with the proper building regulations in place and dodgy materials used wouldn't have spread to the rest of the building apparently...

Apparently there were no fire sprinklers & only a single staircase out of the building. Heads are gonna start rolling on this one.

I read earlier that the cheap plastic cladding demanded by the wealthy homeowners so they don't have to look at "ugly public housing" might have escalated the fire. So money for aesthetics but not fire safety? Good God.

Certainly horrific. I feel for London right now, but its way of life will take it.

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I never want to live in a high rise. Even when I lived in a 2nd floor apartment, I knew where the trees were that I could leap onto from the windows in an emergency.

I also feel bad for England - been a rough year with repeated Islamic Terror attacks, cities infested with growing terrorist breeding grounds & support communities, and now this.

BTW, what are the correct terminologies in the U.K.?
United Kingdom is the name of the entire country and includes all of the global territories, properties and commonwealths?
England is the name of the actual island, but can also be used for the country?
The British Isles represents the cluster of islands near the big one in the North Atlantic (but does it include various others around the world)?
So is Great Britain just another name of the overall country?

I will try my best to explain.

It is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is what it says on a British passport. The U.K. comprises the constituent countries of England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland. The nationality of the U.K. is British. One cannot obtain an English, Scottish, Welsh, or N.I. passport.

As I said, England is what is called a constituent country. I.e., it is a country within a country. I either say I am British or I am English. (I also have American citizenship.)

Great Britain is also the name of the part of the U.K. that comprises England, Scotland & Wales. The British Isles usually refers to GB plus the numerous small islands surrounding it.

Back in the day, U.K. wasn't used like it is today. We had a passport that made no mention of the U.K. When I address an envelope back home I always put the United Kingdom now. No clue why this is so. I wonder if modern-day Brits refer to themselves as being from the U.K. these days?

The British Commonwealth, of which Queen Elizabeth II is the head, and which comprises 52 member states, is now called The Commonwealth of Nations.

Thanks @Stirchley!
Now can you explain to the Amish Americans that non-Amish Americans are not "the English"?

Also, is the "highland" of Scotland actually higher in altitude or just "higher" on the map when viewing Great Britain with north at the top?

Depressing as hell. One positive (wouldn't even call it a positive because this wouldn't have happened if there wasn't a fire but you know what i mean) is that a woman threw her baby out a window after begging people to catch it and some superhero dude ran out and caught it somehow. That guy is the best.

It's actual highland. The Scottish from good mountain warriors because of this , and were used to fight pathans on British india' s Afghan border during the time of British empire.

Horrible. Apparently, it went up like a matchstick due to the "cladding" (never even heard of that before). I read that it was put up to conform to environmental regulations because it's supposed to make buildings more energy efficient (apparently, hundreds of council buildings did the same all over the country). What seems to be weird is that no one knew it was (is) flammable? Seems to me when you have dozens of agencies and authorities each regulating the same thing with opposing rules, something gets lost in the process - in this case, lives.

I work in a medical office - the amount of inspections we have with each authority telling us things that are mandatory and which are sometimes completely contradictory to each other is just mind boggling. Can't imagine what it must be like for a council building run by who knows how many agencies or authorities.

So sad

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How right you are! I get nervous with anything above the 3rd floor. I hate high floors, they give me clausterphobia.

Some of the victims were refugees who escaped places like Syria to get away from the war, only to be killed in their new home/country by a fire that probably could have been prevented.

The first victim found was a 23 year old Syrian refugee whose life goal was to eventually go back and help fix his country. One douche bag on FB said 'should have stayed at home and fought for your country and it's people instead of invading a foreign country.'

Utterly heartless, and get this, he lives in Australia and has a name that is definitely not indigenous so either he or his ancestors invaded 'a foreign country'. Just disgusting people think it's acceptable to talk about a human being who just lost his life in what you said was probably a fire that could have been prevented.

I lived on the 5th of 23 floors in high-rise flats until i was 10 and the woman right below me died in a fire when i was 6 or something. I had completely forgot about that until my mum mentioned it today.

Not wanting to pile on the sadness but it was really weird that i hadn't thought about that in at least 15 years then as soon as she mentioned it i could remember it clearly.

Thanks Mark, and you're right. These inner cities of ours have shown their guts and their sense of community in the last few weeks. Our population is not divided and infested with terrorist breeding grounds, we've pulled together like we've always done, we might be a lot more cosmopolitan than we used to be we're all Brits together. It's a good job there were men coming home from the mosques in the early hours of the morning during Ramadan who helped get a lot of those people out of the flats.
The goodness and kindness of people at times like this is overwhelming, but the suffering of those poor people involved is heartbreaking.

I see what you did there, Christine!

And much love and thanks to all our emergency services and our NHS