Grenfell Tower

• FROM the terrible early morning of June 14 I could see from the windows of my Soho flat the huge mass of black smoke above Kensington, and watched the TV coverage as firefighters walked into Hell.

Much has become clear since; that Kensington council created a death trap and then virtually abandoned those who, with nothing, barely managed to survive it.

But for people in any doubt that such a thing could happen here, let me provide some details. First, the words “upgrade” and “improvement” do not mean what they seem to when used by a council.

My mother was among the very first tenants to move into the block where I now live, so I know its history. The block has attractive wood-panelled balconies, and at the beginning everyone was warned that they must not on any account paint the wood, which had been specially treated.

Yet from the first time the balconies were “upgraded” by the council in the 1970s, ordinary brown paint was slapped on the balcony walls. We’re coming up to yet another “upgrade” at the moment, and I’d give a lot to know how many layers of the cheap and nasty paint that have been slapped on over the years are flame retardant.

And, no, of course we don’t have sprinklers, who does in council blocks? But we don’t have working lifts either and that isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s a danger, when people get trapped as they have been, again and again.

This year, after a council-speak lift “improvement” programme, during which residents endured an unprecedented lack of consideration from contemptuous engineers, we have been left with lifts immeasurably less reliable than they were before.

One or the other has continually failed, and sometimes both. And repair work is constant.

When an elderly lady with terrible asthma was trapped, our caretaker phoned to ask how soon anyone could attend to free her, and was given an estimate of three or four hours. Knowing she could not survive, he phoned the fire brigade, who arrived within minutes.

Because that’s what the fire brigade do. Cut their numbers to the bone, close streets to bar their way and still, somehow, they will come when they’re needed. And when they have fought a terrible inferno and, like the pitiful people who once lived in Grenfell Tower, they are left emotionally scarred by scenes and experiences.

They will need counselling, one of their representatives agreed the day after the disaster, but along with all the other cuts, the number of fire brigade counsellors was cut from 14 to two. Firefighters lose their lives doing their job, as do the police; and both services have suffered untenable cuts.

Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for a halt to the further police cuts currently planned, but that’s the least of what should happen. We need a restoration of the numbers in the fire brigade and the police force to serve and care for a city as large and as densely populated as London.

How else are the fire brigade to have time and personnel enough to carry out safety checks and essential inspections, especially of the “upgrades” and “improvements” carried out by councils?

And how else are we to have any security at all, because no one in a council property can rely on a council for that.

ALIDA BAXTER
Dufours Place, W1