Most UK High rise flats/apartments only have one escape route when it comes to fires or any evacuation in that matter.
Lifts are rendered unusable in a fire, fire doors in landings and access doors to the stairwells which should always be closed to keep stairwells safe are often held open with bricks, overflowing and blocked bin chutes are a massive problem with some levels having no doors on the refuse/bin chutes, this alone can cause devastation if the bins are set on fire, smoke and potential flames can be funnelled up the chutes, not to mention blockages in the chutes causing the fire to accelerate,
Who thought these chutes were a good idea?
Although none of these were the cause of the Grenfell tower fire these may have not helped the situation, these are just some of the potential areas needing to be addressed,
All councils are checking for external cladding but they are overlooking some of the other apparent dangers,
Personally in the line of work I do I have on occasion set off the fire alarms by mistake but I find the these were only installed or working on blocks that were for housing of the elderly,
Again another problem, why house vulnerable elderly people in these high rise buildings, we are talking about human lives here, there is no higher price to pay than the loss of a loved one. Why do certain councils find this acceptable?
Personally I just wouldn't feel safe staying in one, I know for many they don't have a choice, and it may often come down to certain people that are housed in these environments that are adding to the dangers,
Fires in high rise buildings are not uncommon, these can happen in any country, hotels flats apartments are all at risk, Dubai New York china it can happen anywhere.
Part 2 coming shortly with some ideas that could help prevent this kind of deviation happening again