UK: Camden residents speak of ill treatment during tower block evacuation
By
our reporters
26 June 2017
Thousands of the poorest residents in north London’s Camden borough were evacuated from their homes this weekend, after fire experts told the local council they could not guarantee the tower blocks they lived in were safe.
Cladding on the blocks was carried out by the companies involved in refurbishing Grenfell Tower, west London, which turned into an inferno when a fire in one apartment spread rapidly, resulting in the deaths of at least 79 people.
The Camden evacuation followed a meeting with tenants in which concerns were raised about many aspects of safety, including fire doors and insulation of gas pipes, in addition to the cladding.
The evacuation of Chalcots Estate began Friday at 8:30 p.m. after Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said that she had been told by the Fire Brigade there was “nothing to do to make blocks safe that night.” Four of the blocks—Taplow, Burnham, Bray and Dorney—were evacuated while one, Blashford, was deemed safe as it has different “design elements” and fire doors and is not as tall.
The evacuation operation was manned primarily by volunteers, mainly Camden Council staff, who had been contacted by text and asked to give their time for free. “Obviously I want to help the residents and that is why I am here,” one told the World Socialist Web Site, “but really it’s a bit cheeky to ask us to come and give up our time to sort out a mess that they created.”
Residents complained that nobody really knew what was going on. While the volunteers were doing their best, there was no proper…