BBC Scotland is surprisingly restrained in the above reporting with no direct connection made to Grenfell. There are however, two ‘hot’ wee links in the report, to other stories about it.
Regulars will know this already but I repeat it in the public interest:
From BBC Glasgow & West today [25/9/22]:
Firefighters have extinguished a blaze which broke out at a tower block in the south side of Glasgow.
Emergency services were alerted to the incident in Shawhill Road, Shawlands, at about 21:00 on Saturday.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service dispatched eight fire engines. Large plumes of smoke were seen coming from windows on the block’s upper floors.
The fire was reported as extinguished after 22:00. It is understood there were no reported casualties.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63023916
Why did this fire not spread to other floors and with terrible consequences?
Simple: Cavity Fire Barriers.
What?
These:
Reader Gordon Darge wrote for us in January 2020:
As a chartered architect in Scotland for 40 years I can confirm that the Building Regulations Technical Standards Scotland have for two decades required cavity fire barriers
2.4 Cavities
Mandatory Standard
Standard 2.4
Every building must be designed and constructed in such a way that in the event of an outbreak of fire within the building, the spread of fire and smoke within cavities in its structure and fabric is inhibited.
This includes for example, around the head, jambs and sill of an external door or window opening, at all floor levels and building corners etc. to prevent the spread of fire in building cavities. This would have prevented the spread of the fire at Grenfell Tower.
This is difficult and expensive to achieve and I can only guess that in England they did not follow the Scottish model because Westminster and the Tories were led by the vested interests of big business, property developers and large construction firms.
For anyone wanting more info see:
Cavity fire barriers prevent this:
The Chimney Effect
As I understand it, it is not so much the flammability of the material used as the construction of the external cladding to deny the spread of fire via a chimney effect.
They worked in tower block fire in 2021:
a fire in 2021 which was contained within one floor and had no casualties:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-58046347According to BBC Scotland:
Residents of a multi-storey block of flats in Glasgow had to be evacuated after a fire broke out on the 17th floor. Fire crews were called to the block on Lincoln Avenue in the Knightswood area of the city at 04:08. Residents were safely removed from the building by the fire service and there were no casualties. A total of nine fire appliances attended the incident which took about five hours to bring under full control. A spokeswoman for Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “Operations control mobilised nine appliances to Lincoln Avenue where the fire was affecting the 17th floor of the multi-storey block of flats.” The spokeswoman said residents from the 17th and 18th floors were removed and the fire has been extinguished.
No towering inferno.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
The Tories voted against higher building regulations. Under Cameron. Fire fighters put out fires. Grenfell was a disaster of incompetence and mismanagement.
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Of course, neither the Tories nor their media mouthpieces present it as ‘higher building regulations’.
They call it ‘red tape’ and red tape must be SLASHED!
And it must be slashed because it is a COST and costs are BAD THINGS because they reduce PROFIT.
And, there is a duty on boards to MAXIMISE SHAREHOLDER RETURN.
This means their duty is not to the rest of us or to society as a whole, it is to ensure that shareholders can rake off as much as possible.
So, a fire in Grenfell Tower with many deaths? Nothing to do with us. They would not have had flats had we not invested money. Anyway, they CHOSE to live in that block. That’s what the market is all about – CONSUMER CHOICE. And if the consumer makes a bad choice??? Caveat emptor, as the legal johnnies say.
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If as the article says these regulations were brought in 20 years ago in Scotland then it was a Labour Gov under Tony Blair that was in power at Weestminster so not just the Tories to blame.
What is surprising is that the Scottish Executive at that time in Holyrood was a Labour/LibDem coalition so why did the big brothers down south not take note of what the Scottish branch was doing?
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Off topic, but worthy of sharing because of the inherent bias revealed by the BBC journalist. It is an article about the continuing sorry tale of the privatised cash cows known as the ‘Water Companies’. This article refers to major shit dumper, Thames Water, but is clearly sympathetic to the company’s shareholders (a.k.a. – rent-seekers).
The following phrase appears early in the article:
“….. to fight the threat of government control …..”
It is an ‘everyday story of billionaire folk struggling against selfish oiks wanting clean water’.
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Thanks for giving the info on Scotland’s regulations.
Once more a ‘public service’ blogger fills – for free – the vacuum in provision of important public service information left by the so called ‘public service’ broadcaster with it publicly subsided, extensive journalistic and research resources!
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Seems the email system booted out my regular updates from your good self, yet again. Happens often with the WeeGingerDug too.
Sinister, or what…
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And let us never forget who as mayor made massive cuts to London Fire Brigade 4 years before the Grenfell disaster unfolded…. One Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson….
Scottish Fire and Rescue may have economies to make with the funding screw being applied all the way from the home city of Grenfell, but thank whatever God you worship that Scots were never dumb enough to be fooled by a total charlatan…
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