Hacker News Reader

Comment by 88 | Hacker News Reader

Not familiar with the detail of the incident, but it sounds hyperbolic to me.

Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 there’s been much greater scrutiny on fire safety in apartment buildings.

Imagine an alternative scenario in which Peabody leave the table in situ, a fire breaks out, and in the rush to escape the building it is knocked over, blocking egress and causing serious injury or death.

I would also point out Peabody are a housing association, not the archetypal faceless international luxury property developer this article is otherwise attempting to vilify.

View on HN

Industry and government love to blame the little guy.

The fact is, the Grenfell disaster wouldn't have happened if the local council had used the proper materials during construction. To conflate this with a table in a lobby is odd.

I don't think it's conflating, so much as increased awareness being inferred.

>Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 there’s been much greater scrutiny on fire safety in apartment buildings.

I don't know. The subject comes up every now and then on the radio, and i am shocked anew by how little seems to be getting done. The subject of cladding seems to have been relegated to the endless and exhausting realm of Whitehall bureaucracy (the finest in the world), instead of being treated as the national emergency it is. I saw the plume of smoke rising from Grenfell tower, and the criminally sluggish response of our government to adress it seems incredible.

Of course there are tiresome legal and political battles about who will pick up the bill for remediation activities. When the cost for individual buildings is in the millions of pounds, that is to be expected.

But to suggest little has been done is nonsense. Essentially everyone involved in high-rise buildings has been spurred into action in one way or another, from residents to developers, contractors, property managers, insurers, mortgage lenders, etc.

This flurry of activity has also uncovered a raft of other construction defects or fire safety issues in buildings beyond combustible cladding.

Don't see why apartment owners should be forced to carry the buck.

You solve these problems with buy-ins: either make them see it that way themselves or make them sign an insurance discharge that fire damages wont be covered.

It s fine to die in a fire, what s not fine is to then sue the building manager over a table you refused to remove.

What if just one out of several residents does not consent? What about guests who visit?

It’s far easier just to remove the fire hazard and absolve the housing authority of any liability.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com