Thousands of
residents in a sprawling north London housing estate were forced to leave their
apartments late on Friday after fire checks carried out in the wake of the
deadly Grenfell Tower blaze found the buildings to be unsafe.
Amid chaotic
scenes, residents clutching children, pets and small amounts of clothing and
food emerged from five tower blocks to sleep on air beds in a local sports
center after hearing on the news that their buildings were being evacuated.
Fire checks
have been carried out on some 600 high-rise buildings across England after a
fire ravaged a social tower block in west London last week, killing at least 79
people.
"I know
it's difficult but Grenfell changes everything," Georgia Gould, Leader of
Camden Council, said in a statement late on Friday. "I don't believe we
can take any risks with our residents' safety."
Police
investigating the cause of the deadly 24-storey Grenfell Tower blaze have said
the fire started in a fridge but spread rapidly due to the use of external
cladding on the building, trapping residents in their beds as they slept.
The cladding
has since failed all safety checks.
The fire has
become a flashpoint for public anger at Prime Minister Theresa May's record in
government and cuts to local authority budgets. Grenfell Tower is situated in
Kensington, one of the richest boroughs in Europe.
Battling to
save her position after losing her majority in a June 8 election, May has
promised to do everything she can to protect those residents who survived the
fire and to improve the quality and safety of public housing in Britain.
The London
Fire Brigade said it had found a number of fire safety issues at the Chalcots
Estate in Camden, north London, and advised that residents should leave the
building until they were resolved.
Residents
complained of first hearing about the evacuation from the media and getting
very short notice to leave from city officials going door to door. Not all
residents agreed to go.
The
council's leader, Gould, said it would take up to four weeks to repair the
blocks that were evacuated and said that some 4,000 residents were affected.
"It was
farcical communication," 21-year-old Daniel Tackaberry told Reuters
outside a nearby sports center where the local council had laid out air beds
for people for whom they could not find hotels.
"You
don't get everyone to leave this quickly."
British
police have said they are considering bringing manslaughter charges over the
Grenfell fire, the most deadly blaze in London since World War Two.
Detective
Superintendent Fiona McCormack was asked on Friday whether the insulation and
aluminium tiles used on Grenfell were acceptable for such buildings. "No
they're not," she said.
"All I
can say at the moment is they don't pass any of the safety tests. So that will
form part of what is a manslaughter investigation."
As well as
possible manslaughter, police will consider health and safety offences and
breaches of other building regulations.
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