Tower block disasters

The fire that raged through 24 storey Grenfell Tower, which has killed 79 people, is the deadliest in London during the 21^st century, and the worst ever in a UK tower block. Another fourteen people are in hospital.

Until now, London’s most notorious tower block disaster was Ronan Point in Newham in 1968. The building had 23 storeys and was brand new. Families had been in for only two months when at six o’ clock on a May morning, they were woken by a huge explosion and some found their walls ripped away, leaving them staring at a fearful drop just a few feet away.

The whole of one corner had simply fallen away. On floor after floor, furniture was left perched on the edge of the abyss. Five people were killed and eleven injured.

The cause was a gas explosion on the 18^th floor – the result of a substandard brass nut connecting a cooker to the gas supply. The council repaired the block and moved tenants back in, but the explosion was a major blow to the prestige of tower blocks, and in 1986, Ronan Point was demolished.

For the story, see London’s Disasters. From Boudicca to the Banking Crisis.

Bhopal + 28 - protests and a museum

On the 28^th anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster, victims and their supporters held rallies to complain that they have still not been adequately compensated.    A march on the residence of a leading politician to deliver a letter was halted by police.

Activists complain that still no one has been properly called to account for the disaster, in which poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from Union Carbide’s plant, killing perhaps 3,800 people in the immediate aftermath and causing illness and death to many thousands more in the years that followed.

Meanwhile the ‘Remember Bhopal Trust’ is setting up a mobile museum made up of articles donated by the families of victims, including materials used in protests over the last 28 years.  From December 2013, it will tour India on a bus.

The curator says they have refused any government funding, arguing the government ‘has no moral authority to set up the museum as they were themselves a party to the gas disaster.'  (See also my blogs of Aug 1, 2009; June 7, and July 13, 2010.)

The madness of crowds

In its review of A Disastrous History of the World, Geographical Magazine wrote “Perhaps most chilling are the tales of stampedes and mass panics – those tragedies that occur, in other words, when people are attempting to escape from something that might have proved less fatal.”

One such story has its anniversary today. On January 18, 1887, the Hebrew Dramatic Club in London’s Spitalfields was putting on a “benefit night” for members with financial problems. It attracted about 400 people, and as the show moved towards its climax, some young men in the gallery wanted to get a better view, and tried to haul themselves up on a gas pipe. It cracked, and as the audience smelt gas, someone shouted “fire”. There was no fire, but the gas was turned off, and the hall plunged into darkness. As people rushed desperately for the exits, 16 – mainly women and children – were crushed to death in the stampede.