Saturday June 24, 2017
An entire housing estate in north London was being evacuated over Friday night after a fire inspection ordered in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster found its tower blocks to be unsafe.
Emergency accommodation was being sought for about 800 households from the five high-rise blocks on the Chalcots estate in Swiss Cottage in the borough of Camden.
The buildings were in the process of being emptied on Friday evening after firefighters said they “could not guarantee our residents’ safety”, the leader of Camden council, Labour’s Georgia Gould, said.
Those affected were being placed in temporary accommodation, including in hotels.
“At the moment all we care about is getting people to safety. The cost we can deal with later,” said Gould. The work to make the blocks safe is expected to take three to four weeks.
“An operation of this scale, at such pace, is not without issues and problems along the way, but we had to do this, we have to act on fire service advice.”
The council initially announced on Friday that only one tower, Taplow, which contains 161 households, was to be “temporarily decanted”.
But within the hour, Gould said the decision had been taken to evacuate the whole estate. She said: “We think at the moment it’s about 800 [households], but it’s an emerging picture.”
A rest centre for residents was set up at Swiss Cottage library, she said, adding that efforts by council staff to process residents’ cases there were getting under way immediately.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, a spokesman for Camden council said hundreds of hotel beds had been secured for Chalcots residents.
“We’re encouraging all residents to stay with friends and family if they can, otherwise we’ll provide accommodation. Swiss Cottage rest centre is nearing capacity so we’ve secured more space at the Camden Centre King’s Cross.
“Specialist staff are on the ground to assist residents with care needs. Pets are also welcome at both rest centres and hotel accommodation.”
The council had already announced that it would immediately begin preparing to remove cladding from five towers on the estate that was discovered in an inspection ordered after the Grenfell disaster in north Kensington, which killed at least 79 people.
But Gould said residents had since shared fire safety concerns that she had not previously been aware of, and that fire safety experts who inspected the estate on Friday had informed her that they could not guarantee the tenants’ safety.
She said: “We realise that this is hugely distressing for everyone affected and we will be doing all we can, alongside London fire brigade and other authorities, to support our residents at this difficult time.
“The Grenfell fire changes everything – we need to do everything we can to keep residents safe.”
On Thursday the council said its safety inspection found that while the cladding and insulation were different from that used on Grenfell Tower, the former “did not satisfy our independent laboratory testing or the high standards we set for contractors”.
In a letter sent to residents the council said it was “taking legal advice”.
Gould said that those people affected by the evacuation should go to Swiss Cottage library in Avenue Road for more information, and asked anyone who was able to stay with friends or relatives to do so. She was unable to say exactly how many people were being removed from their homes.
Michelle Urquhart, a resident of the Chalcots estate’s Bray Tower, told the Press Association on Friday: “It’s a bit frightening. They are talking about evacuating all five blocks.
“At the moment, they haven’t done it and they are saying they will knock on everyone’s doors when they are ready.
“I don’t know where we are going to go. One man in a suit said to me: ‘You can’t stay here tonight.’
“I’m so angry because we had the meeting with the council last night and they tried to reassure us. We have been living in these flats for the last 10 years with this cladding.”
Kim Price, a teacher who lives in Blashford Tower with her 14-year-old son, said: “I really don’t know what to do. I’m so scared right now. The news has said: ‘Get out now.’ But the authorities have said: ‘Stay put.’
“But why now? At 4pm today, they said it would be OK and that all the checks were fine. And now, all of a sudden, the news is saying we should get out.
“I have family in Wales who are saying: ‘Come here, we’ll come and get you.’
“I’ve tried calling the council and all you’re getting is nothing. All they’re saying is: ‘You’re safe inside.’
“We’ve had two letters in two days saying ‘You’re not safe’ then ‘You’re safe.’
“I don’t really know what to do. I don’t really trust them, to be honest. But it’s not their fault either – it’s a very big thing to take on. They couldn’t have foreseen this. I just want to be safe.”
Camden council said officials were knocking on doors – one block at a time for safety reasons, starting at Taplow, then working through Burnham, Bray, Blashford and Dorney.
A spokesman added that residents would be allowed back at the weekend to collect possessions under escort from the fire brigade.
The evacuation came as four more victims of Grenfell Tower were formally identified, taking the known victims of the fire to nine. Scotland Yard also revealed that detectives were keeping open the option of bringing manslaughter charges relating to the blaze.
Refurbishment on the Chalcots estate was overseen by Rydon, the company involved in the refit of Grenfell Tower, according to the firm’s website.
Theresa May’s official account tweeted:
Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, the constituency where Chalcots is situated, backed the council’s decision as “the right thing” to do.
She said: “If you think someone’s in danger, especially in light of Grenfell, you take the first decision even if it’s not ideal.
“Off the back of the meeting we had last night, in which lots of residents raised concerns, Camden council and London fire brigade did the right thing which was to carry out the safety checks.
“Once they’d checked out the internal machinery, they decided that the buildings are not fit for purpose. So they’ve made a decision that couldn’t have been easy for the council to rehouse the 800 households that we have.
“It may seem dramatic to some people but if you are in a position of responsibility then I think it’s the right decision to make.”
Siddiq said that all the hotels booked for residents so far were within the borough.
The Teesside Gazette reported on Friday night that a block of flats in the area had been found to be clad with combustible materials.
The housing company Thirteen Group had initially said all of its 20 buildings were safe. But further checks revealed that one – the Kennedy Gardens high-rise in Billingham – had been partially clad with “grade three cladding”.
The council did not plan an evacuation, the paper reported, and would instead begin removing the cladding on Monday morning.