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Clean up crews move in on fire block (From Ealing Times)
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Clean up crews move in on fire block
10:50am Tuesday 12th August 2008
FIRE fighters have started to pack up their equipment at the scene of a huge fire which tore through flats in Greenford last night.
Residents living near Thurlestone Court in Howard Road, on the Golf Links Estate, have told how the fire tore along the plastic roof of the building and completely decimated a flat on the top floor of the four-storey building.
Steven Hunter, 26, who has lived in a flat on the ground floor of the building all his life said “I'm devastated something like this could happen.
“It's a total nightmare. We can't get in and they haven't told us how bad the damage is, but they say there could be water damage.
“My dad was in at the time and he was actually just leaving to go out when he saw a fire engine pull up and turned round and saw the whole roof was on fire.”
More than 70 residents were evacuated from the block, and spent the night with family or in emergency accommodation provided by Ealing Council.
Mr Hunter said: “The council have been really good. They put us up in Greenford Hall and provided food and drink there so at least we had somewhere to go.
“I spent last night at my ex-partner's house, but we do not know where we will be able to go yet.
“I'm not worried about things like TVs, it more the personal things like photographs which you can't replace.”
A meeting is taking place to establish the extent of the damage, and residents should learn today whether they will be able to return home.
Clean up crews are also poised to go into the grounds, although debris is still blowing off the roof and fire crews are still damping down hotspots.
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The clean up begins.PICTURE: Simon Jacobs.
Cleaning up the debris. PICTURE:Simon Jacobs.
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Moondialc, says...
4:05pm Tue 12 Aug 08
Given that Ealing Council have made no secret they want to sell off the land for redevelopment it'll be interesting to see what they plan on doing now with the block which is completely salvageable with no major structural damage. It'll also be interesting to see what exactly happens to the undamaged blocks either side of Thurlestone because Ealing Council's plans for that land involve demolishing all three blocks for "redevelopment" so it might not only be the people of Thurlestone Court who find themselves homeless, the residents of Panmure & Disley could be in the same position.
And given that the same thing happened 12 years ago when the roof of Selsdon Court went up in flames (and the block demolished and the land sold off then to a Housing Association then too) why exactly weren't the roofs fireproofed afterwards (which people were assured they were.) Whatever the reason it was Ealing Council that were in charge at the time so good luck finding anyone responsible though clearly they intend on taking the credit for any clear-up.
More importantly there are other blocks on the estate that have the same flammable roofs but given that a lot of this "redevelopment" involves most of these blocks coming down too and the land being sold off it'll be interesting to see whether they bother to fireproof these roofs or decide it'll be "economical" to not bother and use this as an excuse for redevelopment and sell off people's homes from under them.
Rumours are people from Thurlestone are already being "offered" new permanent accomodation which would clear that block out nicely now wouldn't it?