LONDON: A report on a deadly apartment block fire in London condemned the London Fire Brigade and concluded that fewer people would have died if the building were evacuated more quickly.
Britain’s Press Association said the leaked report, which was to be published Wednesday, also accused brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton of “remarkable insensitivity” for testifying that she would not have done anything differently in the early hours of the June 14, 2017 blaze that killed 72 people at Grenfell Tower.
Inquiry chairman Martin Moore-Bick criticized a fire department policy that led to residents in the public housing building being told to stay in their apartments to await rescue. The order remained in place for nearly two hours after the blaze broke out just before 1 a.m., and was not rescinded until 2.47 a.m. as the building was engulfed in flames.
“That decision could and should have been made between 1:30 a.m. and 1:50 a.m. and would be likely to have resulted in fewer fatalities,” he said.
Moore-Beck said the “principal reason” the flames shot up the sides of Grenfell Tower was the presence of relatively new combustible aluminum composite cladding with polyethylene cores, which acted as a “source of fuel.” While he had not planned to determine whether the building complied with fire regulations at this stage in the investigation, Moore-Beck said there was compelling evidence that the tower’s external walls “actively promoted” the fire.
The report concluded the fire started as the result of an electrical fault in a large fridge-freezer but noted the resident of the apartment where the fire broke out bore no blame for the tragedy that killed so many people and displaced scores of families.
Some activists said they brought fire-safety concerns to the local government body responsible for the building even before the blaze.
There was no immediate reaction to the fire report, since it was leaked.
Those most directly involved in the Grenfell Tower tragedy were given an advance look at the document, but were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements until the report is officially released. Several organizations, including the London Fire Brigade, said they would only be able to respond on Wednesday when the report became public.
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London Fire Brigade heavily criticized for Grenfell Tower blaze
London Fire Brigade heavily criticized for Grenfell Tower blaze
- Some activists said they brought fire-safety concerns to the local government body responsible for the building even before the blaze
- There was no immediate reaction to the fire report, since it was leaked
Pardoned Honduran ex-president praises Trump
WASHINGTON: The recently freed former president of Honduras praised US President Donald Trump Wednesday for opening “a lot of people’s eyes in Honduras” by supporting conservative presidential candidate Nasry Asfura.
Juan Orlando Hernandez was freed from serving a 45-year sentence in a US prison after receiving a presidential pardon from Trump, and he is presumed to be staying at an unknown location.
“The Honduran people sent a clear message. Overwhelmingly, they rejected the failed ideology of the radical left, the socialism coming from Venezuela,” Hernandez said in an interview with far-right broadcaster One America News (OAN).
“But we have to understand that they have a playbook. You know, every single election I won, even before the day of the election, the radical left also would say, ‘if we don’t win, we are not going to recognize the results.’“
Trump-backed businessman Asfura has a razor-thin lead in the presidential election over TV personality Salvador Nasralla — also a conservative — but votes are still being counted amid claims of interference.
Suspicions of fraud have been fueled by successive computer failures that have stalled tallying.
The ruling party in Honduras, led by leftist president Xiomara Castro, has rejected the provisional results giving Asfura a slim lead.
The left maintains Trump’s support of Asfura and his pardon of Hernandez amounted to electoral interference.
Extradited by Honduras to face charges in the United States and convicted of drug trafficking, the former leader insists it was all a setup carried out by the previous presidential administration of Joe Biden because his policies were too conservative.
Hernandez did not reveal his plans or whether he plans to seek asylum in the United States.
“My priority right now is how I can reunite with my family. I haven’t seen them in four years,” he said.
Asked whether he would be willing to seek asylum in Israel, where he forged strong ties by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital, Hernandez said it would be “a very complicated move, and I don’t have any financial support to do that.”
In Honduras, the current government’s prosecutor’s office has reopened the arrest warrant facing Hernandez.
“Isn’t that a clear example of political persecution? What I’m going to do right now, I’m working with my lawyers,” he said.
Hernandez added that if he returns to Honduras he will not only face the “political charges, but also there are some documents from the FBI and other US agencies that say there are people who want to target my life and my family.”
Juan Orlando Hernandez was freed from serving a 45-year sentence in a US prison after receiving a presidential pardon from Trump, and he is presumed to be staying at an unknown location.
“The Honduran people sent a clear message. Overwhelmingly, they rejected the failed ideology of the radical left, the socialism coming from Venezuela,” Hernandez said in an interview with far-right broadcaster One America News (OAN).
“But we have to understand that they have a playbook. You know, every single election I won, even before the day of the election, the radical left also would say, ‘if we don’t win, we are not going to recognize the results.’“
Trump-backed businessman Asfura has a razor-thin lead in the presidential election over TV personality Salvador Nasralla — also a conservative — but votes are still being counted amid claims of interference.
Suspicions of fraud have been fueled by successive computer failures that have stalled tallying.
The ruling party in Honduras, led by leftist president Xiomara Castro, has rejected the provisional results giving Asfura a slim lead.
The left maintains Trump’s support of Asfura and his pardon of Hernandez amounted to electoral interference.
Extradited by Honduras to face charges in the United States and convicted of drug trafficking, the former leader insists it was all a setup carried out by the previous presidential administration of Joe Biden because his policies were too conservative.
Hernandez did not reveal his plans or whether he plans to seek asylum in the United States.
“My priority right now is how I can reunite with my family. I haven’t seen them in four years,” he said.
Asked whether he would be willing to seek asylum in Israel, where he forged strong ties by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital, Hernandez said it would be “a very complicated move, and I don’t have any financial support to do that.”
In Honduras, the current government’s prosecutor’s office has reopened the arrest warrant facing Hernandez.
“Isn’t that a clear example of political persecution? What I’m going to do right now, I’m working with my lawyers,” he said.
Hernandez added that if he returns to Honduras he will not only face the “political charges, but also there are some documents from the FBI and other US agencies that say there are people who want to target my life and my family.”
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