a heart full of sadness
By Elizabeth
@Poppylicious (11133)
June 14, 2017 1:20am CST
My first activity every morning involves reaching for my phone and checking what went on in the world as I slept, courtesy of the BBC News app. I think I may have to stop doing it, mostly because it seems to set my mood for the entire day.
Take today. I woke up to find that a tower block is fully alight in West London, that folk are unaccounted for and that the building may collapse.
And now my heart is full of sadness.
It's difficult to comprehend how this can happen in a country which has so many rules and regulations for Health & Safety. A tower block engulfed in flames? People {possibly} trapped? This isn't a third world country!
And my heart is still full of sadness.
14 people like this
13 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
14 Jun 17
It's very shocking and saddening. It seems (from what I can gather) that the block was recently 'refurbished' with plastic panels on the outside and it looks as though that is what caused the fire to spread so dramatically in, according to one report, just 15 minutes.
It looks as though 120 households have lost everything except the clothes they were wearing when they escaped. There is no news of any deaths yet though there are reports of at least one person trapped and one person jumping from a window. I would be surprised (and thankful) if there were no deaths or injuries but feel very sorry for those who have lost everything.
2 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
14 Jun 17
@Poppylicious Sadly, according to the latest reports, 6 deaths have been confirmed and 74 are in hospital, 20 critical. The fire isn't over yet and it'll be a while before we know the full extent. I think it's horrible - truly tragic. I'm at a loss for words.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
I am prepared for LOTS of deaths, but hoping for very few. I saw a photo of two people waving something {a cushion?} near the top of the block and now I'm just really sad because there is no way they could have survived. I can't imagine dying in that way.
@Hannihar (129418)
• Israel
14 Jun 17
Sometimes fires or gas leaks are caused by something in the house that caught fire. It is very sad that they happen. We have had gas links here in Israel and bad technicians did not know what they were doing and caused it. I had a very very bad gas leak in my apartment and it was caught on time and taken care of. i have something for it and also the little things for fire I have too.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
14 Jun 17
Yes thats the modern world ..bad news everyday.
Tower blocks are so bad to live in.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
14 Jun 17
@Poppylicious Here they are saying no alarms went off and other issues:
Eyewitnesses of the Grenfell Tower fire stated fire alarms and sprinklers had not come on as the tower block in west London went up in flames, on Wednesday, ...
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
I would hate to live in a tower block, but I know most people don't have a choice.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
15 Jun 17
@TiarasOceanView They weren't equipped with sprinklers in the building. And the alarm situation is something that is appalling. It's drummed into us that we should have WORKING smoke alarms in our own homes, landlords are legally obliged to install them in rented properties and yet here we have a whole tower block with no working alarms. So sad that this mess could have been less fatal and horrific.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
Company, the government, the local council ... someone is going to have to take the flak.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
15 Jun 17
@LadyDuck Sadly, no. They'll all band together and blame the person whose flat it started in, probably. I can't imagine how *that* person/family feels right now.
1 person likes this
@Hannihar (129418)
• Israel
14 Jun 17
There is a lot of sadness that goes on in this world, but, there is also a lot of good that happens too. I live in Israel and we have had so much to deal with here. We have lost a lot of our people and so young, but, we have also so much good. Our country is so so beautiful and our holidays are very special. We do not give in to what our enemies try to do to us. We believe in life and they believe in hate. I do not know if that helped you any. Everyone has to deal with things in their own way.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
15 Jun 17
@Hannihar I think they think it was just an electrical fault with a fridge.
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
I think this was just a tragic accident rather than something terror related.
@Hannihar (129418)
• Israel
15 Jun 17
@Poppylicious
I guess because there is so much terrorism these days that you never truly know what the cause it. It could have been set on purpose.
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
Bad things happen everywhere. This one just hit me hard because it's my country. :(
1 person likes this
@prashu228 (37526)
• India
14 Jun 17
That's really sad to see where the world is going day by day ..
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
No, the weather is nice. It is definitely the tower block fire which affected my mood.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
Definitely bad, and certainly not something I'd expect to be capable of happening here. :(
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
I wonder if it's addiction to news, or addiction to wanting to be the first to know. Like, I have a friend on Facebook who has to be the first person to post things when BIG news happens. It's an addiction to being involved in everything. :)
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
14 Jun 17
Not just the builders. I suspect the local council and the government will have contributed to issues with the cost and wanting to keep it down.
