Another tragedy rocks Britain

Many of those who are still missing, or who have been injured or are dead in the fire at the 24-storey building in London, are from the Caribbean or from Ireland or are immigrants from places such as Syria. Telephone calls and conversations across the waters continue to occur with intense frequency as the full scale of the Grenfell Tower fire slowly sinks in and relatives try and source information.

The faces of survivors interviewed are, for the most part, black or brown. The response to the tragedy is overwhelming as divisions and biases cease to matter.

People are learning through sheer force of circumstance that community is important and that it is human life that matters. As with so many other events in the last few months across Europe and the United Kingdom, families invite strangers into their homes, offer beds, food and support. The whole tragedy has demonstrated the humanity that resides in ordinary people as reporters focus on a flow of aid with young and old bringing blankets, clothes, toiletries and basic necessities.

Everyone wants to help. Jeremy Corbyn is seen hugging a victim while Theresa May orders a public enquiry.

In a deeply ironic twist that sets on its head the whole racist agenda currently sweeping through so many parts of the world and stirred by terrorism and bigotry, Muslims returning from morning prayers during Ramadan were amongst the first to see the fire and to awaken residents. They immediately provided food and clothes for those who fled from the inferno. Without them the death toll would be considerably more.

Even as this was happening, members of the far right group Britain First were shooting a video claiming that “we have to take our country back” from Muslims.

This fire is not the result of a terrorist attack. It is far worse. It has resulted from bureaucratic indifference or perhaps a lack of expertise since those with the responsibility for certifying the building as fit for habitation may not have been qualified. The tragedy may have issued from sheer human greed. It certainly was in part caused, it would seem, because bureaucracy really does not take account of the cost of protecting human life.

News reports have kept on repeating over the past few days that residents had complained on several occasions that the highrise building was unsafe and had even warned that some form of disaster might happen, but no one listened. One wonders whether this failure to take heed has anything to do with the fact that these occupants are, for the most part, the children of immigrants or are themselves recently arrived.

The building was refurbished only recently at a cost of over eight million sterling, but the cladding used on the outside to make it more attractive may have been the cause of the fire and its combustive force. It in fact created a “chimney effect.” Firefighters could not actually get at the flames as they rose.

There was only one escape route according to reports and apparently fire alarms did not go off.

Reports from several sources claim that the Grenfell Action Group had informed officials that the block “constituted a fire risk” and there was no adequate access route if there was a fire. But those with official responsibility declared the building fit. Equally problematic was the fact that residents were told to stay put and await rescue. Fortunately, many did not heed this advice.

The death toll was initially given as 12, even as stories were filtering through of piled bodies and entire families unaccounted for.

The figure rose to 17 once the firefighters got the blaze under control and it became apparent that there were no more survivors.

The death toll will continue to rise.

In a world where so much death and destruction occur on a daily basis, the sheer pettiness and heedlessness that led to this particular carnage are the things that really make us wonder.

Has bureaucracy arrived at a point where the human person is only an excuse for the continuing justification of administration, which has now taken on a life and morality of its own? But the response of West London says something else. It speaks to the strength of communities founded on diversity, as so many from so many ethnicities r e s p o n d with a show of deep solidarity as they wait toge the r for the final body count.