Not to detract from the other important points in the article (prevention is better than the cure), but no mention of the fact that the fire bridge for a city full of tall buildings didn't have any tall ladders or means to help the people at the windows to escape (maybe also due to government cutbacks): apparently one that was 30m tall (enough to reach the 10th floor) was dispatched 24 mins after the first fire crews[0], and the tallest one in the country a few hours later but that was still just 42m tall[1] (for reference Grenfell Tower itself is 67m high).
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The general attitude has been that if building regulations are followed, you won't need the ladders. Grenfell residents themselves were told in the event of a fire to NOT evacuate, and to stay in their homes. The presumption was that any fire could be isolated, contained and extinguished easily.
The questions now being raised are over whether the building regulations were enough. Successive governments have reduced the "red tape" in the name of liberating the market, but it seems free markets will often compromise when it comes to safety.
That said, I'm not sure right now I would want to live at the top of the Shard (as some people do).
No-one yet lives in the Shard apartments: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/05/shard-apart...
As a Londoner who can't afford to buy here despite being on a senior engineer salary, I like this.
The concentration of super-money in W1 is what pushed prices up as the ripple moved out, at least more so than immigration. The fact the market is slowing at that end means there might be a ripple back, which coupled with a falling residency rate (July was the first month more people moved out of London than moved in for 10 years), means we might see a collapse and we can start to afford homes again.
From googling it doesn't seem like there are any ladders anywhere that'll go to 67m.
According to reference [1] above "Bronto Skylift, based in Finland, develop aerial platforms which can reach heights of more than 100m (328ft). According to managing director Harry Clayhills, the firm's fire platforms are used by more than 100 brigades in 16 countries around the world."
Wow, interesting. These [1] are some seriously long aerials.
In San Francisco, fwiw, the SFFD's largest aerial ladder is 100 ft fully extended. This is the mechanical one on the truck.
SFFD trucks also carry a 50-ft wooden ladder, but it's seriously heavy and rarely used, as it requires six firefighters to raise and lower.
For those interested, here's some data on high-rise fires in the US, including the prevalence of sprinklers [2].
[1] http://www.brontoskylift.com/en/hla [2] http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-re...
There are sharp physical limits to how long it's possible to make a ladder.