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The Grenfell Fire
On the night of June 14th, 2017, the world watched in silent horror as the Grenfell Tower blazed in a raging fire. News channels all over the world showed us images of a blazing Grenfell tower in which families were trapped, waiting for officials to rescue them. The fire had started in the 24-storey tower shortly after midnight and at around 1 am fire rescue was called in. Despite that, the building was engulfed in flames and it burned for more than a day.
The official death toll is yet to be released. Some say that it could be as high as a hundred. This was a government building, one in a posh locality of London. Most people who lived there, were pretty well to do. They had the funds to maintain the building in better condition. They had the resources to have emergency systems and disaster management steps in place.
It’s been a few weeks since the tragic incident and reports are coming out saying that the Grenfell Tower was a disaster waiting to happen. How so, you ask?
What Went Wrong?
When analysts later took a closer look at the tower’s state, they found something dismaying. The officials did muse that while the fire could not have been avoided altogether, the damage could have been limited. What was more disturbing was the light some survivors shed on the state of the tower long before the fire happened. Here’s what we know –
- The tower’s emergency lighting system was not functioning properly or it was as good as absent.
- In the past, a few power surges had caused some appliances to explode. Apart from momentary fixes, no measures were taken to fix this permanently.
- Gas pipes were installed in the main stairwell without fire-rated protection
- Fire extinguishers supplied within the units had not been tested for several years.
Could the Grenfell fire have been avoided? Maybe. We would never know.
What We Can Learn From This
The Grenfell Tower fire is not the only incident that shook us. Around the world, apartment complexes have been witnessing crimes, both small and large, on and off. While very few disasters rival the scale of the Grenfell fire, smaller ones have grabbed our attention from time to time.
So what can we do? If you live in an apartment complex, the responsibility of ensuring the safety of your family and that of your fellow residents is something that you have to partake in. Fortunately, we do have the facility to enhance the security of residents in apartment complexes.
Incidents like this remind us of the significance of coming together as a community to help secure our apartments better. Fire safety, disaster management, medical emergency protocols are some of the most basic things that you need to prepare yourselves for. Since this article focuses on a fire hazard, here are some safety tips for apartment complexes in the event of a fire.
- Prevention is better than cure. Regular maintenance of your power panels, generators, and electrical circuits will ensure that you catch potential glitches before it blows out of proportion.
- Conduct the necessary checks at regular intervals.
- Encourage residents to install surge protectors on appliances.
- Encourage residents to avoid smoking in beds, placing wires under carpets/rugs and to leave most electrical appliances off while they step out.
- Issue strict orders to not store inflammable materials like gasoline cans etc. in their apartments
- And finally, warn people about the dangers involved in overloading a plug point with extension cords.
Technology To The Rescue
Our whole company is centered around the idea of improving the experience of living in an apartment complex. To bring residents together for productive growth and overall development. To achieve all of that, we first need to make your apartment truly secure and equipped to handle common perils.
Every apartment that uses ADDA ERP and ADDA Gatekeeper apps have reported that their day to day activities have been made more efficient and that they have improved as a whole by bounds and leaps. Above all, everyone truly feels secure.
We’re not saying that perils and natural disasters can be prevented with technology, but you surely can be better equipped. If you have a system in place that monitors apartment activities like security, maintenance, accounting while also bringing the residents together as a family, much trouble can be kept at bay.
For this, you need mobile applications such as the ones we provide, because at the end of the day, you are only as safe as you want to be. So encourage your fellow residents to actively come together and build a community that will not only be well connected but also be a safe haven for everyone to grow and achieve great things!
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