The Post Office scandal was just one of several recent organisational failures.
WD Stock Photos/Shutterstock
People advance in the workplace by putting the organisation before its people – but this just allows the cover-up culture to thrive.
The overcrowded Maddocks House flat prior to the fire that killed one resident in March 2023.
Tarling West Residents Association
Fire is a social equality issue. Amid fresh concerns over rogue landlords and dangerous overcrowding, why have calls for change gone unheeded for so long?
The aftermath of a 2021 fire disaster in an abandoned building in central Johannesburg.
Photo by Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images
September 8, 2023
Marie Huchzermeyer , University of the Witwatersrand ; Amira Osman , Tshwane University of Technology ; Hannah le Roux , University of the Witwatersrand ; Margot Rubin , Cardiff University ; Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon , University of the Witwatersrand ; Mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane , University of the Witwatersrand ; Neil Klug , University of the Witwatersrand ; Philip Harrison , University of the Witwatersrand ; Priscila Izar , University of the Witwatersrand ; Sarah Charlton , University of the Witwatersrand ; Sarita Pillay Gonzalez , University of the Witwatersrand , dan Tanya Zack , University of the Witwatersrand
Armed police interventions are unconstitutional and incapable of addressing housing and safety in the inner city.
A memorial to Grenfell victims in west London.
Globetrotters/Shutterstock
If there were any doubts about the destruction caused by the fire on 14th June 2017, then Steve McQueen’s film reveals its true desolation.
The Grenfell inquiry showed that every death incurred during the fire was avoidable.
JessicaGirvan | Shutterstock
A senior coroner in Rochdale has said of the toddler’s death that it should be a defining moment for social housing in the UK. Experts point out that we have been here before.
Residents have long bemoaned measures taken to make buildings look better, but not safer.
Ajit Wick | Shutterstock
Inadequate building regulations led to combustible products being used on external walls.
Quilts are a repository of memory, personal and collective.
The Conversation
What started out as an instinctive and private response to trauma has become a collective process of grieving and commemoration.
Spontaneous memorials started appearing in the vicinity of the tower in the days and weeks after the fire.
Mark Kerrison / Alamy Stock Photo
Designing a memorial that helps the community grieve and heal is no easy task.
BasPhoto / Alamy Stock Photo
New regulations, training systems and research are underway but there’s much still to be done.
Never forget: people mark the third anniversary of the fire at Grenfell Tower in London which killed 72 people.
Victoria Jones/PA Wire/PA Images
How journalists with inside knowledge drove the narrative over building safety after the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.
Bianca De Marchi/AAP
Orders to fix serious defects, even up to ten years after completion, and to delay the occupation certificate developers need to sell apartments until they’re fixed, gives regulators real teeth.
Shutterstock/G-Stock Studio
Even landlords think involving social housing tenants is critical to running properties, but too often it doesn’t happen.
When faced with a wildfire, responders must act quickly and decisively to save lives.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Emergency responders and military personnel need to think creatively – even imaginatively – to save lives under pressure. Analyzing the Grenfell Tower Fire in London reveals useful lessons.
A memorial for Grenfell Tower.
Will Oliver/EPA.
The public inquiry into Grenfell makes its first report – but those responsible for the circumstances leading up to the fire are yet to face the consequences.
Focus on the fire service.
John Gomez/Shutterstock.
It will take time to digest the details of the 830-plus page report from phase one of the inquiry, but there are clear improvements to be made.
The materials used for cladding buildings can greatly affect a building’s overall vulnerability to fire. In Australia, buildings with flammable cladding continue to pose safety concerns.
SHUTTERSTOCK
Ensuring a building will be safe against fire requires careful consideration from not only fire engineers, but also from builders, architects and building owners.
Grenfell Tower, one year after the fire.
Carcharoth/Wikimedia Commons.
Grenfell Tower fire is the kind of tragedy that changes the built environment forever, through new building rules and safety measures.
The Lacrosse building fire in Melbourne’s Docklands district rang alarm bells about the risks of combustible cladding back in 2014.
MFB
Estimated costs for Victoria alone range from hundreds of millions to as much as $1.6 billion If work to rectify buildings fitted with combustible cladding isn’t well handled.
EPA-EFE/Lauren Hurley
Residents were blogging about the tower block’s safety issues well before the fire, but there were few reporters around to pick up on the story.
Landlord to the rescue?
Shutterstock.
Previous laws gave tenants very little protection – but now landlords could face court if they don’t keep their properties in good repair.