#51
I almost used this topic name to write on the shitty affairs that plague EHS folks and EHS function! I used some other topic name after thinking it over, a few weeks back!!
How sad I have to use this topic name now( None would fit better) Nothing else describes the mayhem that happened on Granfel Tower UK than to describe through Steve McQueen, Paul Newman Thriller of Irwin Allen movie of 1970s which rocked the world!
Fiction becomes Truth this week. Granfel Tower blaze when I watched looked exact replica except none were acting and human lives were lost!!
How things came to such a mess?? Investigations would reveal, at this stage we don’t know even total lives lost, looks like it could be in to 50s or so! Our heart goes out for all victims!!
Things that come out clear!!
- We need a global standard for fire safety on high-rise building. As more and more building come up due to high-speed elevators, we may touch the sky. Then what are the rescue plans?? PLAN B??
- Building material can themselves cause havoc, as I tweeted Facade has become the Charade !!
- Active safety implementation is the norm, gone are days of passive safety. Systems need to work and fail safe/ back up systems need to be in place.
- I keep saying and get in to lot of discussions (many times with European colleagues and European MNC folks here) that American norms go above and beyond! As in Granfel tower case, I am proved right. The material that was used are banned in USA!! How sad I am proved right again!!
I hope like the Bhopal tragedy, which made a determined world to bring PSM 1910.119 with collaboration with European and American agencies, the Granfel Tower could be the one to turn Fire safety norms, implementation, regulations on its head? Would the world take up the challenge!!? Hope so?
Take care, god bless
Karthik
17/6/17 2030 Hrs.
Health, Environment, Safety, Sustainability (HESS) 