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withthewindinherfootsteps · 3 months ago

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I love how so many interpersonal conflict in MDZS aren't caused by simple 'miscommunication' – they're caused by people being too quick to judge things based on rumours or one-sided information, without consideration for the actual evidence behind that.

The soup incident? JZX only believed the guest cultivator's side of things without consideration of JYL's words. 3zun's fate? LXC only considered JGY's side of the story, without considering NMJ's may have some truth to it (because in his mind, JGY had a justifiable reason for all his actions). Sunshot-era Wangxian conflict? LWJ believed the unfounded* narrative he was taught around what guidao does, contrary to what the only source of evidence was saying, and it's this that leads to WWX constructing a barrier between them. Their final confrontation at Nightless City? WWX came to the conclusion that LWJ was against him, hated him too, despite the fact that "any sane person would be able to tell that Lan WangJi’s voice was clearly shaking" (EXR, Chapter 78), due to his mental state at the time.

This same mindset is also leveraged by other people, for varying purposes – whether it be JGS blatantly lying about WWX's words in the hopes people would believe him, or NHS spreading false rumours about the man-eating castles at Xinglu Ridge in order to stop people disturbing the sabre spirits (of course he uses this mindset in his plan to utterly destroy JGY as well, both directly and to contribute to the view NHS is useless). And that mindset also creates the main driving antagonistic force – the rumour-driven mob mentality so present in the world.

I just love how present this theme (the harm of coming to conclusions based on incomplete evidence) is in the novel, even when it's not drawn attention to**!

(more discussion under the cut)

Now, there are obviously other factors to the conflicts above – and in most cases, these reactions are understandable (WWX's misreadings due to his mental state at Nightless City, for one thing, but others, too). For example there was evidence that appeared to be there supporting LWJ's views on guidao: WWX did appear paler, there would definitely have been differences in his health vs the health of those with a working Golden Core, and he was quick to anger and did seem more arrogant than before, even though that was moreso a combination of trauma and constructing an image that meant nobody would look into the matter of his Golden Core too closely. So argubaly, he did weigh the evidence he had, and it just led him to the wrong conclusion! But none of that means this aspect wasn't a major factor in those conflicts – just as it doesn't mean that LWJ didn't instantly disregard the other side of the story (WWX's words), and came to the wrong conclusion partially because of it.

That also doesn't mean the characters can't learn from this or change their conclusion – LWJ comes to accept WWX's words towards the end of WWX's first life, LXC does open up to the potential flaws within JGY when Wangxian raise it, and after he's seen NMJ's corpse, due to receiving strong evidence (the wrong melody and cleanly missing pages in the Collection of Turmoil, for instance). If he only started suspecting JGY after he shows his cards at the Guanyin Temple, he wouldn't have done things like block JGY from the Cloud Recesses, for instance.

(And, a final note: the problem isn't that these characters chose the 'wrong side' of the issue to see it from – their process would still have been flawed even if they came to the right conclusion from its other side. The problem here is that none of them consider both and weigh them up to judge.)

––

*Regardless of whether you believe guidao has an adverse effect on mental state, and it isn't just trauma – WWX is the inventor of guidao! So any pre-invention speculation about the effects of guidao was, by the word's definition, unfounded... and these teachings were certainly pre-invention! So though I do have an opinion regarding this, it doesn't affect the point.

**Chapter 30 is a good example of when it is: '[LWJ:] “One should not comment without understanding the whole picture.”' (EXR) – but it appears in many of Wangxian's actions throughout the present day section of the novel (especially in regard to teaching the Juniors).

#mdzs meta #mdzs #my meta #魔道祖师 #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #gdc #theme: critical thinking

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nataliehegert · 5 years ago

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February 21, 2020. The call starts with small talk. Wu Hung is in Princeton, NJ. Orianna Cacchione is in Chicago, IL. Natalie Hegert is in Lubbock, TX. It is a sunny day for all three of us. There are flowers starting to bloom in Princeton. We are hoping for spring to finally arrive.

On that day, just 34 people had tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the United States. Passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship were disembarking. And a top economic adviser for the Trump administration said there was “barely any impact” on the US economy.

One month later, following the stay-at-home order from Governor Pritzker in Illinois, on March 21, the Smart Museum and Wrightwood 659 closed their doors. The Allure of Matter, an exhibition of contemporary Chinese art over five years in the making, is now closed from public view.

Of course, the museum closures and postponements and cancellations are sad. Sad to think we cannot now go out to experience this exhibition in person, which, in its scale and scope, must have been magnificent to see. One of the images that will always stay with me from this exhibition is a photograph of He Xiangyu’s splattered and stained kitchen, where he worked alone for six months to boil down his first ton of Coca-Cola (A Barrel of Dregs of Coca-Cola, 2009). In a video that is included on the exhibition’s website, the artist says that in that act he was “reminded of the powerlessness of the individual in China.” When faced with vast quantities of anything, that which is beyond human comprehension—the number of stars in the sky, the enormity of a mountain, the global supply and demand of Coca-Cola, the spread of a pandemic—you will inevitably feel small in comparison. “I wanted to repeat this powerlessness,” He says, which he did, with a small team of workers and 127 tons of Coca-Cola. In He’s action, we find a literal and symbolic alchemy: a transformation of a commodity and brand into a unrecognizable substance, a different kind of material that then becomes art. He shows us that when you boil it all down, the powerlessness you feel can be transformed into something else.

When I spoke with the curators that day in February—in preparation for the printing of this piece for THE SEEN Issue 10, which would also be postponed due to the virus—we did not yet know the scale and scope of the threat of COVID-19. We talked about the particular challenges of installing an exhibition where none of the artists could travel and be on site. But our conversation also highlighted the possibilities of remote cooperation: with the curators, artists, art handlers, and technicians talking via WeChat and transmitting photographs halfway across the world; and also for us, in Princeton, Chicago, and Lubbock, to come together via conference call to discuss an exhibition that the interviewer had only experienced online, through the extraordinary compilation of text, images, artist interviews, and videos available on The Allure of Matter website. With so much uncertainly, one thing remains clear: in this crisis, we are learning what we can accomplish—together, in isolation, and in virtual space.

Natalie Hegert: I wanted to start with the seed for this curatorial endeavor—did the exhibition stem mostly from your research?

Wu Hung: Actually, the inspiration came from a number of directions. One came from my research, another came from the museum. About five years ago, the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago was approached with the idea of organizing a large-scale exhibition on contemporary Chinese art. The Smart had the resources to organize and promote such an exhibition, and deeply understands this work—beginning in the 1990s, the museum organized a series of contemporary Chinese exhibitions. While I am primarily a Professor in the Department of Art History, I also act as an Adjunct Curator at the Smart, and the museum asked me if I had any ideas for this exhibition.

I had been looking at these artists in my research, in contemporary Chinese art and contemporary art in general, for quite a long time. I have always been thinking about a new angle, a new concept, and trying to discover some new themes. The opportunity of an exhibition and my research together allowed me to come up with this concept of ‘material art.’

Orianna Cacchione: I want to underscore that Wu Hung, and the Smart by extension, have truly been leaders in the field of exhibiting contemporary Chinese art—testing the limits of how it is exhibited in the United States. This dates back now twenty-one years to Wu Hung’s first exhibition at the museum, Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, in 1999. Nonetheless, what I think is really important about The Allure of Matter is that it radically proposes new ways of exhibiting contemporary Chinese art—namely, a thematic drive. In this way, thinking of contemporary Chinese art through the lens of materiality becomes very innovative.

NH: As opposed to exhibitions that are just generally contemporary Chinese art?

OC: Right, such as historical surveys.

WH: We have seen quite a few of these surveys at institutions across the US. Sometimes they emphasize historical or political themes. China is always, insistently taken as an “other space.” Of course, in China there’s a different history, both politically and artistically. There is nothing wrong with survey exhibitions, but I do not feel that there is only one way to approach non-Western art. We can find new ways to see it. In The Allure of Matter, for example, we wanted to present these artists in a way that is relatable to an American audience. Through the works included in the exhibition, viewers can discover the artists, their lives, their inspiration, their materials, and how their experiences are different. From there, if viewers want to understand the social experience in China, that is totally fine. But we want the artworks to primarily speak for themselves. So in this exhibition, we try to eliminate restrictions for interpretations. Everyone can see that these works are clearly a part of contemporary art in general, and are not of a niche style exclusive to China. The works presented across the galleries are very diverse; these artists looked to an array of inspirations and represent multiple generations, having grown up in the 1980s, ‘90s, or later.

OC: The exhibition attempts to foreground the art, not the artists’ Chinese identity. This is a very unique aspect of the exhibition, which makes it different from other [Western] exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art.

NH: So, looking at some of the images of the installation, it looks like there is some kind of magic involved in installing some of these huge works—let alone packing and traveling them from institution to institution as the exhibition was originally intended to move. I am looking at Xu Bing’s 1st Class (2011), in which thousands of cigarettes are arranged to look like a tiger skin rug. Do you have any anecdotes about installing these works? Are any of these that look really complex, surprisingly easy to install, or vice versa?

OC: If they look difficult to install, that is because they were. Even some of the works that seem the simplest to install were quite demanding. The sheer scale of many of the works becomes a challenge for American museums and exhibition spaces. I frequently debate the size and scales of artworks that can be shown at the Smart with artists and galleries in China. Often I find myself saying, “It’s just too big, we cannot even fit it in the galleries!” Trying to deal with the differences in scale between the gallery spaces in China, where many of the works in the show were originally made, and spaces in Chicago and throughout the US has been interesting to say the least. But it has been fascinating to see the sheer amount of labor that has gone into the installation across the two venues, and the ways that each of the different installation teams came together.

WH: Right, labor is quite meaningful for several of the works – the idea of collective workmanship. For example, Zhang Huan uses ashes to make his paintings and sculptures. The artist collects ashes from incense burnt in Buddhist temples, where the ash was left by thousands of worshippers. This becomes a meaningful part of the work. For other works, many people have to participate in the labor of making the work, for example Zhu Jinshi’s Wave of Material, the big work made of paper that is on view at Wrightwood 659. For these artists, these collective activities were a very important aspect.

Another thing that made installing these works especially challenging is the fragility of some of these materials, like silk or paper. The artists in The Allure of Matter really emphasize the qualities of the physical materials.

OC: Process plays an important role in all of these artworks. In addition to the collective labor that goes into making these works, their materials undergo significant transformations.

NH: I am reminded of the paper installation by Zhu Jinshi, Wave of Materials (2007/2020), where each piece of paper had to be folded individually. It seems like it is very tedious and repetitious, this kind of process.

OC: Instead of tedious, repetitious—I would say meditative.

WH: The paper itself, it is very soft, fragile. It wrinkles. Each of the 8,000 sheets of paper that makes up Wave of Materials was crumpled by hand according to Zhu Jinshi’s specifications. The process becomes spiritual—it is not just a mechanical folding of paper. There is human touch, and even human body’s temperature changes these materials. It is no longer raw material. The process becomes part of the product.

NH: I find the different qualities of materials, between each of the artists and their practices and what those types of materials point to, interesting—in the sense that some of the artists deal with materials that have a long-standing traditions of use in China, such as silk and xuan paper. But then on the other hand there are artists like He Xiangyu, who is boiling tons of Coca-Cola (A Barrel of Dregs of Coca-Cola, 2009), which is just amazing. He’s use of that particular material touches on industry, commerce, trade, the image of a brand. There is so much that is contained in that one material; it has a critique embedded within it.

WH: That note on globalization and commercialization is more recent to Chinese history, say after the 1990s. He Xiangyu is a younger artist, and he is more open to this kind of phenomena. Other materials across the exhibition have a different direction—they can be very personal, very intimate. There is a beautiful work by Lin Tianmiao, Day-Dreamer (2000), where she uses cotton strings to create an image that is entirely based on her memory of the past. Through this great range of materials—from pure paper to hard cement, concrete, plastic, etc.—one thing we hope to emphasize is that there is not just one kind of material that carries broad applications for these artists, but many kinds.

OC: Exactly—each artist is selecting each material very deliberately. The material choice is both significant and intentional.

WH: There are quite a few artists who have spent many years working with their chosen material(s). They have developed a significant personal relationship with the material. We hope to touch upon the very different contexts in which the artists engage, from practices like urban renewal to connotations of gunpowder and hair.

NH: Why do you think so many artists tended to deal with mass quantities of material?

WH: It is interesting—we just talked about these ideas of collective workmanship. For example, with Xu Bing’s 1st Class and Tobacco Project (2011), when this work was first installed at the Shanghai Gallery of Art, I was the curator of that show as well. We hired a whole team of workers to spend a week exclusively installing this piece. Cigarettes are produced in massive quantities, and there they were in the hands of the workers; it was almost like a performance.

The space that an artist is given to work with becomes an important factor. Yet, while some works are quite huge, like Gu Wenda’s hair temple, others are small and personal. Chen Zhen’s Crystal Landscape of Inner Body (2000) is about his own life. Again, I feel there are two different approaches to space at play in this exhibition; one artist will occupy a lot of space but another will have a small, personal work.

NH: One of the works that is really interesting is Gu Dexin’s plastic installation, Untitled (1989), which he started working on while he was working at a factory. The exhibition guide says he was one of the first artists to use unconventional materials in China. I was going to mention that this work was also in the very famous show, Les Magiciens de la Terre, in 1989 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. This work has a very interesting history, and is on loan from the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon; so then it had to be shipped from Lyon to Chicago. What was it like to work with this installation? Is it the earliest work in the show?

OC: Yes—it is the earliest work in the show, though it is not the earliest example of material art. Gu Dexin was working with plastic throughout the 1980s; Cai Guo-Qiang’s earliest experiments with gunpowder happened in the late 1980s; and Huang Yong Ping’s book washing happened in the mid 1980s. Installing Untitled has been quite interesting because Gu Dexin has since left the artworld—he rejected working within the confines of the art market and the gallery-commodified art system. In 2008 he stopped working, and now he refuses to talk about his artworks. Trying to understand how to install that piece became a problem to solve. We worked with Sara Moy, a conservator in Chicago to study installation images of the work and develop our own method to install it in the absence of any instructions from the artist. It was like a puzzle, trying to have our installation match the original exhibited at the Magiciens de la Terre exhibition.

WH: Personally, I am so happy that we can bring this work to Chicago, to the US, because this work was not well known. Gu Dexin is quite a famous artist despite the fact that his major works have almost all disappeared due to the ephemeral types of materials he used. Initially we did not know a lot about this piece, but through an early Chinese critic, we learned that this piece may have been in France. Orianna did a lot of work reaching out to rediscover Untitled. So now we are able to install it and bring it to many, many people, which is something I am very proud of.

OC: I think this is a pivotal piece in Gu Dexin’s practice because it marked his transition from working on a very small, intimate scale to thinking about the possibility of plastic for installations. Almost all of his plastic pieces in the 1990s, many of which were shown in exhibitions throughout Europe, grew in scale and now have been lost or destroyed.

WH: There was a big show organized at the Guggenheim in 2018, Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, where they also presented plastic works by Gu Dexin. But at that time they could not find some of the bigger works, so the work they showed was relatively small—the installation took up much less space than this one.

NH: Another interesting work that probably has an interesting history is Civilization Pillar (2001/2019) by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, which was originally produced in 2001 and commissioned again by the Smart Museum. What led you to commission a new version of this work, and were there any issues that arose with redoing this?

OC: This work is, for me, one of the most important examples of material art in the exhibition. The radical transformation of human fat, purifying and solidifying it with wax, acids, and vaseline is quite fantastic. The resulting work is aesthetically beautiful and striking, but also so minimalist. The material defines both the meaning and the significance of the work; for the artists, fat embodies the excesses of contemporary civilization. Civilization Pillar (2001/2019) was one of the pieces that, when I started working on the exhibition, I immediately thought of how crucial this artwork is to broadly conceptualizing the themes of the exhibition.

NH: Finally, I did want to ask about the unfortunate outbreak of the coronavirus, and how this may have affected the installation and traveling possibilities of the artists. Did this negatively affect the show? How did you deal with that?

OC: It did; it impacted the exhibition quite a lot, in the sense that we were unable to bring any of the artists that we had invited for the opening to Chicago. Three artists who were meant to come and oversee the installation of their works were also unable to join us.

NH: So how did you work around that, with the artists being unable to oversee the installation?

OC: A lot of conversations and photographic exchanges via WeChat, really. It was a lot of sending images and getting an enthusiastic thumbs-up or images of drawings and suggestions. It was not an ideal situation, but we worked around it. As far as I know all of the artists are very happy with how their works look.

WH: We remain hopeful that before the show ends in Chicago they can come here, maybe we can organize a panel or conversation. I do not see a major negative impact on the show, [despite] thinking about a terrible situation. Because all of the pieces were realized and we have been in constant communication with the artists—with the help of digital communication and the internet. They can literally watch the work being installed and make suggestions. That makes things a bit easier, although they could not physically be here.

While Allure of Matter is currently closed to the public, aspects of the exhibition, including installation images and interviews with the artists may be found at https://theallureofmatter.org.

Interview Posted on 4/20/2020

#interview #Highlights

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shg11 · 7 years ago

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Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionOne eyewitness said he saw people blinking lights within the building

At least six people have died after a huge fire raged through the night at a west London 24-storey tower block, and police expect that number to rise.

Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved.

Firefighters, who rescued many people, were called at 00:54 BST and are still trying to put out the fire.

Police say there may still be people in the building who are unaccounted for.

The ambulance service said 69 patients had been taken to six hospitals across London, with 18 in critical care. A further 10 patients made their own way to hospital.

During the night, eyewitnesses said they saw lights - thought to be mobile phones or torches - flashing at the top of the block of flats, and trapped residents coming to their windows - some holding children.

It is understood that "several hundred" people would have been in the block when the fire broke out shortly after midnight, most of them sleeping.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionMickey, a resident of Grenfell Tower: 'It was like a horror movie'

Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police, said the recovery operation would be "complex and lengthy", and the number of fatalities was expected to rise.

He declined to give any details of the number of people who may be missing.

He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, adding that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire.

An emergency number - 0800 0961 233 - has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or family.

At 13:00 BST, Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said firefighters expected to be on the scene for at least another 24 hours.

She said there were concerns that people were still inside the tower and she urged all residents to make sure they had reported themselves to police so that the authorities know they are safe.

'Absolutely appalling'

Prime Minister Theresa May is "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life", said Downing Street.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt praised the "heroic" response from the emergency services and the NHS hospital staff "working tirelessly to help".

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is to demand a government statement in Parliament on Thursday on the tragedy, the BBC understands.

There must be a "full inquiry" into the fire, newly-elected Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad told the BBC.

Speaking outside the Rugby Portobello Trust emergency centre, the Labour MP said the fire was "absolutely appalling".

"The ferocity of that fire was extraordinary and terrifying," she said. "This must never happen again."

Police and fire minister Nick Hurd was due to chair a cross-party meeting to look at how the government can assist the emergency services and local authorities.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionDavid Benjamin says he was woken by a neighbour banging on the door

Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, managed to escape.

"As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible," he told the BBC.

He said he was alerted to the fire not by fire alarms but by people on the street below, shouting "don't jump, don't jump".

Eyewitness Jody Martin said: "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window... hearing screams.

"I was yelling at everyone to get down and they were saying 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors.'"

What we know so far

Baby caught after being 'dropped to safety from tower'

Latest updates as crews work on building

Pictures from the scene

Residents raised fire risk fears

Michael Paramasivan, who lives on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, said he ignored official advice to stay in your home.

"If we had stayed in that flat, we would've perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out."

Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door.

"The whole landing was thick with smoke. The smoke alarms weren't going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary."

At the scene

Image caption Mirna, Fatima and Zainnb are among those missing

By Lucy Manning, BBC News

They have lost their homes and for some, tragically their relatives.

At times there is the sound of sobbing as the word goes round that someone is missing, someone is feared dead.

I've spent the day inside the community centre where survivors have gathered.

Downstairs in the hall families sit at tables and wait for news.

One family told me they hadn't heard from their brother, sister and three children - Mirna, Fatima and Zainnb. Other relatives were out searching hospitals. There was still no news.

Outside the centre, Sawsan was with a group of women. For one it was too much, she was on the floor crying. Sawsan hasn't heard from her mum, sister, brother-in-law and nieces. She spoke to them when the fire started but nothing since.

Inside the centre, families are being helped with food, housing and medical treatment. It's busy and everyone is helping. Just not with the one thing they need - information about whether their relatives are safe.

Christabel told me how lucky her father had been. He tried to fight the fire but made it out alive.

Ed was saved when a friend called him to tell him to get out the building. "I'm lucky" he says. But they have lost everything.

Grenfell Tower, built in 1974, is part of the Lancaster West Estate, a sprawling inner-city social housing complex of almost 1,000 homes.

Robert Black, chief executive of the tower's management company, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, said: "The fire at Grenfell Tower is devastating and the reports of injury and losses of life absolutely heartbreaking.

"Along with my colleagues, I have been supporting residents since the early hours, working with the emergency services and the community."

The BBC's Andy Moore, who was at the scene through the night, described watching debris falling from the building, and hearing explosions and breaking glass.

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Grenfell Tower, North Kensington

120 flats

24 storeys

20 residential levels

4 community/podium levels

2016 refurbishment completed

AFP

Image copyright PA

Image caption London fire crews said it was a "large and very serious incident"

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption There are 120 flats in the residential block

The London Fire Brigade said a structural engineer had checked the building and determined it was not in danger of collapse and that rescue teams were safe to be inside.

Initially, it was feared that the building, which appears to be gutted, could collapse.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was devastated by the horrific scenes, attended by more than 250 firefighters and 100 ambulance medics.

Questions will need to be answered over the safety of tower blocks, he told BBC Radio.

"We can't have a situation where people's safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained," he said.

Matt Wrack, of the Fire Brigades Union said something had clearly gone badly wrong with fire prevention procedures at the building.

Firefighters would normally fight a fire in a tower block from the inside, going up the fire escape, and fighting using the internal dry-rising mains, he said, but that's not been possible in this case.

Construction firm Rydon said recent building work which it carried out on the block "met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards".

Image caption Refurbishment work completed in 2016 included more residential areas in the four lower 'podium' levels

Appeals are being made on social media for news of missing friends and relatives, who might have been caught in the blaze.

Emergency rest centres have opened for those now homeless at Latymer Community Centre, St Clement's Church, Harrow Club and Rugby Portobello Trust. There are also local collections under way for spare clothes, toys, blankets and toiletries.

People are being advised by police to stay away from the area, where roads remain closed and nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution.

Image copyright EPA

Image caption The London Fire Brigade said a structural engineer had checked the building

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images

Image caption More than 70 people have received treatment in hospital

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Smoke could be seen from miles away

Safety concerns

Grenfell Tower underwent a two-year 10m refurbishment as part of a wider transformation of the estate, that was completed last year.

Work included new exterior cladding and a communal heating system.

The 24-storey tower, containing about 120 flats, is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) on behalf of the council.

Before and during the refurbishment, the local Grenfell Action Group claimed that the block constituted a fire risk and residents warned that site access for emergency vehicles was "severely restricted".

Construction firm Rydon, which carried out the refurbishment, said it was "shocked to hear of the devastating fire" and added that the work "met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards".

Council leader Nick Paget-Brown said the buildings were regularly inspected, but a "thorough investigation" was needed.

Read more on safety concerns here.

Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning

Are you in the area? Did you witness the events? Email [email protected] with your stories. Do not endanger yourself.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

WhatsApp: +44 7525 900971

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40269625

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gaylemccoy972-blog · 7 years ago

Text

London fire: Six killed as Grenfell Tower engulfed BBC News

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionOne eyewitness said he saw people blinking lights within the building

At least six people have died after a huge fire raged through the night at a west London 24-storey tower block, and police expect that number to rise.

Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved.

Firefighters, who rescued many people, were called at 00:54 BST and are still trying to put out the fire.

Police say there may still be people in the building who are unaccounted for.

The ambulance service said 69 patients had been taken to six hospitals across London, with 18 in critical care. A further 10 patients made their own way to hospital.

During the night, eyewitnesses said they saw lights thought to be mobile phones or torches flashing at the top of the block of flats, and trapped residents coming to their windows some holding children.

It is understood that several hundred people would have been in the block when the fire broke out shortly after midnight, most of them sleeping.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionMickey, a resident of Grenfell Tower: 'It was like a horror movie'

Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police, said the recovery operation would be complex and lengthy, and the number of fatalities was expected to rise.

He declined to give any details of the number of people who may be missing.

He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, adding that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire.

An emergency number 0800 0961 233 has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or family.

At 13:00 BST, Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said firefighters expected to be on the scene for at least another 24 hours.

She said there were concerns that people were still inside the tower and she urged all residents to make sure they had reported themselves to police so that the authorities know they are safe.

'Absolutely appalling'

Prime Minister Theresa May is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life, said Downing Street.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt praised the heroic response from the emergency services and the NHS hospital staff working tirelessly to help.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is to demand a government statement in Parliament on Thursday on the tragedy, the BBC understands.

There must be a full inquiry into the fire, newly-elected Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad told the BBC.

Speaking outside the Rugby Portobello Trust emergency centre, the Labour MP said the fire was absolutely appalling.

The ferocity of that fire was extraordinary and terrifying, she said. This must never happen again.

Police and fire minister Nick Hurd was due to chair a cross-party meeting to look at how the government can assist the emergency services and local authorities.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionDavid Benjamin says he was woken by a neighbour banging on the door

Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, managed to escape.

As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible, he told the BBC.

He said he was alerted to the fire not by fire alarms but by people on the street below, shouting don't jump, don't jump.

Eyewitness Jody Martin said: I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window hearing screams.

I was yelling at everyone to get down and they were saying 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors.'

What we know so far

Baby caught after being 'dropped to safety from tower'

Latest updates as crews work on building

Pictures from the scene

Residents raised fire risk fears

Michael Paramasivan, who lives on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, said he ignored official advice to stay in your home.

If we had stayed in that flat, we would've perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out.

Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door.

The whole landing was thick with smoke. The smoke alarms weren't going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary.

At the scene

Image caption Mirna, Fatima and Zainnb are among those missing

By Lucy Manning, BBC News

They have lost their homes and for some, tragically their relatives.

At times there is the sound of sobbing as the word goes round that someone is missing, someone is feared dead.

I've spent the day inside the community centre where survivors have gathered.

Downstairs in the hall families sit at tables and wait for news.

One family told me they hadn't heard from their brother, sister and three children Mirna, Fatima and Zainnb. Other relatives were out searching hospitals. There was still no news.

Inside the centre, families are being helped with food, housing and medical treatment. It's busy and everyone is helping. Just not with the one thing they need information about whether their relatives are safe.

Christabel told me how lucky her father had been. He tried to fight the fire but made it out alive.

Ed was saved when a friend called him to tell him to get out the building. I'm lucky he says. But they have lost everything.

Grenfell Tower, built in 1974, is part of the Lancaster West Estate, a sprawling inner-city social housing complex of almost 1,000 homes.

Robert Black, chief executive of the tower's management company, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, said: The fire at Grenfell Tower is devastating and the reports of injury and losses of life absolutely heartbreaking.

Along with my colleagues, I have been supporting residents since the early hours, working with the emergency services and the community.

The BBC's Andy Moore, who was at the scene through the night, described watching debris falling from the building, and hearing explosions and breaking glass.

Grenfell Tower, North Kensington

120 flats

24 storeys

20 residential levels

4 community/podium levels

2016 refurbishment completed

AFP

Image copyright PA

Image caption London fire crews said it was a large and very serious incident

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption There are 120 flats in the residential block

The London Fire Brigade said a structural engineer had checked the building and determined it was not in danger of collapse and that rescue teams were safe to be inside.

Initially, it was feared that the building, which appears to be gutted, could collapse.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was devastated by the horrific scenes, attended by more than 250 firefighters and 100 ambulance medics.

Questions will need to be answered over the safety of tower blocks, he told BBC Radio.

We can't have a situation where people's safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained, he said.

Matt Wrack, of the Fire Brigades Union said something had clearly gone badly wrong with fire prevention procedures at the building.

Construction firm Rydon said recent building work which it carried out on the block met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards.

Image caption Refurbishment work completed in 2016 included more residential areas in the four lower 'podium' levels

Appeals are being made on social media for news of missing friends and relatives, who might have been caught in the blaze.

People are being advised by police to stay away from the area, where roads remain closed and nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution.

Image copyright EPA

Image caption The London Fire Brigade said a structural engineer had checked the building

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images

Image caption More than 70 people have received treatment in hospital

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Smoke could be seen from miles away

Safety concerns

Grenfell Tower underwent a two-year 10m refurbishment as part of a wider transformation of the estate, that was completed last year.

Work included new exterior cladding and a communal heating system.

The 24-storey tower, containing about 120 flats, is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) on behalf of the council.

Construction firm Rydon, which carried out the refurbishment, said it was shocked to hear of the devastating fire and added that the work met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards.

Council leader Nick Paget-Brown said the buildings were regularly inspected, but a thorough investigation was needed.

Read more on safety concerns here.

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pedrowells24-blog · 7 years ago

Text

London fire: Six killed as Grenfell Tower engulfed BBC News

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionOne eyewitness said he saw people blinking lights within the building

At least six people have died after a huge fire raged through the night at a west London 24-storey tower block, and police expect that number to rise.

Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved.

Firefighters, who rescued many people, were called at 00:54 BST and are still trying to put out the fire.

Police say there may still be people in the building who are unaccounted for.

The ambulance service said 69 patients had been taken to six hospitals across London, with 18 in critical care. A further 10 patients made their own way to hospital.

It is understood that several hundred people would have been in the block when the fire broke out shortly after midnight, most of them sleeping.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionMickey, a resident of Grenfell Tower: 'It was like a horror movie'

Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police, said the recovery operation would be complex and lengthy, and the number of fatalities was expected to rise.

He declined to give any details of the number of people who may be missing.

He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, adding that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire.

An emergency number 0800 0961 233 has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or family.

At 13:00 BST, Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said firefighters expected to be on the scene for at least another 24 hours.

She said there were concerns that people were still inside the tower and she urged all residents to make sure they had reported themselves to police so that the authorities know they are safe.

'Absolutely appalling'

Prime Minister Theresa May is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life, said Downing Street.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt praised the heroic response from the emergency services and the NHS hospital staff working tirelessly to help.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is to demand a government statement in Parliament on Thursday on the tragedy, the BBC understands.

There must be a full inquiry into the fire, newly-elected Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad told the BBC.

Speaking outside the Rugby Portobello Trust emergency centre, the Labour MP said the fire was absolutely appalling.

The ferocity of that fire was extraordinary and terrifying, she said. This must never happen again.

Police and fire minister Nick Hurd was due to chair a cross-party meeting to look at how the government can assist the emergency services and local authorities.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionDavid Benjamin says he was woken by a neighbour banging on the door

Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, managed to escape.

He said he was alerted to the fire not by fire alarms but by people on the street below, shouting don't jump, don't jump.

Eyewitness Jody Martin said: I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window hearing screams.

I was yelling at everyone to get down and they were saying 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors.'

What we know so far

Baby caught after being 'dropped to safety from tower'

Latest updates as crews work on building

Pictures from the scene

Residents raised fire risk fears

Michael Paramasivan, who lives on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, said he ignored official advice to stay in your home.

If we had stayed in that flat, we would've perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out.

Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door.

The whole landing was thick with smoke. The smoke alarms weren't going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary.

At the scene