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LONDON — All 60 high-rise buildings in Britain
that have been tested for fire safety since the Grenfell Tower tragedy
have failed, government officials said on Monday, raising concerns that
even more buildings may have to be evacuated while emergency repairs are
undertaken.
Hundreds
of families were ordered to evacuate apartments in the five high-rise
buildings of the Chalcots Estate in northwest London on Friday night in
an urgent scramble after it emerged that, among other safety risks, the
buildings had exterior cladding similar to that used on Grenfell Tower.
At least 79 people died in Grenfell Tower on June 14, in London’s
deadliest fire in more than a century.
An
estimated 4,000 residents of the more than 800 apartments in the
Chalcots Estate were advised to leave their homes, many of them
resorting to sleeping on air mattresses in a nearby hospitality center. But at least 100 residents refused to budge, even as local officials were knocking on their doors and urging them to get out.
One
of the residents, Roger Evans, 51, who works in film production, has
lived for three years at Taplow, one of the towers in the Chalcots
Estate. He said on Monday that security staff at the building had tried
to block him from entering his apartment, that the council was
threatening legal action if residents refused to leave and that an
“occupied” sign had been put on the outside of his apartment.
“The
whole exercise has been a massive knee-jerk overreaction,” he said,
standing outside the tower block, as some residents rushed in and out to
remove their belongings. “They could just do the work quietly around
us. People have been displaced, they don’t know how long for, and are
angry. I am refusing to go and I have no intention of going until
necessary.” Read more
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