Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

CKhalvashi

Pyxis wrote: »

Yesterday, while in the dressing room at an AmDram thing, we saw smoke billowing into the sky.couldn't see where it was coming from, but there were flats in the general direction, so one's thoughts start thinking the worst.

"Luckily", on my way home a few hours later, my normal route took me past two fire engines still playing water hoses onto what had been a sort of brush fire, so it hadn't involved any buildings. Most likely a discarded cigarette onto very dry vegetation. Anyway, I could relax that it wasn't anything worse, although it's still bad enough as there were houses nearby and a recreational area with lots of people enjoying the sun.

Good to hear.

Just remember though, there is something happening that is good in the world, even if it's not a lot of meaning in comparison:

GDB2222

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Good to hear.

Just remember though, there is something happening that is good in the world, even if it's not a lot of meaning in comparison:

I've got wide feet, too.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

You have to admire your note-taking and stalker notes

They are 'squarer', so wider than mine by a bit - and laid out differently, but they are about 10% smaller on the plans than mine (from memory) - and the gardens are 33% smaller (by eye). I could get the plans and compare it to mine and give exact figures, but, really ...nobody cares do they

A direct comparison for price would be that one closest to me. For position etc it matches my neighbour's recently sold house (well, he's moved out and is popping back 3x a week for small bits/bobs so maybe it'll complete later this week, or the one after).... the brand new one was on the market for £265k, the 2nd hand one (with actually some slightly 'worse' attributes) was on the market for £249,950. The one in the same position/with the same attributes as mine was on for £275k, so that'd make mine worth £260k if you did that maths as a straight swap.

Over time ... comparing this as a brand new, new build, in 2010, it sold for £175k - so that's a direct increase in price of two "identical" houses, side by side, by the same developer, of £100k in 7 years.

I would say 'better than working for a living' but the only problem is you do actually need a house to live in....

silvercar

If you buy the biggest house, soonest, is the area that has the highest price rises.... then sit in it for about 7 years, you can "cash it in" and pay cash for something smaller .... but all of that's luck, especially the timing/location.

Totally true...and sadly the reason why the next generation will be generation rent.

SIL bought in Manchester around the same time (mid 90s) and same price (~180k) that we bought our previous house. Hers has doubled in value, our old house has quadrupled at least. I suppose that means we could have sold it and bought her house and have cleared the mortgage and have that amount in savings. Only problem then is that you have to live in an area away from the place you have built your life.

silvercar

Grenfell Tower. Still gives me nightmares, but explain this:

They reckon 500+ lived in the block, 100 escaped, they expect the sad death toll to be less than 100, so where is everyone else? The fire took hold at 1am, so most people should have been home.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

Grenfell Tower. Still gives me nightmares, but explain this:

They reckon 500+ lived in the block, 100 escaped, they expect the sad death toll to be less than 100, so where is everyone else? The fire took hold at 1am, so most people should have been home.

There are unqualified words used in journalists' writings.

What is an escape?

Many of those who walked out of the building in the first half an hour simply turned up at a relative's house/friend's house and said "let me in, bit of a fire at mine, I'll go back in the morning" having no idea there was a disaster unfolding.

Many walked out in the first hour, knowing there was a problem - and melting into the night to friends/family locally.

Many walked out without it being called "escaping".

There are escapes and rescues, when did you escape, when were you rescued?

It's the flexible language that's causing some confusion.

"I walked out, from the 1st-5th floor as I could see it was immediately local to me" - they didn't "escape" probably .. as such. And that's 100 accounted for.

Nobody knows how many were in the flats, only how many could be, or were likely to be. You can't tell who/how many were in each flat until everybody you know about has been accounted for.

One man whose family died, was out of the country.
One man/wife/child who died were visiting friends that night for dinner.

But journalists have column inches to fill..... soonest.

Loanranger

Early on Wednesday after daybreak I think the Police put out an appeal to people who had got out to report themselves safe so that Police could account for everyone. People in that situation have other things to worry about than tell Police they are safe but now the authorities are being blamed for not giving the public answers immediately.

michaels

silvercar wrote: »

Grenfell Tower. Still gives me nightmares, but explain this:

They reckon 500+ lived in the block, 100 escaped, they expect the sad death toll to be less than 100, so where is everyone else? The fire took hold at 1am, so most people should have been home.

I can't see the police would be lying about the number missing. I guess there could be some others who no one has reported (no relatives in uk, neighbours also missing).

I suspect those on the side the fire spread up first probably evacuated once their windows popped before the core of the building was too smoke logged. Those on the opposite sides who didn't realise their floor was impacted and were heading the 'stay put' advice until it was too late because the smoke and fire were already in the communal areas are sadly most likely to have perished.

Tahlullah

In the midst of our concerns for others, lets not forget the 62 dead and the 59 injured in the Portugal fire that is still spreading.

A bad time indeed.

PasturesNew

I looked up the biggest losses of life in the UK, only to discover that this tower comes nowhere close to getting ON the list.... most are ships going down though, or huge illnesses/pandemics and the Wars.

This century disasters including communities/homes includes:

1953 - the sea surge/storm took 531 as it flooded East Anglia without warning.

1913 - a colliery gas explosion, killing 439. That will have been a single community/very localised. But it didn't remove homes at the same time, just lives.

1910 there was a pit disaster in Lancashire, killed 344. So, again, lives not lives and homes.

1934, a mining disaster in Wales took 266.

There's only one other disaster that took communities/families/ homes and everything at the drop of a hat and that was the Aberfan disaster in '66, where the coal tip slid down and buried the school, killing 116 children and 28 adults. That was where everybody knew each other/was related etc etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster

I think the worst bit about this is the huge/live media coverage - and all the people standing round the building seeing/watching people burn to death. It was a "public" event, most occur but without a crowd standing and watching it.