NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 21

fire. We're just helpless at the moment.
... We have no way to deal with this, no
way to manage it."
High temperatures and a
record-breaking drought primed the
region for the brush fires that sparked
throughout Eastern Australia in early
November, months before wildfire
season usually hits its peak. As of early
December, there were still more than
100 wildland fires burning in New South
Wales alone, many of which were still not
contained. The fires are so far blamed for
at least six human deaths and more than
1,000 structures lost.

GETT Y IMAGES

London, England

the longterm viability of the species in
the wild. Other experts have disputed
that characterization, arguing that
not enough is known about wild koala
population numbers to definitively
determine their fate.
What isn't in dispute is how difficult
it has been for rescue organizations
to make headway in saving the koalas
from the fast-moving fires, said Kellie
Leigh, executive director of a wildlife
scientific group in Australia. The situation is "just showing how unprepared
we are," Leigh said at a government
hearing in early December. "There's no
procedures or protocols in place ... for
when [animal rescuers] can go in after

the same people and groups who have
criticized Cotton have stopped short of
calling out the individuals responsible for
wrapping the 24-story apartment building in combustible cladding and other
dangerous materials-factors that at one
point had largely been viewed as the
main reason for the Grenfell fire's high
death toll. "Enough of the scapegoating,"
the blog concludes.
New Delhi, India
Dozens die in New Delhi factory fire
A fire in an illegal paper products factory
in New Delhi, India, killed 43 people and
injured dozens more on December 8. The
blaze tore through the building before
dawn, as workers were sleeping inside.
"There is no escape route, no option
at all. I can't even breathe," one of the
victims frantically told a friend over the
phone before he died, according to the
New York Times.
The four-story building was one of
several thousand in the Indian capital
that had been illegally converted into a
factory, according to the Times. No fire
safety inspections had been conducted,
windows were blocked with metal bars,
combustible materials clogged stairwells, and one of the building's two exits
was locked on the morning of the fire, a
fire official told the newspaper. "There
were no safety features," he said.

London fire chief, in charge during
Grenfell, resigns
London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany
Cotton has resigned amid accusations
over how she handled the response to the
June 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, which killed
over 70 people.
In October, findings from the official
government inquiry into the fire were
made public, which claimed "serious
failings" occurred in the brigade's preparation and response to the incident,
according to the Guardian.
One such claim, for instance, was
that the fire brigade's policy of allowing
residents to "stay put" during a high-rise
fire-versus evacuating them as soon
as possible-was misguided and dangerous.
Trusting in the idea that
fires will not spread was
an example of "gravely
inadequate preparation
and planning," said Martin
Moore-Brick, the inquiry
chair. Cotton has also
been widely criticized for
suggesting her department hadn't planned for a
fire like Grenfell because
they didn't think it was
likely.
Not everybody agrees
with the criticism Cotton
and the London Fire Brigade have received over
the Grenfell response.
A blog published in
November on the website
of the Grenfell Action
Group-a residents'
rights organization that
for years before the June
DEATH TRAP
2017 fire had been publiDozens died in December as fire tore through a four-story
cizing information about
building that had been illegally converted into a factory
Grenfell Tower's safety
in New Delhi, India. Officials reported the building lacked
deficiencies-jumped
fire safety features including designated escape routes.
to Cotton's defense. It
pointed out how some of

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NFPA Journal - January/February 2020

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