‘It’s a shambles’: Residents call last minute evacuation ‘disgusting’

Evacuated residents of a tower block in north London have spoken of their frustration at being asked to vacate their flats at short notice.

Camden Council began evacuating 800 households from five tower blocks on Friday night amid fire safety concerns.

It followed revelations that similar cladding was used on the Chalcots Estate in Swiss Cottage to that which led the Grenfell Tower fire in north Kensington to spread rapidly earlier this month.

One of the residents, Shirley Phillips, told Sky News she was told to leave her home with no warning and could only take some underwear, dog food and a night gown.

The 2nd floor resident of Taplow tower said: "I think it’s absolutely disgusting. We’ve had fire brigade here all day, Camden council, police, I had a fire safety check done today.

"Why have they left it until half past eight tonight to start getting residents out? Where do they think we’re all going? All of them. They’ve started evacuating Bray now, so where are we all going?"

Edward Strange, who was told he had to evacuate just as he arrived back from Heathrow, said: "We received a letter this afternoon that the cladding had not passed safety tests, but we’ve had two fires here since the new cladding has been put on and both did not spread. So I don’t really see what the problem is.

"It’s complete overreaction. It’s ridiculous."

His daughter Emily said: "It’s a bit scary for me and also my mum right now is in Las Vegas so as soon as we get to where we can stay we should probably tell her where she knows where to go from the airport.

She added: "I’m a bit worried about (my cat) because we don’t really have a cage for the cat and also the cat is an indoor cat so it’s not really an outside one."

Several residents told Sky News that they found out what was going on from watching the new channel.

Among them was Steve, who lives on the fourth floor with his partner and two step daughters.

He said: "We didn’t even know. We came in from Adelaide Road. We came in. It was all empty. We put our shopping away and then we get phone calls. We look out the window and there are TV people everywhere. Mass hysteria. Surely Camden could do better than that.

"We’re not moving. We can’t just take all our family and stuff. I’ve got work on Monday morning. I’ve got stuff to do tomorrow. The Lions are playing tomorrow. I wanna watch that."

Peter, a 94-year-old who was asked to leave his home on the Chalcots Estate after living there for 46 years, said: "(It’s) terrible. You don’t know whether you are coming or going. I was told tonight – pack everything for two to three weeks.

"I packed enough for a week. I didn’t have a lot of space left, with my medication and everything. I’ve got to have it."

Simon, who arrived at the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre with his dog, said he had been forced to do some very rapid packing.

"It’s an absolute nightmare. The first I heard about it was live on Sky News. It’s absolutely a shambles. They’ve got a massive team of people in place but nobody by the time we left had knocked on our door.

"I cried and cried and cried. I love my flat. I moved in 24 years ago with cracks on the floor, paint falling from the ceiling. Three to four weeks is what they are currently guesstimating. I imagine its not much more than a guesstimate."

(c) Sky News 2017: ‘It’s a shambles’: Residents call last minute evacuation ‘disgusting’