2018年11月6日 星期二

(世界新聞):Grenfell Tower: The fires that foretold the tragedy

格蘭菲塔大火:一個早可預見的悲劇

On 14 June 2017, televisions across the country showed a west London tower block burn. For some, this was history repeating itself - as if five similar fires had simply not been important enough to prevent the deaths of 72 people in Grenfell Tower.

在2017年6月14日,全國都在電視上看到了一個倫敦西部的大樓建築陷入火海。某種程度上,這就是歷史不斷的重演 - 彷彿即使已經出現了五個類似的火災還不足以避免格蘭菲塔的72條人命斷送。

來源:BBC News, 30 OCT 2018, 原文網址



Catherine Hickman was on the phone when she died. It wasn't a panicked call or an attempt to have some last words with a loved one. She had been speaking to a 999 operator for 40 minutes, remaining calm and following the advice to "stay put" in her tower block flat.
凱瑟琳希克曼在死時還在通話中。這並不是慌亂的求救或是在對摯愛的人訴說遺言。她與英國的緊急求救電話999通話了40分鐘,並且聽從了待在他自己公寓原處的指示。

As smoke surrounded her, she stayed put. As flames came through the floorboards, she stayed put. At 16:30, she told the operator: "It's orange, it's orange everywhere" before saying she was "getting really hot in here".
當濃煙已經包圍了她,她還是待在原地不動。當地板已經竄出火焰,她還是待在原地不動。到了16:30的時候,他告訴999接聽人員:"四周都是一片橘色",接下來又說她覺的:"這裡變得非常熱"。

Believing to the last that she was in the safest place, she carried on talking to the operator - until she stopped.
一直到最後她還是相信她是待在安全之處。直到失去聯絡前,她都持續與999接聽人員交談。

"Hello Catherine.
哈囉 凱瑟琳

"Hello Catherine. Can you make any noise so I know that you're listening to me?
哈囉 凱瑟琳。妳能發出點聲音讓我知道妳有在聽嗎?
 
"Catherine, can you make any noise? 
 凱瑟琳,妳能發點聲音嗎?

"Can you bang your phone or anything?
妳能敲一下妳的手機或什麼嗎?

"Catherine, are you there?
 凱瑟琳,妳在嗎?

"I think that's the phone gone [CALL ENDS]"
我想電話已經斷了(通話結束)

Miss Hickman was not a resident of Grenfell Tower. The fire in which she and five others died happened in July 2009, at 12-storey Lakanal House in Camberwell, south London. But that same "stay put" advice was given to Grenfell residents eight years later. Many of those who did never made it out alive.
希克曼小姐並不是格蘭菲塔的住戶。她與其他五人是葬身在2009年7月,南倫敦坎伯韋爾一個叫拉卡那之家的12層樓的建築。但是在八年之後的格蘭菲塔火災,還是一樣給住戶"待在原地別動"這種建議,很多人就這樣沒能逃出生天。

Catherine, a 31-year-old dressmaker, had grown up on a farm in Hampshire with her two sisters, Liz and Sophie. The three were close as children and remained so as adults. Her sisters could not understand why Catherine hadn't left the building.
凱瑟琳是一個31歲的裁縫,她與兩個姊妹麗茲與蘇菲在漢普夏的農場裡長大。他們從小到大的感情都很好。她的姊妹們都沒能明白她為何沒辦法逃離建築物。

After the fire, they visited Catherine's home and saw the bottom half of the rooms completely burned out. They could see her sewing machine, melted. Her dressmaking patterns were scorched, but somehow hadn't been entirely consumed by the blaze.
在大火後,她們去看了凱瑟琳的家,發現房間的下半部份被徹底燒毀了。他們可以看到他的裁縫機被燒熔了。他的布料被燒焦了,但不知為何沒有全部被火焰吞噬。

It wasn't until two weeks later Liz and Sophie learned that Catherine had not simply fallen asleep on the sofa, as they had hoped. She had been conscious and was waiting to be saved. For the two surviving sisters, it was a devastating revelation.
兩週內麗茲與蘇菲才搞清楚,在火災時凱瑟琳並不是如他們所希望的在沙發上沉睡。而是清醒的等待救援。對這兩個還留在人世間的姊妹,這不啻是個沈重的打擊。

The "stay put" instruction is not inherently unsafe - if flats are properly hermetically sealed and fire-retardant. Guidelines state that an apartment in a tower block should withstand a blaze for an hour, giving enough time for inhabitants to be rescued.
"待在原地別動"這種指示在如果該樓層封閉性佳且能阻燃的情況下,本來並不一定是不安全的。指引上說在高樓的公寓區塊應能承受大火一個小時,以使住民有足夠時間獲救。

But two years before the fire that killed Miss Hickman, the council had refurbished the outside of the building and installed false ceilings, "improvements" which helped the flames spread
但在希克曼小姐火災罹難的兩年前,大樓管委會翻修了建築物外牆與安裝了一層假天花板,這些"改善"助長了火勢蔓延。

The flats were not fire-resistant for an hour - they were resistant for four minutes. As John Hendy QC, a barrister at the Lakanal House inquest, pointed out, that is "no resistance at all".
這公寓無法承受一小時的大火 - 它只撐了4分鐘。參與拉卡那之家案調查的律師John Hendy QC指出:"它毫無抵抗之力。"

The refurbishment involved wrapping the building in a flammable cladding and there was no sprinkler system - both factors in the Grenfell Tower blaze eight years later.
這次翻修包含了一個把整個公寓包住的可燃罩,而且沒有任何灑水系統。這兩個情形在八年後的格蘭菲塔大火一樣存在。

When Sophie Hickman and Liz Watts saw the Grenfell disaster unfold, they were horrified their sister's death apparently hadn't changed anything.
當蘇菲希克曼與麗茲瓦特看到格蘭菲塔的悲劇發生,她們才驚覺到她們姊妹的犧牲顯然無助於改善任何情況。

"This is what was really upsetting about Grenfell," says Liz.
"這才是格蘭菲塔事件讓人真正憂心之處",麗茲說道。

"You don't want her death to be in vain. You want answers. You know you want lessons to be learnt and that was the main thing."
"你不希望她死的毫無價值。你希望得到真相。你知道最重要的事是教訓能被記取。"

Sophie says: "You just think 'this is just crazy - why has this happened again?'"
But the issues go back much further than 2009.
蘇菲說:"你只要想想:這太扯了- 怎麼又來了?"。然而這問題其實在比2009年以前更早就已經發生了。

In August 1973, a fire at an indoor holiday complex on the Isle of Man claimed 50 lives, becoming the most deadly conflagration in the British Isles since the Blitz.
在1973年8月,一把惡火在曼島的渡假公寓奪走50條人命,成為了倫敦大轟炸後在英國本島最為慘重的火災。

Summerland, a huge building capable of accommodating 5,000 holidaymakers, was coated with an acrylic substance called Oroglas, which meant visitors would not only be in a warm, climate-controlled building, but could even get a tan while remaining indoors.
桑莫蘭是一個可容納5000人渡假的大型建物。它被一個稱作Oroglas的壓克力物質包覆著,這使得建物內部不但溫暖、不受外界氣候干擾,甚至在室內就可以做日光浴。

Those behind Summerland hoped this would help dissuade holidaymakers from visiting the sunny Mediterranean in favour of a break in the Manx capital of Douglas.
希望這樣能讓本來想去充滿陽光的地中海的遊客,改來曼島的首府道格拉斯渡假。

But Oroglas was highly flammable, so much so that a police officer who attended the blaze took some shards home with him - the substance made an excellent firelighter.
但Oroglas是個高度易燃到參與救火的警官都忍不住拿了一些Oroglas的碎片回家。這物質是個超棒的火種。

To save money, sprinklers had not been fitted at Summerland.
為了省錢,撒水裝置也不合用於桑莫蘭大樓。

Sally Naden was a dancer at the resort at the time of the fire, which was caused accidentally by youths smoking cigarettes. She remembers the "stay put" advice was issued to holidaymakers as the building burned.
莎莉娜登在火災那時在那渡假村擔任舞者,火災起因於意外引燃的香煙所造成。她還記得當這建築燒毀時所有遊客接受到的"待在原地"的建議。

"There was an announcement and they said 'nobody panic, there's nothing to worry about'. So people didn't actually move. It was floor-to-ceiling flames and the heat was almost instantaneous.
"有個廣播說:大家不用緊張,沒什麼好擔心的。所以大家都沒有逃生。火焰由地板竄燒到天花板與火場變得極熱幾乎是一瞬間的事"

"It was as if there was a waterfall of flames, that's the way it looked. I can remember somebody throwing their child over the balcony in the hope that someone would catch them."
"就像是有個火焰的瀑布一樣,看起來就是這樣。我還記得有個人把他的孩子從陽台丟下去,希望能有個人接住他。"

Ruth McQuillan-Wilson was a five-year-old on holiday with her family.
魯斯麥基藍威爾森當時是個五歲的孩子,與家人一同渡假。
"Dad had spotted smoke coming out through a ventilation shaft and an announcement was made from the floor. It was smelting and burning lumps from the roof," she says.
"爸爸發現有煙從通風口竄出,有人發布公告。有東西從屋頂上燒溶了。"

"It fell on people's backs, a lot of people had back injuries. Dad's hair was on fire. And then we had to run through the flames.
"它掉落在人們的背上,一大堆人背後受傷。爸爸的頭髮著火了,我們得穿過火焰逃跑。"

"I was badly burnt at that point and I thought 'I'm going to die in front of all these people'.
"我那時已經嚴重燒傷,我想我一定會在所有人面前燒死。"

"We had to escape over bodies, and I looked down at my hands and I couldn't understand what was wrong. The fingers were webbed, like a duck's feet. The skin was just all melted."
"我們得在屍身上逃跑,我看著我的手,我搞不清楚發生了什麼事。只知道我的手指像鴨蹼一樣纏繞在一起。皮膚已經都燒溶在一起了。"

As parents and their children were dying, people were still told to stay where they were.
當很多家庭走向鬼門關的時候,他們還是只被告知要待在原地不動。

An inquiry after the fire recommended the installation of sprinklers in all large buildings and that external walls of large buildings should be fire resistant.
災後的調查報告建議所有的大型建物應安裝撒水裝置與外牆的材質需能防火。

One of the firefighters who responded to Summerland, Godfrey Caine, says that his view ever since that day is "if you have a fire, get people out".
A disaster like this should never have happened again.
有個參與搶救桑莫蘭大火的消防員。戈福雷凱恩說:從那天之後他的觀點就是:"如果有火災,就趕快出來。"這樣的悲劇永遠都不應在發生。

But nearly 18 years later, in April 1991, the newly-installed cladding on a tower block in Huyton, Merseyside, caught fire.
但接近18年後,在1991年4月在默西賽德郡的海頓,一個有新建遮罩的大樓發生火災。

Knowsley Heights was well known as an eyesore, and in the mid-1980s the Conservative government launched Estate Action - a scheme to improve living conditions in tower blocks.
諾思利高地以醜陋聞名。是在80年代中期保守黨政府發起了一個改善大樓居住環境的住宅計畫中興建的。

Cladding was installed as part of the revamp, but this caught fire when a pile of dumped furniture at the base of the tower was set alight by youths.
遮罩是修補作業的一部分,但當有個年輕人點燃大樓地面上廢棄的一堆家具時卻因此引發了火勢。

Caretaker Dave Soo was awoken by the sound of helicopters and ran to help firefighters evacuate the block. When he arrived, the cladding looked like it had disintegrated.
管理人蘇戴夫被直昇機的聲音吵醒後,跑去幫助消防員進行疏散工作。當他到的時候,遮罩看起來已經解體了。

"It was hanging in strings," he says.
"只剩一咪咪還掛著",他說。

Tenth-floor resident Amanda Roberts - who had been pleased with the new cladding, thinking it looked "fantastic" - awoke to encounter thick black smoke and melting windows.
十樓的住戶阿曼達羅伯茲曾覺的這遮罩很棒,看起來真奇妙。醒來時就碰到濃密的黑煙與燒溶的窗戶。

The stairwell of the tower block was effectively a chimney, allowing the flames to race up through the building.
塔樓的梯間發揮了煙囪的功能,讓火焰在大樓裡直接向上竄燒。

Putting them out was problematic, as firefighter Les Skarrats explains, because the water being sprayed "was just hitting the external cladding and bouncing away".
如消防員萊斯斯卡拉特解釋,把這火撲滅問題重重。因為"噴上去的水只是打到外牆遮罩彈回,進不去。"

"How do you deal with that? It was virtually impossible; we could not stop the escalation of that fire. We were lucky that we could get people out in time."
"你覺的我們能拿這怎麼辦?實質上是處理不來的。我們沒法阻止火勢向上竄燒。好運的是我們能即時將人們救出來。"

In a similar vein, the exterior panels on Grenfell Tower were installed as "rainscreen cladding". In other words, they were designed specifically to keep water away from the building. Afterwards, several firefighters described their hoses having no effect on the flames.
相似的,格蘭菲塔外牆層板安裝來做雨幕包覆層。簡而言之,這是專門設計防止水進入建物的。後來,許多消防員描述他們的水喉對內部燃燒的火舌毫無用處。

Nobody was killed in the Knowsley Heights fire, and an investigation afterwards found the cladding was legal.
沒人在諾思利高地的火災中喪生,事後調查也顯示這包覆層是合法的。

Eight years later, in June 1999, a similar fire broke out in Irvine, western Scotland - this time with fatal results.
8年後,在1999年6月,在西蘇格蘭的爾文市發生了相似的大火 - 這一次就沒那麼好運了。

Garnock Court was one of five high-rise housing blocks in the town that had been clad for decorative reasons.
加諾克大堂在爾文市是五大住宅大樓的其中之一,為了美觀因素而增建了包覆層。

Before the makeover, there had been a number of fires in the blocks and all had been contained. But once the cladding was in place, it was a different story.
The blaze started with a dropped cigarette end in a flat on the fifth floor. The fire broke through a window and climbed the tower on the outside, spread by the plastic cladding.
在翻修前,此處已出現過若干次火災但範圍均有侷限。但包覆層完工後就完全變了樣。火舌穿過窗戶由外部爬上大樓,火勢由包覆層上蔓延開來。

William Linton - the man who had dropped his cigarette butt - was a wheelchair user and it was feared he had not been able to escape from his flat. Firefighters found his dog dead but there was no sign of Mr Linton himself.
丟下了煙屁股的威廉林頓是個輪椅使用者。怕是沒能從他的公寓中逃出,消防員找到了他罹難的狗,但沒有發現林頓先生的蹤跡。

It turned out that the fire had been so hot, he had been incinerated. His death was confirmed only by forensic analysis of the ash.
事實上火焰的熾烈程度可讓他徹底焚化。他的死亡只能透過法醫由灰燼中檢測來確認。

Again, recommendations were made. Combustible cladding was not to be used on high-rise flats.
建議再度被提出。在高樓層住宅中不能使用可燃性包覆層。

A Select Committee report concluded "we do not believe that it should take a serious fire in which many people are killed before all reasonable steps are taken towards minimising the risks".
一個專責委員會的報告指出"我們不能相信在所有合理能降低風險的措施被實施之前,應該有這個嚴重、造成大量傷亡的火災發生。"

The report also said the danger of cladding systems was that fire might exit a building at one floor, spread up the building and re-enter on another floor.
It reads like a prediction of Grenfell.
報告還指出包覆層系統的危險在於火焰可能由某樓層竄出並蔓延至其他樓層。這讀來簡直像是預言了格蘭菲塔的下場。

Brian Donohoe, the Labour MP for Irvine at the time of the blaze, was part of that Select Committee and remains incredulous the recommendations were not acted on.
布萊恩唐納荷時任爾文市的工黨國會議員,同時也是專責委員會的成員,他仍懷疑這些建議並沒有被付諸實行。

"Why didn't more take place in Westminster? Garnock Court was a lesson that unfortunately hadn't been learned by any of the governments that have been in position.
"為何倫敦國會殿堂的人老作壁上觀?加諾克大堂就是個不幸的、沒被政府內每個相關單位記取的教訓。"

"The recommendations were received by the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. But the response was poor and the response virtually kicked what was made as recommendations into the long grass."
"這些建議已由副首相約翰普雷斯柯特辦公室收取。但回應簡直糟糕,而且實質上只是想把這些建議打入冷宮。"

Nearly six years later, in February 2005, two firefighters died in a blaze at a tower block in Stevenage, where residents had been told to "stay put".
幾乎是6年後,2005年2月,兩名消防員在史蒂文納吉的塔樓大火中喪生,當時住民們收到的指示仍是"待在原地別動"。

Michael Miller and Jeff Wornham had gone into the flat in Harrow Court where the fire broke out. The man who lived there was rescued, but the woman, Natalie Close, died. Mr Miller and Mr Wornham were also killed during the rescue attempt.
麥克米勒與傑夫沃罕進入了哈羅大堂的起火樓層之中。住在該樓層的男子獲救,但女子娜塔莉克蘿絲則喪生。米勒與沃罕也在這次救援行動中喪生。

The "stay put" policy was based on the idea that people would be safer inside a self-contained flat than walking around a burning building trying to find a way out.
"待在原地別動"的指令是奠基於人們待在一個封閉嚴密的公寓內總比在火場中亂亂闖找出口還來的安全的想法。

Michelle Camilerri had dialled 999 after spotting the fire from her 14th-floor flat. She was told to stay where she was and did so for more than an hour.
米雪兒卡米列里在她的14樓公寓發現火災後打了999電話,她被告知請待在原地,她照辦了且待了超過一小時。

Eventually, with the fire still raging, she decided to leave. She recalls thinking: "If we are going to die, then we're going to die trying to escape."
終於,隨著大火仍在肆虐,她終於決定離開。她回想起:"如果我們會死的話,至少也要死在試著逃命的路上。"

"I grabbed my children and ran."
"我抓起我的孩子逃跑。"

The Fire Brigades Union called for a review of the "stay put" policy and for sprinklers to be fitted in all tower blocks.
消防員工會呼籲對"待在原地別動"原則進行審查,並且要求所有的大樓住宅單位都要裝設合宜的撒水系統。

It wasn't done. Six years later came the Lakanal House fire, in which Miss Hickman and five others died.
天不從人願,六年後發生了拉卡那之家大火。希克曼小姐與其他五人在此葬身火窟。

Rasheed Nuhu and his family, who were in a neighbouring flat to Miss Hickman, were told to stay in their flat.
拉希德努胡一家人住在希克曼小姐的公寓隔壁,也被告知要待在他們的公寓裡。

He considered the advice to be "preposterous".
他認為這個建議簡直荒謬。

"I thought, 'how can you tell people to stay in a burning building?'"
"我只是想,怎麼能叫人乖乖待在一個燃燒的建築物當中呢?"

The Nuhus took shelter with their neighbours and another family, obeying instructions to shut themselves in the bathroom and hold damp towels over their faces. Then smoke started coming though a vent in the bathroom wall.
努胡一家與鄰居還有另一家人找到了避難處,他們遵照指示把自己鎖在浴室並用溼毛巾掩住臉龐。濃煙開始從空隙處竄入浴室牆內。

"At that point I thought 'no'," says Mr Nuhu. He and his family ran to the balcony, their friends remained in the bathroom.
"那時我想:噢,不行!",努胡先生說。他們一家人就跑到陽台,但他們的朋友還是待在浴室。

The Nuhu family was trapped for 40 minutes before being led to safety by firefighters down a blackened and smoke-filled stairwell.
努胡一家人受困了40分鐘後,終於被消防人員救出,走下了徹底燻黑、煙霧瀰漫的梯間。

When rescuers got to the bathroom, they found five bodies: Dayana Francisquini, 26, and her children, six-year-old Thais, and Felipe, three; Helen Udoaka, 34, and her three-week-old daughter Michelle.
當救援小組進入浴室時,他們發現了5位遺體:26歲的達亞那法蘭希奇尼與她兩個孩子,6歲的泰宜斯、3歲的費里佩,34歲的海倫烏多卡與她三週大的女兒米雪兒。

Firefighters were metres away from Miss Hickman when a fireball ripped through her flat. They had to leave or they would have been killed themselves.
當一個火球正在扯裂希克曼小姐的公寓時,消防員僅距她幾公尺之遙。他們不得不撤退否則連自己的生命都會有危險。

The coroner recommended that sprinklers should be retro-fitted to all tower blocks, that the "stay put" policy should be reviewed, and cladding should be fireproof. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles did not make the recommendations compulsory.
驗屍官建議撒水系統應該與所有舊大樓相容、"待在原地別動"的原則應該檢討,遮罩層板應該能防火。住房、社區與地方政府大臣埃瑞克皮克爾斯並沒有讓這些建議成為強制性的法令。

Harriet Harman was the Lakanal House residents' MP. She saw the building burn and to her it was obvious the "stay put" advice was not working.
哈莉特哈曼是拉卡那之家當地的國會議員。她親眼看見燃燒的大樓,他清楚"待在原地別動"的原則毫無用處。

She believes more should have been done to prevent future tragedies.
她相信還應該多做些什麼來防止未來的悲劇發生。

"Whatever all of us did, it wasn't enough," she says. "Because if you've got something that happened and six people died and then exactly the same happens again... and even more people died, then none of us did enough."
"無論我們過去做了什麼努力,這都遠遠不足,"她說。"因為如果發生了奪走六條人命的悲劇,然後同樣的事一再發生,又有更多的人死去,那很明顯我們做的還不夠。"

In 2016, a scruffy 23-storey tower block in North Kensington, west London, was wrapped in cladding to improve its appearance.
在2016年,在西倫敦北肯辛頓有一個破舊的23層住宅大樓,為了讓外觀更漂亮也包覆了一個層板。(就是指格蘭菲塔)

The following year, a faulty domestic fridge-freezer set light to a fourth-floor flat.
隔年,一個故障的冰櫃在四樓起火。

The cladding was highly flammable.
包覆層板高度可燃。

There were no sprinklers.
沒有撒水系統。

Just before 01:00, the fire brigade received the first call from Grenfell Tower.
就在1點之前,消防隊收到了格蘭菲塔打來的報案電話。

Residents were told to stay in their homes.
住戶被告知待在他們家中。

註釋:
stay put: 待在原地別動
Blitz: 倫敦大轟炸。第二次世界大戰中納粹德國對英國首都倫敦實施的戰略轟炸。
in favor of: 有利於
ventilation shaft: 通風豎井
in a similar vein: 與此相似的
Select Committee: 國會或地方自治體成立的委員會,有專責的監督或審查任務與期限
Westminster: 意指英國國會
into the long grass: 比喻當回應一個困難的問題時,致力於讓人們忘記問題,而不是致力於解決問題
vent: 洩漏出
coroner: 驗屍官
Communities Secretary: Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
set light: 起火




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