Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019 17:16:52 -0000, NY wrote:

One hell of a cherry picker used in that chimney rescue attempt in
Cumbria.

Yes it was. 260 feet high (probably a bit more since they are always
operated with a least a *bit* of a bend at the elbow joint.

The Dixons chimney is 290 feet...

Would it have helped at Grenfell?

If there was space and suitable ground with access for a big rigid
truck close enough to the base maybe. Suitable ground is the biggest
problem, it's not unknown for them to fall over when the ground under
an outrigger stabiliser gives way... How do you know what load a
random bit of ground can take? With Grenfell you also have the issue
of all the falling and burning debris...

Good that the Grenfell enquiry may lead to a change in the "in case of
fire, stay put" advice to people in tower blocks.

For Grenfell, as designed and built, that was the correct advice.
Each flat had a 60 minute fire resistance. The orginal fire was
extinguished within the single flat well within 60 minutes.

The problem was that some **** had wrapped the building in highly
flamable plastic, aluminium and insulation that the small flat fire
ignigted.

Unfortunately you could also have the situation that people understandably
in the circumstances seeing a cherry picker platform as the last resort
would try to get to it in a non orderly manner and overwhelm any controlled
rescue plan for using it, when the Titanic went down the officers kept
order by having pistols available though as one noted in his book written
in a different era they werent used to influence Britishers,
so it must have been for the more excitable immigrants going to the US from
elsewhere.
Things would be very different now can you imagine the outcry if Police
today had to threaten use of a Tazer from the platform to keep potential
survivors in order so that at least some could be got off.

GH