FBU offers help to US counterparts following Bronx disaster
Early reports point to similarities between the Bronx blaze and the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has written to its counterparts in the United States offering to work together on building safety campaigning following the Bronx apartment disaster.
The deadly fire in a 19-story apartment block in the New York City borough claimed the lives of 19 people, including children, last week.
The FBU said early reports have pointed to similarities between the Bronx blaze and the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017, which killed 72 people, including lift problems, a lack of sprinklers and an "ignorance" of residents' voices.
In letters sent to Andrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association and Edward A. Kelly, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, the general secretary of the FBU, Matt Wrack, said:
"The FBU continues to campaign for justice for the victims of Grenfell Tower and for a wholesale overhaul of the building safety regime in the UK, and we are always happy to co-ordinate on this work.
"For many of our members, the blaze will bring back awful memories of battling the Grenfell Tower apartment block fire in London in 2017.
"In order to prevent anything like this occurring again, may this disaster prompt politicians to assess fire safety measures in similar buildings."
In the years since the Grenfell Tower disaster, the FBU has repeatedly pointed blame at the building safety system as a whole and government deregulatory agendas stretching back 40 years.