Residents of the Sydney apartment building where the fatal fire occurred spoke to the WSWS. Mostly workers and students, they expressed shock and anger over the tragedy and the inadequate fire safety measures in the complex. Some had previously complained about the defects.
Tariq Hammad, a meat factory worker, said he had been one of the first residents in the new building in 2009. Like many other residents, the fire caught him by surprise. âI was in the shower so I didnât hear the alarm,â he explained. âWhen I came down to the street there were a lot of people everywhere, the fire fighters, and the police. All the residents were on the street.â
Hammad said that when he bought his unit he had been âtold nothing about the safety issuesâ that had reportedly been raised by the fire brigade authorities with the local Bankstown Council.
John, a university student from China, shared a three-bedroom unit on level six with three others, and paid $135 a week for the room. âIâve been living here for two years,â he said. âThe fire alarm goes off regularly but most of the time itâs just a false alarm, so I didnât pay any attention. But after about half an hour I realised there was a problem.â
John said he was worried about returning to live in the building. He was also unsure where he could live. âWe were only offered accommodation for the first night... After that, we had to figure out somewhere to stay ourselves. Now Iâm staying with my friends. There are probably many students from the University of Western Sydney, University of Technology and University of Sydney living here like me.â
Jose said residents had been told to stay elsewhere for at least a week. He asked: âWhat happens next? We donât have insurance. We never thought something like this could happen. Itâs a brand new building, only three years old.â
Jose also asked: âWhy did the unit burn so fast and so hot? The units have carpetâthat will burnâand between some of the walls is chipboard. Itâs usual to do that kind of building here⊠For the type of building, for the price, it was the best you could find at the time.â
Peter, who rents a unit on the seventh floor, also pointed to the numerous false alarms. âBut that that day was different. I smelt it and I said, âthis is for real.â We have a small baby and we decided to use the fire stairs.â
Peter was angry that he and his wife were then left for nine hours in a local community hall with no baby facilities. After he asked what was being organised, officials said: âDonât expect a five-star hotel.â He eventually walked out in disgust, to sleep on the floor at his brotherâs flat.
Peter condemned the role of the Bankstown Council. âYesterday a council official was saying theyâve been following the developer for two years to fix some things. I believe the council has been hypocritical. Thereâs a bureaucracy problem here, because how can you be after people for two years to fix up something in a place with 96 families? If something was wrong, write to the families and say, âLook that building is faulty, get out of there if you can.â
âThatâs a duty of care, right? But they donât have a duty of care. They donât care. Thatâs not a building to raise families in. I always raised that concern with my wife. I donât see this as a safe building. How come fire alarms are always going off?â
Another resident, Joel Wehbe, highlighted how dangerous the fire had been. His mother, who had been in his unit when the blaze broke out, had initially ignored the alarm and then ran down the fire stairs. âShe was in a panic and didnât know what was happening,â he explained.
Residents had then been left to fend for themselves, he said. âApart from the first night, when we were helped by DOCS [Department of Community Services], there has been no help. Weâre still waiting. The strata [building] management still hasnât got back to us regarding what the authorities are going to do about accommodation and stuff⊠The first night I slept in the car because I had to go back to work the next day, then I went to my auntieâs place.â
Wehbe raised questions about the internal design of the units. âWhat happens if thereâs a fire in the kitchen? Where are you going to get out from? Especially if youâre so high. You pretty much have to go to the balcony because people arenât going to go through the smoke.â
Jessie is a community housing tenant in the building as part of a scheme that provides government subsidies for private rentals, instead of constructing public accommodation. She explained: âItâs community housing, so the landlord has a duty of care. If itâs not safe, they have to find me alternative housing⊠Iâm on a low income, so I was eligible to move into this place.â
Jessie was scathing about the lack of safety, starting with the unit doors, which were meant to block fires. âThe doors to the apartments are meant to be special doors that expand when it heats up and completely seal off the door, so the fire canât get in or smoke,â she said. âThe fire safety doors are supposed to last one hour, but they only last five minutes I would say. Thatâs not good.
âThe door is supposed to have a metal thing on the back of itâwhich fell off after six monthsâthatâs supposed to automatically close the door if itâs left open... We had a fire safety inspection this year and they didnât pick up on those things at all. They were in and out in two seconds, and I never heard back from anyone to say, âThis needs to be fixed or you need to do thisâ.â
Jessie said there were many other problems with the building. âThe elevators are always playing up, the security screens on the driveway are constantly broken, and a couple of months ago someone managed to break into the car park and smash someoneâs car window and a couple of days later firebomb another car... Even at the very beginning the air-conditioner didnât work and I had to get a repairman out⊠And all the down lights had to be replaced because the wiring was faulty.â
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[10 September 2012]