London police are trying to determine whether recent refurbishments to the building's exterior contributed to the spread of the blaze, which has left 79 people missing and presumed dead.
For now, Roger Evans is not planning to leave his first-floor apartment in the Taplow block of the Chalcots Estate because "it was a knee jerk reaction by the council", he said.
Fire safety at United Kingdom apartment blocks has been under scrutiny since a fire destroyed Grenfell Tower in west London on June 14.
Twenty-seven high-rise apartments, in areas including Manchester, London, and Portsmouth have failed fire cladding safety tests so far, the British government confirmed on Saturday.
A few dozen residents refused to move, which Camden Council said was an issue that would have to be dealt with by the fire department. Some residents said they learned about the evacuation on television news hours before officials came knocking on doors.
The government has been ordering urgent tests on the estimated 600 high-rise residential buildings across the country in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and is urging all public and private landlords to test their buildings.
Many residents complained of a lack of information and confusion.
The council's leader, Georgia Gould, said in a statement outside the council's offices that it would take up to four weeks to fix the blocks that were evacuated and later added in a radio interview that almost 4,000 residents were affected.
US Rep. Scalise, wounded in Virginia shooting, is out of ICU
Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican who is filling in as whip, is hosting a two-day blood drive, which ends on Thursday. Mika suffered a wound to the chest and is expected to make a full recovery, his family said in a statement .
Residents - including families with babies and elderly relatives - trooped out of the buildings late Friday night with suitcases and plastic bags stuffed with clothes.
Speaking while attending Armed Forces Day in Liverpool, Theresa May said: "For those Camden blocks, it wasn't just a question of the cladding; there were a number of issues that came together that meant that the fire service were concerned about those blocks and the action was taken by the local authority".
The figure was later revised down to 650 after fire inspectors excluded one of the five towers from the evacuation.
Mr Javid praised the "calm and stoicism" which residents showed when asked to leave their homes at short notice on Friday, in what he called a "distressing experience". "We are now fully focused on supporting our residents and their needs over the weekend and onwards", she said. To encourage cooperation with authorities, May said the government won't penalize any Grenfell fire survivors who were in the country illegally.
Celotex, which makes the RS5000 insulation boards in the tower's rainscreen cladding, insisted no building over 18m tall would be fitted with the material.
Ms Gould committed £100,000 of council funds to pay for food and essential items displaced residents may need, with the council having spent £500,000 on hotel rooms for residents.
The cladding has since failed all safety checks and prompted a nationwide review of the materials used on everything from hospitals to hotels and apartment blocks.
Comments