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London fire: fatalities confirmed as blaze engulfs tower block – latest
London fire: six people confirmed dead after tower block blaze – latest
(35 minutes later)
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Police and firefighters had to use riot shields to protect themselves from falling debris as they rescued people from the blaze, according to this image from the Evening Standard.
Jamie Grierson
Police under riot shields rescue man covered in ash from #GrenfellTower fire https://t.co/3SpyNs5cBO pic.twitter.com/lbt3sioubz
Michael Paramasivan , 37, a builder, lives on the 7th floor of the tower and managed to escape the blaze. He lives with two others in the flat who fled with him.
“The most chilling moment was when I suddenly realised it was a fire,” he said.
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“Between 1 and 1.30 I was dozing in and out of sleep. I then smelt something. I got up and looked around to see if it was an electrical fault but there was nothing.
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“Then I looked through the spyhole. There was smoke and people running
A man who escaped from the 17th floor with his aunt said he heard no fire alarms. “The cladding was flammable, it just caught up like a matchstick,” he told Channel 4 News.
past. We just ran straight out down the stairs.”
This man managed to escape from the 17th floor with his 68-year-old aunt. He told me how he got out #LatimerRoad pic.twitter.com/d4miXigfN3
Paramasivan said the material on the outside of the building went up in flames rapidly. “It just went up like that,” he said, gesturing wildly.
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“There’s no fire alarms in the corridors, no sprinklers, nothing. There’s only smoke detectors in the flat and they didn’t go off.”
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Baby caught after being thrown from window
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A baby was caught by a member of the public after being dropped from the burning Grenfell Tower, a witness has said.
Many people from surrounding St Clements church have been told to leave their homes in blocks neighbouring Grenfell Tower.
Samira Lamrani said she saw a woman try to save a baby by dropping it from a window “on the ninth or 10th floor” to waiting members of the public below.
Alice, who lives in Barandon Walk, watched the fire as it spread quickly up the highrise after starting at about 1.30am.
She told PA:
She said she had seen one person jump from the building.
People were starting to appear at the windows, frantically banging and screaming. The windows were slightly ajar, a woman was gesturing that she was about to throw her baby and if somebody could catch her baby.
“It started on a corner, but it was one side near the corner, and then it just went up,” she said.
Somebody did, a gentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby.
“After a few hours, maybe 3am, that’s when people told us to get out. They kind of started slowly blocking the roads.”
I could see people from all angles, banging and screaming for help.
Alice said the fire spread at an “unbelievable” speed. “Things were just falling off, the debris, it was shocking how fast it spread. I think it was new material - it’s just been renovated. There’s been fires there before and that’s never happened.”
Us members of the public were reassuring them, telling them we’ve done what we can and that we’ve phoned 999, but obviously the look on their face was death.
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My daughter’s friend said she observed an adult who made some sort of homemade parachute and tried to lower himself out of the window.
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The more I looked up, floor upon floor, [there were] endless numbers of people. Mainly the kids, because obviously their voices, with their high pitched voices – that will remain with me for a long time. I could hear them screaming for their lives.
Sarah Marsh
A resident called Zara said she saw a woman throw her son, who was about five, from a fifth or sixth floor window.
At least 50 people injured in the blaze have been taken to five hospitals.
She told LBC: “One woman actually threw her son out of the window. I think he’s OK. I think he might have just had some broken bones and bruises.”
In a statement NHS England said:
She said she thought it was the fifth or even the sixth floor. “There was another woman screaming ‘My baby, my baby, I need to get out, I need to save my baby’. But we were just looking up. We couldn’t do anything. There was nothing we could do.”
Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragic incident at the Grenfell Tower block in Kensington. Our priority is to continue to work closely with the NHS services involved. We have tried and tested measures in place to manage this but we would also encourage Londoners to use NHS services wisely and seek advice from NHS 111 in the first instance.
It confirmed that the five receiving hospitals are St Mary’s, Chelsea and Westminster, Royal Free, St Thomas’ and King’s College hospital.
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Notices reportedly inside Grenfell Tower advised residents to stay put unless there was fire in their flat.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has urged members of the public to donate clothes, food, blankets and toiletries to St Clement’s church, which is offering shelter to people from Grenfell Tower.
Fire advice inside the block seems to show 'stay put' advice too, which caused fatalities in the 2009 Lakanal blaze: https://t.co/J534zavIzS pic.twitter.com/gcVgYMLOnq
We weep & pray for those in West London. Let us all support those affected by donating necessaries to St Clements Church. #GrenfellTower
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Tony Devenish, Conservative London assembly member for Kensington and Chelsea, has added to calls for answers about questions over safety concerns. In a statement he said:
Caroline Bannock
My heart goes out to all of those caught up in the horrendous blaze at Grenfell Tower overnight, especially to those who lost their lives and lost loved ones.
Alisha, 25, who lives five minutes away from Grenfell Tower, was out late with her brother to get something to eat, because of Ramadan, when they saw the fire.
I’d like to thank the firefighters and emergency services for their tireless work trying to bring the incident under control in what must have been very difficult circumstances.
She said:
I have been stunned by the scale and ferocity of the fire and of the heartbreaking stories emerging from the scene.
I was there from 1.45am, the fire was getting wild and out of control. There were 50 people there, families that were screaming, especially one family that I was comforting as she had her aunty and her kids on the 23rd floor. The police was standing there telling us to move back and had no information.
Rightly, questions are already being asked about the safety measures in place to prevent this kind of tragedy. I am keeping up to date with all of the latest developments and in time I will be seeking answers to these questions.
The fire trucks and ambulances didn’t come till about 2.15am or 2.30am and we only saw three, though there could have been some around the other side. A car had been left in the middle of the road and nobody knew who the driver was, so the fire engines and ambulances couldn’t get through. People were telling us that there was no fire alarm, people said they were knocking on doors shouting ‘Get out of the house, get out out of the house.’
I was at the front watching debris falling, there were loud explosions. I felt useless, I couldn’t do anything, just watching a building burn and hear people screaming. We tried to comfort people who were crying for their families, we were just telling them it would be all right.
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Alexandra Topping
Six people are confirmed to have died
The reverend Mark O'Donoghue, area Dean of Kensington on the support being offered at St Clement's church. #GrenfellFire pic.twitter.com/pMWs0D8qmD
The Met has confirmed that six people were killed – and the number is expected to rise.
The Rev Mark O’Donoghue, area dean of Kensington, has been busy organising volunteers to help the Grenfell Tower evacuees at St Clement’s church. He says:
Commander Stuart Cundy said: “Our thoughts are with everyone involved in this truly shocking fire at Grenfell Tower.
We’ve had volunteers here with the doors open since 3.30am, receiving people evacuated from their homes because of the tragedy you can see behind you.
“I can confirm six fatalities at this time, but this figure is likely to rise during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days. Many others are receiving medical care.”
We are giving people a shoulder to cry on, a space for them to rest away from the chaos out here, tea and coffee and the Christian compassion you would hope to receive from the church.
UPDATE: Six fatalities following the fire in #NorthKensington https://t.co/0kmxhYfOly pic.twitter.com/3Fl9tMzVw7
St Clement’s has helped about 100-200 people and he put a call out to supermarkets for donations of bedding so they could offer evacuees a roof over their heads tonight.
He said the church had been inundated with offers of help and donations, with food deliveries from Tesco and Whole Foods arriving unbidden. A chef who feeds Stella McCartney’s staff also reached out and will cook lunch for people at the church today, he said.
“It’s London doing what London does best,” he said. “We saw it after the terrible events in London Bridge and we see it again today. When push comes to shove London comes together, it stands together – it’s that Blitz spirit.”
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Sadiq Khan says there will be a “great many questions as to the cause of this tragedy”.
At Latymer Christian Centre, the team running another makeshift rescue centre say they have been overwhelmed with donations of food, water and clothes. They are now turning people away, asking instead for cash donations.
In a new statement he adds: “I want to reassure Londoners that we will get all these answers.”
“What we want is £500,000 to give these people a roof,” said Tim Burke, a community arts organiser in North Kensington who woke up to news of the fire and headed straight out to help.
I'm truly devastated to see the horrific scenes of major fire at #GrenfellTower in #Kensington. Read my statement https://t.co/DTcxZS33kp pic.twitter.com/SZJuEvyrgL
“There are people there who’ve woken up with their savings and life over.” A fundraising page has been set up. “When all this is finished people need a place to stay,” said Danny Donaldson, wearing a smoke mask, one of several donated by the New Lines tool shop.
At the Christian centre, teams of volunteer doctors and trauma nurses are working with about 50 people. They are asking people who are arriving with donations to head to the Maxilla Club.
“We’re coordinating with the other centres to try and find out what they need but there’s no one on the ground from a professional emergency response level,” he said.
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Plans and drawings lodged with the local planning department show details of Grenfell Tower and the refurbishment project. One cross section purports to show a single stair access to the upper floors.
Alan Travis
#Glenfell Tower drawings. Single stairs for 120 flats in 24 floors. Flats started on 4th floor, lower ones added in remodelling. #LondonFire pic.twitter.com/5Gl3JqILlD
There are almost 7,000 fewer firefighters in England than five years ago, leading to longer response times and a 25% fall in the number of fire prevention visits, according to the latest Home Office figures published last month.
The reduction in the number of firefighters and staff employed by the fire rescue services to 42,300 has been more than matched by a long-term fall in fire deaths from more than 750 a year in the early 1980s to 264 in 2014-15.
However, the number of fire-related deaths rose to 303 last year – a 15% increase – bringing the downward trend to an end.
The number of uniformed firefighters stood at 34,400 in 2015-16 compared with 41,202 in 2010-11 – a fall of 6,802.
The Home Office figures show that the fire service carried out 581,000 home fire risk checks in 2015-16 - 25% less than five years earlier. The 63,000 fire safety audits of non-domestic premises last year, also down 25% compared with five years ago.
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Alice Ross
Haroon Siddique
At the impromptu rescue centre in the Rugby Portobello youth club, residents, many in their pyjamas, are waiting for news and the next steps.
Conservative MP Mike Penning, a former firefighter and fire minister, told BBC News the UK had never seen a fire like this before.
Some are in tears, while others seem dazed. A missing person’s register was being passed around.
He also said questions needed to be asked about the safety requirements, including in relation to the cladding which he described as “inert”.
Sajad Jamalvatan, a biomechanical engineering student who lives with his mother and sister on the third floor, said he was returning from the cinema at about 1.30am and could see the fire from the station.
He said: “The cladding was clearly spreading the fire … We need to find out what went on.”
Police officers wouldn’t allow them near the building. “I could see it wasn’t safe,” he said. “They pushed us back and pushed us back.”
Harley Curtain Wall, the firm that provided the cladding for Grenfell went bust after the refurbishment.
He believed the fire started on the floor above his flat, and his mother got out very fast. “She smelt the fire and got out of the house. She could see stuff coming from the floor above her so she was panicking.”
She left with only her passport and Jamalvatan’s sister’s passport.
Like several other residents of Grenfell Tower, he told the Guardian: “There were no fire alarms at all.”
Jamalvatan said he saw someone jump from the 17th or 18th floor between 2.30am and 3.30am.
He added that the fire appeared to spread quickly up the cladding, which he described as plastic and which may be PVC, on the outside of the building.
“The fire hit the outside of the building … and as soon as it did that it went straight up,” he said.
Another witness from a neighbouring building, who asked not to be named, said: “If you had been here at 1.30 you would see it spreading rapidly … I’ve never seen a fire spread as quickly like that.”
A man who gave his name only as Taz said he lives in the block immediately below Grenfell Tower. “I heard screaming and shouting and looked out of my window,” he said. “You could see kids waving from the windows. You could hear, ‘Mummy, daddy’ … I just ran down the street. The police were telling us the block’s going to collapse.”
People were crying outside for their family,” he added. “It wasn’t a good sight to see.”
His uncle, Abdul Wahabi, lives on the 18th floor and hadn’t been heard from. “My uncle’s still stuck up there,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything from him. We’re still waiting.”
Taz added that the only immediate support was being organised by the local community. “I don’t see any local authorities, I don’t see the council,” he said. “It’s just local people getting together helping each other out. Some people have lost their homes.”
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A team of British Red Cross volunteers are supporting residents at a nearby rest centre.
The tower is not in danger of collapse, according to an update from the London fire brigade.
Jon Pewtner, senior emergency response officer for the British Red Cross said: “The atmosphere here is tense – people are worried about loved ones and many are coming to the realisation that they have lost their homes.
Our specialist urban search and rescue crews and a structural engineer have checked the building and said that it is not in danger of collapsing and that it is safe for our crews to be in there.
“The community is rallying round, with residents collecting food, drink and clothes, and everyone is asking each other if they can help, or if they need food. There is a good, strong community spirit.”
Fire crews are still in the building. Some have had to use riot shields to protect themselves from falling debris.
Organisations have been offering shelter to residents. Latymer upper school said: “Partner schools and organisations contact @LatymerUpper and we will help with premises if we can.”
Terrible news re. fire on Latimer Road. Partner schools and organisations contact @LatymerUpper and we will help with premises if we can
The Al-Manaar centre has also been opened and used as a temporary shelter for those affected.
pic.twitter.com/8cUAqVXNUC
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Two residents from Grenfell Tower have been in touch to say they are safely on holiday. They did not give their names but gave an address in the tower and their ages as 44 and 54. They claim the council was told about fire concerns.
We are alive and well, but not able to report ourselves as alive because the emergency phone number is very slow, and the town hall number is also constantly busy. During the refurbishments we already knew that a disaster like this could happen any time, but corruption thrives at an alarming level in K&C. It’s all about whitewashing money through ‘projects’ at the cost of people’s lives. We are abroad on holidays, lucky escape.
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Here’s an aerial view of the fire at dawn.
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Cotton can’t give any details on the number of victims. She says fire crews are making steady progress up the building. She says they have reached the 21st floor.
She would not answer questions about the safety concerns of residents before the blaze.
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Fire commissioner Dany Cotton is giving another statement.
She says a structural engineer is monitoring the safety of the building. It remains safe for fire crews to enter, she says. She can’t speculate on the cause because of the “dynamic nature” of the incident.
Paul Woodrow, from the London ambulance service, says 100 medics are working at the scene. He confirms that 50 people have been taken to hospital.
Stuart Cundy, of the Met, urges people to keep away from the area. He says people should call 0800 0961 233 if they have concerns about people in the area.
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Damien Gayle
The #GrenfellTower missing persons centre on Freston Rd #grenfellfire pic.twitter.com/qWi5KIjLGC
Francis Dean, from Middlesex, was at the missing persons centre on Freston Road looking for his sister Zainab Deen, who was with her two-year-old son in her flat in Grenfell Tower last night.
She called me around about half past one, going two, saying that there was a fire, so I had to drive back here. I was on the phone to her, she was on the 14th floor. She came out of the flat and they told her to stay, but because that flat was on fire she went into the next flat, 113. She was in 115.
I was telling her to use the stairs. She was a bit frightened, a bit afraid. But the firefighters were telling her to go back in.
Their response was too slow; and besides the building burned too fast. This is a new building, when she got the flat they were still renovating it. I don’t think it’s been two years yet, and now fire. Somebody’s got to be held accountable for this.
It’s not looking good because I was chatting to her about 4am and she was trapped and there was smoke. At one point the son collapsed because of the smoke and I told her: you have to give him mouth to mouth.
Dean has not spoken to his sister since and is still looking for her. Staff at Freston Road told him to move on to a rescue centre at the Rugby Portobello Trust.
A woman said she had come with her son to look for his friend. From her home in Kingsnorth House, opposite Grenfell Tower, she had watched the fire as it developed through the night. “I was just praying that my friends and families that I know are out of there,” she said. “I heard the screams.”
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Alexandra Topping
At St Clement’s church on Sirdar Road some of those who had been evacuated stood on the street in shock as helicopters hovered overhead.
I spoke to Mahmoud, a 25-year-old refugee from Syria who had come to the UK seeking safety. He lived in Grenfall Tower and was waiting for news of his friend Mohammed, whom he last spoke to at 3.30am when he was still trapped in the flat next to the one they shared, desperately trying to escape.
Mahmoud said he lives with two brothers, Mohammed, 24, andOmar, 25, who is in hospital.
Mahmoud had been working and was out when his friend called him to say the tower was on fire.
When Mahmoud, who lives on the 14th floor with the brothers, got back the fire was small and not on their side of the building, but he watched as it grew and wrapped around the tower.
I spoke to my friend at about 3.30am. He was saying, ‘Help me.’ My friend who escaped went to one flat and he went to another. They lost each other. I have been friends with them since I was six years old, I don’t know what to do. I am waiting. I hope he is alive. I last spoke to [Mohammed] at 3.30am. He was saying, ‘Please help me. Please tell my family I love them.’ He sounded very scared.
The last time Mahmoud spoke to Mohammed he believes he was in the next-door flat with two adults and a baby. Mahmoud said he last saw his friend Omar, who was on the phone to his trapped brother, at Latimer Road station.
“He was talking to his brother on the phone. He was saying, ‘Go downstairs. Don’t listen to anyone, go downstairs.’ I think he was waiting for the firemen to get to him.
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London mayor: questions need to be answered about fire advice
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said questions needed to be answered about the fire advice given to residents.
Asked on Radio 4’s Today programme about advice to residents to stay inside their flats in the event of a fire (see earlier) Khan said: “Thankfully residents didn’t stay in their flats and fled to safety.
“One of the concerns that we have is it’s a 24-storey building but for obvious reasons, with the scale of the fire, our experts weren’t able to reach all the way to the top, so of course these are questions that need to be answered as soon as possible.”
He added: “It’s very distressing, not just for those of us watching as lay people, but also very distressing for the emergency services.
“We declared a major incident very early, which meant not just the fire service but also the London ambulance service, the police and the others were involved at the scene.”
More than 100 police officers were on scene, alongside 100 medics and 250 firefighters, he said.
