BURNT ALIVE IN LONDON INFERNO NIGHTMARE
Dozens feared dead as inferno tears through flats in London
DOZENS of people are feared dead after a massive fire tore through a London highrise yesterday, trapping terrified families and forcing desperate residents to leap from windows as they scrambled for safety.
Petrified residents of the Grenfell Tower council flats in west London were seen at their windows screaming for help as the blaze engulfed the 24- storey tower just before 1am local time.
Some tried to escape by making makeshift ropes from bedsheets, while at least one person is thought to have jumped from the building to escape the flames, which raced through the building in just 15 minutes. Police last night confirmed at least six people had died.
Witnesses gave harrowing accounts of people flashing phone torches out their windows and screaming for help as the inferno took hold.
London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton last night confirmed there were a “number of fatalities’’, and 50 people were being treated in five hospitals for burns and smoke inhalation.
The building, in Latimer Rd near Notting Hill, is owned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, has 120 flats and is home to about 600 residents, mainly migrants with English as their second language.
Chilling footage posted on social media showed peo- ple waving frantically at a window as fire burned all around them. Another picture showed an elderly man trying to attract attention from the window of his 11thfloor flat.
More than 200 firefighters doused the flames with water but the building was still on fire several hours after it ignited, sending plumes of acrid black smoke across London.
London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Dan Daly said it was a “very seri-
ous incident’’ and it had been difficult for firefighters to tackle the blaze. He said the fire started on the second floor and spread quickly to the top storey.
Fire investigators will look at whether external cladding, added to the building as part of a multimillion- dollar refurbishment last year, contributed to the rapid spread of the blaze. The cause of the fire is not yet known but there are reports a malfunctioning fridge could be at fault.
Ms Cotton said she could not yet say how many had died due to the size and “complexity’’ of the building.
“This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never seen anything of this scale,’’ she said.
Kensington’s Simon Lleshi, 39, woke to the sounds of helicopters and looked out his window to see the building ablaze. He said he could see helpless people inside who were unable to escape.
“I saw all these people through windows who wouldn’t have made it,” Mr Lleshi said. “I could hear some of them screaming, ‘ Help I’ve got children, please help.’ They couldn’t leave. They were trapped. I was watching the whole thing and I could see these people, there was nothing I could do. “It was heartbreaking.’’ Schoolgirl Asia Phillips, 13, said her friend Jessica Urbano, 12, was trapped inside her home on the 22nd floor when the fire broke out.
Asia said Jessica was home alone while her parents, who are reportedly accounted for, were visiting friends at an apartment on a lower floor.
“I woke up to a bang and saw the fire and immediately thought of Jessica,” she said.
“We haven’t been able to get on to her. She spoke to her mum at 1.30am and then got cut off. We don’t know why but we hope it was the battery dying. I’m just hopeful she is OK and is at a hospital somewhere.’’
Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said police were called to the Lan- caster West Estate at 1.16am and discovered a large fire already burning. “I can confirm there have been a number of fatalities and others receiving medical care,’’ he said.
“We will soon be making contact with next of kin.’’
Panicked family members rushed to the cordons set up by police around the site, desperate for news of loved ones who could not be contacted.
Police, firefighters and paramedics led several dozen people to a makeshift triage centre in a restaurant on nearby Latimer Rd, many of them wearing oxygen masks and coughing from the smoke. Soot and debris rained down as nearby residents were evacuated over fears the gutted tower would collapse.
There were conflicting reports on whether a fire alarm sounded, with some residents saying the only notice they had was when neighbours hammered on their doors. Others reported hearing a recorded message urging them to evacuate.