May orders inquiry into London blaze
Investigators say fire’s spread was unprecedented
LONDON // British prime minister Theresa May has ordered a full public inquiry into the high-rise apartment blaze that killed 17 people in London.
The inquiry will be set up amid growing public anxiety about whether similar fires could occur in other tower blocks around the country.
Fire safety engineers were stunned at the pace with which flames tore through the 120-apartment Grenfell Tower in the early hours of Wednesday, when most of the 600 residents were asleep.
Senior fire officials described the fire, which engulfed the 24-storey building in less than an hour, as unprecedented. “We need to know what happened,” Mrs May said. “We need an explanation. We owe that to the families, to the people who have lost loved ones and the homes in which they lived.” London firefighters, many traumatised by the devastation, worked through yesterday to make the building safe so they could continue searching for more victims.
Entire families are still missing, and the death toll is certain to rise. There is still no exact count of the missing.
In addition, 74 people were injured in the blaze, with 37 taken to hospital. Seventeen of them are still in a critical condition. None of the 17 fatalities has been identified.
Fire commissioner Dany Cotton said that it would be a miracle if anyone else was found alive.
The fire brigade is working with engineers to shore up the building so they can safely conduct a fingertip search of the structure, Ms Cotton said.
More stories of residents’ des- peration during the catastrophe emerged.
Firefighters trying to race into the building were protected from falling debris by police officers, who placed riot shields over their heads. One woman threw a baby out the window to escape the flames. Others threw children, while some adults jumped.
More than 200 firefighters worked through the night at the public housing block.
Authorities have refused to speculate on what could have started the blaze. But a tenants’ group had for years complained about the risk of a fire in the building.
The focus of investigations so far has turned to renovations completed last year, which included installing insulated exterior cladding, double-glazed windows and a communal heating system.
Fire experts say the investigators will need to look at what materials were used in the building and who approved their use.
Still missing are a six-monthold baby and her parents and an Italian couple. Rkia Hamdan said his daughter Farah Hamdan, her husband Omar Belkadi and their six-month-old daughter were unaccounted for.
“We’ve been to all the hospitals and we’ve been searching all day but we still haven’t found them,” he said.
Great- grandfather Tony Disson, 65, made phone calls from his flat, saying he was trapped in his bathroom. But his phone stopped working at about 4am after he told a friend to “tell my sons I love them”.
More than £ 1 million (Dh4.68m) has been raised to help victims of the tragedy as volunteers and charities worked through the night to find shelter, food and clothes for people who had lost everything.