London fire death toll hits 17, expected to rise
May orders public inquiry after blaze raises safety fears.
Under pressure from critics, Prime Minister Theresa May ordered a public inquiry Thursday into the lethal fire that turned a West London apartment tower into a pillar of charred rubble and that raised anxieties about safety procedures and construction materials in high-rise buildings.
The death toll from the fire, which began early Wednesday, rose to 17 and is certain to climb further, authorities warned. As of late Thursday, 30 people remained in hospitals, including 10 in critical condition. Many residents, possibly dozens, remained unaccounted for.
Officials have been racing to check other high-rise apartment blocks, even as investigators comb what is left of the building, Grenfell Tower, with help from search dogs. A police commander, Stuart Cundy, said of the toll, “I’d like to hope that it isn’t going to be triple figures.”
Among the key questions: Did a “stay put” protocol, which told people to remain in their apartments until firefighters arrived, delay residents’ escapes? What role did exterior cladding, installed as part of a renovation completed last year, play in the fire’s rapid spread? Should older buildings — Grenfell Tower was completed in 1974 — have to be retrofitted with sprinklers and alarm systems?
Residents said an exploding appliance caused the fire, but officials have not verified that account.
May announced the inquiry shortly after the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, asked for one, and as questions arose about the role of Gavin Barwell, who was housing minister until last week, when he lost his bid for re-election to Parliament. He is now May’s chief of staff.
Critics say a much-needed review of fire safety regulations — demanded after a deadly fire at an apartment block in Camberwell, in Southeast London, in 2009 — had languished under his watch.
A resident association, the Grenfell Action Group, had complained for years that the local council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns Grenfell Tower, and the company that managed the structure had ignored long-standing concerns that the building posed a fire hazard.
The building, in the North Kensington neighborhood, housed people from many countries, including Eritrea, the Philippines, Somalia and Sudan. Relatives and friends of the missing have posted pleas on social media seeking information.
Survivors said they first learned their lives were in danger through wordof-mouth, and they have described a harrowing scene that included at least one child who was thrown from the building and landed safely into the arms of a man below.
Eddie Daffarn, a 16th-floor resident who is a member of the Grenfell Action Group, said he was alerted to the fire by a neighbor’s smoke detector.
“The only alarm that went off was my neighbor’s smoke alarm. I thought he had burned some chips,” he said. “I opened the door and there was smoke, loads of smoke, so then I closed it and thought: This is a real fire, not my mate’s chip pan.”
A friend who lived on the fifth floor phoned and urged him to run, he said.
“I wrapped a towel around me, and opened the door,” Daffarn recalled. “The smoke was so thick and heavy, I couldn’t see anything. I thought: ‘This is me, I’m a goner.’ ”
He finally descended and was helped by a firefighter.
May, already under pressure after a series of terrorist attacks and the election last week, in which her Conservative Party lost its majority, visited the site of the fire Thursday. So did the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, who said in a statement: “There are thousands of tower blocks around our country. Every single person living in one today will be frightened.”