Seinfeld 1: ‘Vandelay’ guy guilty
THEY STUCK their heads out of smoky apartments gasping for air, and in at least two cases, dropped young children out the window.
Frightened residents of a London high-rise apartment building said they did anything to save themselves from the massive fire that left 12 dead, a figure that officials say will likely go up.
The fire inside the Grenfell Tower was still smoldering more than 16 hours after it was reported around 1:30 a.m. local time Wednesday.
“The flames, I have never seen anything like it. It just reminded me of 9/11,” Muna Ali, 45, told The Associated Press. “The fire started on the upper floors . . . . Oh, my goodness, it spread so quickly. It had completely spread within half an hour.”
The 24-story building in the city’s Kensington area housed 400 to 600 people, officials said.
Tenants trapped inside begged for help. Photos showed some sticking their heads out of windows, gasping for air.
One witness said he saw someone drop two children from the fifth or sixth floor for a man to catch.
“I don’t know where they landed because I was on the other side,” Joe Walsh, 58, told the AP.
Another witness, Tiago Etienne, 17, said she saw someone drop children from a higher spot in the blazing building.
The first London Fire Brigade crews arrived at the scene in about six minutes, officials said. They rescued 65 people.
But the building was already engulfed in fire, according to a witness, Joe Ruane, the former deputy chief fire officer for U.S. Air Force bases in Britain.
“I’ve never seen a fire like that,” he said.
Some were fortunate to make it out on their own, including Mickey Paramasivan, who was almost asleep when he smelled burning plastic. He ran out of the building in his underwear.
“I grabbed a little girl, grabbed my girlfriend, run out of the house just in ALBANY — This fake architect is no longer master of his own domain.
Paul Newman, who was accused by the state attorney general’s office in April of masquerading as a licensed architect, pleaded guilty to a host of felony charges in three upstate counties and is likely headed to prison, officials announced Wednesday.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had dubbed the investigation into Newman “Operation Vandelay Industries,” a reference to a fictional company mentioned on the television classic “Seinfeld.”
Newman pleaded guilty to six felonies, including grand larceny and forgery. He faces a likely sentence of two to seven years in prison. “Goodbye , Newman,” Schneiderman said in a tweet. a pair of boxer shorts and a dressing gown,” Paramasivan said.
All told, 78 people were rushed to hospitals, officials said. Of those, 18 were in critical condition, according to London’s Ambulance Service.