12 die in London tower fire tragedy
Babies thrown from high flats as trapped tenants screamed
LONDON // A fast-moving overnight fire engulfed a 24-storey block of flats in London yesterday, killing 12 people and injuring 74.
And London’s fire chief said that more victims could be found.
It was Muslims, still awake for Ramadan, who raised the alarm and undoubtedly saved lives.
They were among the first people on the scene as tenants were removed from Grenfell Tower, a social housing block in the west London district of North Kensington.
The fire broke out not long after midnight when many residents were asleep.
“Muslims played a big part in getting a lot of people out,” said Andre Barroso, 33. “Most of the people I could see were Muslims. They have also been providing food and clothes.”
Desperate residents threw babies and small children from high-storey windows to people down on the pavement to save them from the flames.
Nearby St Clement church was turned into a refuge where locals took food, water and clothing.
The inferno lit up the night sky as more than 200 firefighters battled the blaze. The breaking dawn revealed the blackened wreckage of the building, which was still burning more than 12 hours later.
People trapped by the flames and thick smoke banged on windows and screamed for help.
The cause of the fire remains unknown but angry residents said they had warned authorities about fire issues at the tower.
One resident said the fire alarm had not gone off.
Paul Woodrow, head of operations for the London Ambulance Service, said 20 of the 74 injured were in critical condition.
The housing block, built in 1974, was recently upgraded at a cost of £8.6 million (Dh40.4m) including a new communal heating system and a smoke extraction and ventilation system.
New front doors for each flat were also supposed to withstand a fire for up to 30 minutes.
“The flames, I have never seen anything like it. It just reminded me of 9/11,” said Muna Ali, 45. “The fire started on the upper floors. Oh my goodness, it spread so quickly. It had completely spread within half an hour.”
Fire commissioner Dany Cotton called the blaze unprecedented. “In my 29 years of being a fireman I have never, ever seen anything of this scale,” he said.
The tower block housed up to 600 people living in 120 apartments. By mid-afternoon, firefighters were carrying out systematic searches throughout the charred wreckage.
Witness Samira Lamrani said she saw a woman drop a baby from a window on the10th floor.
“People were starting to appear at the windows, frantically banging and screaming,” Ms Lamrani said. “A gentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby.” Joe Walsh, 58, said he saw someone throw two children out of a window from the fifth or sixth floor. Tiago Etienne, 17, saw three children between the ages of 4 and 5 being dropped from a flat on about the 15th floor.
The London fire brigade received the first reports of the fire at 12.54am. Ruks Mamudu, 69, escaped from her first-floor flat in her pyjamas and bathrobe. She sat with her grandson outside the building, helplessly watching those trapped on higher floors.
People spoke of not being able to reach friends or family inside the building, or seeing people using flashlights and mobile phones to try to signal for help from the building’s higher floors. London mayor Sadiq Khan said many questions needed to be answered about safety for scores of tower blocks.
“There will be a great many questions over the coming days as to the cause of this tragedy, and I want to reassure Londoners that we will get all the answers,” Mr Khan said.