Fire engulfs Grenfell tower block in west London
A huge fire has engulfed a tower block in Latimer Road, west London, with eyewitnesses claiming people are trapped in their homes.
The fire at Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate was reported at 01:16 BST and about 200 firefighters are tackling the blaze.
The Met Police said people were being treated for "a range of injuries".
The BBC's Andy Moore said the whole tower block was alight and there are fears the building might collapse.
London Fire Brigade sent 40 fire engines to the tower.
Eyewitnesses said they could see lights - thought to be torches - flashing at the top of the block of flats, which people say is "close to burning through".
At about 04:00 police said: "Residents continue to be evacuated from the tower block."
Forty fire engines and 200 firefighters are tackling the blaze
Our correspondent said: "We've seen debris falling from the building, we've heard explosions, we've heard the sound of glass breaking.
"The police keep pushing back their cordons, pushing back members of the public for fear the building might collapse."
He said the building was "burning out of control", from the tenth floor onwards.
'Burned away'
George Clarke, the presenter of Channel 4 TV programme Amazing Spaces, told Radio 5 Live: "I'm getting covered in ash, that's how bad it is.
"I'm 100 metres away and I'm absolutely covered in ash.
"It's so heartbreaking, I've seen someone flashing their torches at the top level and they obviously can't get out."
Police say a number of people are being treated for a range of injuries
Tim Downey, another eyewitness, told the BBC part of the building was "completely burned away".
"It has burned through to its very core," he said.
"It looks very bad, very very bad. I've never seen anything like this. It's just such a big fire.
"The whole building is just crumbling. It's just billowing black smoke."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40269625
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For those who don't understand what the BBC is talking about when they refer to "torches" they are not referring to fire, but rather to what we call flashlights here in the States. The latest report on NBC is that the fire is still out of control and an undetermined number of people are thought to have been trapped in their apartments.
Visually, it resembles a mini-9/11. Before you criticize my comment, take note that I said MINI.
I agree. The resemblance is haunting, but I was actually thinking more of the movie "The Towering Inferno" except sadly this is real and the reporter saying that they have seen flashlights on the roof is heartbreaking because there is no way to save anyone up there.
Yes, Towering Inferno - yet again Life imitates Art.
Wait till ISIS claims this one....it's bizarre the fire is so strong so quickly with a building like that...looks like it was set.
There are dozens and dozens of reasons for an apartment building to catch fire and to burn this fast. Electrical combined with a poor construction could could easily be the reason it went up so fast. It could be an older building built with lots of flammable materials. In order for it to be terrorists causing it to go up so fast they would have had to spread an accelerant on every floor. Not very likely. This is much more likely just a terrible accident.
That building went up in flames on more than one side in an instant. Very bizarre. I smell Allah Akbar.
Keep being smelling until the fire marshals investigate. Besides it could just be a garden variety lunatic arsonist. They're still out and about too. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
"A cigar is just a cigar, a joint is just a joint.
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by."
As NOT sung in Casablanca.
Good video on BBC update.
live feed here:
Thanks. Looks nasty!
At this point it look like they're going to have to just let it burn itself out. Then they get to decide if it's stable enough to send firefighters up into it to try to recover any human remains that might be up there. Certainly not a job I would want and not because of the danger of the building collapsing. Either that or they'll just have to knock the building down and look for the remains in the debris which would be a lot safer, though maybe a bit more "messy".
Other than what Hollywood can reproduce and 9/11 I've never in my lifetime witnessed such an intense and horrific building fire (the videos are explicit). It's as if the building were made out of unlit matchsticks. What kind of construction could possibly be to burn like that?
I can't imagine what it was made of, but it had to be some sort of shoddy material or workmanship for it to go up like that.
We were worried about the building'
The BBC's Claire Heald has spoken to a woman called Zeinab at the scene.
She says: "There wasn't any other fire exit, except the staircase where the fire was coming.
"My youngest sister-in-law and my father-in-law were stuck. I was taken out but then lost contact with my father.
"The building has been redone on the outside, a cover - some kind of plastic has been put on it and the windows done.
"The fire went under a new cover which had been put on with wooden slats. Most of the residents were worried about this.
"We had meetings about the works and were worried it would happen."
Apparently the building had just been refurbished on the outside with plastic slats that were held in place by wooden slats. When the fire started it climbed up the outside of the building like a matchstick up the wooden slats that surrounded the whole thing. I wonder whose bright idea it was to clad the entire building in wood and plastic? Moron! Witnesses are also saying they don't know if anyone from the 7th floor (where the fire started) up got out as the fire alarms didn't work either, though they did see some people jumping, some with babies.
Something from some of the residents about the property managers.
KCTMO – Playing with fire!
Posted on November 20, 2016
It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. We believe that the KCTMO are an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia who have no business to be charged with the responsibility of looking after the every day management of large scale social housing estates and that their sordid collusion with the RBKC Council is a recipe for a future major disaster.
Unfortunately, the Grenfell Action Group have reached the conclusion that only an incident that results in serious loss of life of KCTMO residents will allow the external scrutiny to occur that will shine a light on the practices that characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation. We believe that the KCTMO have ensured their ongoing survival by the use of proxy votes at their Annual General Meeting that see them returned with a mandate of 98% in favour of the continuation of their inept and highly dangerous management of our homes. It is no coincidence that the 98% is the same figure that is returned by the infamous Kim Jong-un of North Korea who claims mass popularity while reputedly enslaving the general population and starving the majority of his people to death.
It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice! The Grenfell Action Group believe that the KCTMO narrowly averted a major fire disaster at Grenfell Tower in 2013 when residents experienced a period of terrifying power surges that were subsequently found to have been caused by faulty wiring. We believe that our attempts to highlight the seriousness of this event were covered up by the KCTMO with the help of the RBKC Scrutiny Committee who refused to investigate the legitimate concerns of tenants and leaseholders.
We have blogged many times on the subject of fire safety at Grenfell Tower and we believe that these investigations will become part of damning evidence of the poor safety record of the KCTMO should a fire affect any other of their properties and cause the loss of life that we are predicting:
In October 2015 a fire ripped through another KCTMO property, the 14 storey Adair Tower in North Kensington, causing mass panic and resulting in a number of residents taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. It is reported that had it not been for the swift actions of the London Fire Brigade the consequences of this fire and potential loss of life could have been much worse.
In the aftermath of the Adair Tower fire the London Fire Brigade found that the KCTMO had not been looking after the safety of residents properly and issued an Enforcement Order compelling them to improve the fire safety in the escape staircases and to provide self closing devices to all the tower block’s front doors. A further audit by the London Fire Brigade of the neighbouring Hazelwood Tower (located alongside Adair Tower) found similar breaches of health and safety legislation and an Enforcement Order was also issued for this property forcing the TMO to address the serious concerns of the Fire Brigade’s inspectors. What is shocking is that a decade ago a fatality occurred due to a fire at Hazelwood Tower and the Fire Investigation Team ordered that the grills on the fire escape staircase be covered over. This never happened and it is believed that the uncovered grills at Adair House (Hazelwood Tower’s twin block) acted like a chimney and were responsible for the accelerated spread of the fire and smoke damage.
In the last twenty years and despite the terrifying power surge incident in 2013 and recent fire at Adair Tower, the residents of Grenfell Tower have received no proper fire safety instructions from the KCTMO. Residents were informed by a temporary notice stuck in the lift and one announcement in a recent regeneration newsletter that they should remain in their flats in the event of fire. There are not and never have been any instructions posted in the Grenfell Tower noticeboard or on individual floor as to how residents should act in event of a fire. Anyone who witnessed the recent tower block fire at Shepherds Court, in nearby Shepherd’s Bush, will know that the advice to remain in our properties would have led to certain fatalities and we are calling on our landlord to re-consider the advice that they have so badly circulated.
The Grenfell Action Group predict that it won’t be long before the words of this blog come back to haunt the KCTMO management and we will do everything in our power to ensure that those in authority know how long and how appallingly our landlord has ignored their responsibility to ensure the heath and safety of their tenants and leaseholders. They can’t say that they haven’t been warned!
Any bets on how the British Government will respond to this, considering their lack of response to the terrorism they have endured and continue to encounter, save for charging and convicting those who dare to point out the cause?
Actually I'm more wondering what ignorant thing Trump will tweet about the Mayor of London about it.
What do YOU think? I expect that you'll think he'll tweet that the Mayor should have filled the building with refugees. Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. (Where have I heard that before?)
Well, when it comes to saying stupid fucking things that insult our allies he is usually ready to shove his foot in his mouth at a moments notice. He's a pro.
Besides after watching all of the interviews on BBC News International it looks like it was filled with Immigrants from all over the world. All who seem to like and or love each other. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc., all coming together to help their neighbors by offer food, places to stay, clothes, etc.
You know, I was just thinking that some author should write the stories of the lives of the famiies that lost their lives in that inferno. As well, this tragedy was caused by greed, and those responsible need to be exposed to the public for them to earn the notoriety they deserve.
Well the residents of the building and a few other buildings managed by the same management company have been complaining of fire hazards by the management company for years and saying that there was going to be a huge tragedy someday if something wasn't done. Nothing was done. Now a large number of innocent families have died through no fault of their own. There will be hell to pay and rightly so if it's found that the management company is at fault. The survivors and the witnesses both say it looks like the new cladding the management company put on the building is what spread the fire so fast. If that's true there may even be criminal charges, as well there should be.
Throughout history there has been a long tradition in many countries, including America, of people getting rich off the diseases and deaths of immigrants.
You know, I was just thinking that some author should write the stories of the lives of the famiies that lost their lives in that inferno. As well, this tragedy was caused by greed, and those responsible need to be exposed to the public for them to earn the notoriety they deserve.
The more I think about it the more I think that would be a great idea. It'd be a great book. It could follow the backgrounds, histories and lives of those who were from London and those who immigrated to London for a better life. Their trials and tribulations and how they learned to get along with their neighbors of all different religions and backgrounds in the building they were living in and then how they all came together in the face of this terrible tragedy of death and loss caused by greedy property management companies and owners. In fact it might even make a good movie. Great idea!