Title: Several dead in west London residential tower fire (High-rise building engulfed in flames - does NOT collapse) Source:
CNN URL Source:http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/13/europe/west-london-fire/index.html Published:Jun 14, 2017 Author:Joshua Berlinger, James Griffiths and An Post Date:2017-06-14 06:28:16 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:1338 Comments:5
London (CNN)A massive fire that tore through a 24-story apartment building in west London has claimed a number of lives, fire officials confirmed, as rescuers frantically worked to reach people believed still trapped.
Witnesses described people leaping from Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, and of trapped children banging on windows as the blaze took hold at around 1 a.m local time.
A website run by the "Grenfell Action Group" said residents of the tower had expressed concerns over the safety of the building, specifically pointing to fire risks. Fire chiefs said it was too early to speculate on the cause of the blaze.
Latest developments
The fire is under control, but the the building is still smoldering.
Authorities are trying to determine how many people are still trapped.
At least 50 people have been taken to five London hospitals.
125 families live in the building, which also has a children's nursery.
London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton there had been "a number of fatalities" but she could not confirm how many. "In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never seen anything of this scale," she said.
Leaping from windows
Two women who live nearby watched the fire break out said they saw people leap from the tower to save themselves.
"They literally just jumped ... (they) must have thought, we're not going to sit here and suffocate," Samira Awil said, adding she had seen bodies of "kids, women, men" covered in sheets outside the building.
Tamara Eastmond said a lot of people appeared to be unaccounted for. "We literally watched a man burn to death in his flat," she told CNN. "We saw the flames enter his flat and (overcome) him."
Some witnesses told CNN residents were at first told to stay inside the building when the blaze broke out.
Photos:Fire engulfs apartment block in West London
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has activated a "major emergency plan" in response to the blaze.
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Photos:Fire engulfs apartment block in West London
Smoke rises from the fire at the Grenfell Tower apartment block in North Kensington, London, on Wednesday, June 14. According to the London Fire Brigade, 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were said to be evacuating and a number of people were treated for a "range of injuries," Metropolitan Police said.
One woman said her friend inside for three hours and was told by police to wait and put towels down to block the doors. When no-one came to help, she decided to escape on her own, the woman said.
Another witness said a family friend was "stuck on the eighth floor with her 5-year-old daughter" until 5 a.m., almost four hours after the fire broke out.
Grenfell Tower
Grenfell Tower is part of the sprawling Lancaster West Estate, an enclave of social housing managed by a private agency on behalf of the London Borough of Kensignton and Chelsea. While the borough is one of the most affluent in London, North Kensington is a particularly deprived district.
The tower was built in the 1970s and recently subject to a $10.9 million redevelopment,
Smoke and flames rise from the Grenfell Tower building on fire in London.
A boxing gym and a nursery are housed in the tower, according to a news release last year from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Before the renovation there were 120 apartments in the building.
Local councilor Robert Atkinson told CNN that the renovation works had modernized the building. "The building needed to be brought up to date with new kitchens and new heating systems," he said, adding that safety certificates had been issued and the council had been "told it had all been brought up to date."
Cladding had been added to the outside of the building, blamed by some residents for helping the fire to spread so quickly.
