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.

Forty fire engines have been sent to the tower, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said a "major incident" had been declared.

At about 04:00 BST police said: "Residents continue to be evacuated from the tower block."

Eyewitnesses said they could see lights - thought to be mobile phones or torches - flashing at the top of the block of flats, which people say is "close to burning through".

Our correspondent added: "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."

The BBC's Simon Lederman said the tower could be seen burning "from miles away".

He said the building was "burning out of control", from the tenth floor onwards.

London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Dan Daly said firefighters are "working extremely hard in very difficult conditions to tackle this fire".

"This is a large and very serious incident and we have deployed numerous resources and specialist appliances."

'Covered in ash'

London Ambulance Service medics specially trained in life-saving medical care in hazardous environments have also been sent to the fire.

London Underground said the Hammersmith and City and Circle lines have been closed between Edgware Road and Hammersmith because of the fire.
More with pics at link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40269625

Update - there have been fatalities, no details at 07.54 UK time.   Latest on injuries, 30 hospitalised so far.
___________
Grenfell Tower residents warned of 'catastrophic' fire three years ago - but concerns 'fell on deaf ears'.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/grenfell-tower-residents-warned-apos-064832279.html

+62
More than 600 residents desperately tried to escape the flames as the fire broke out in the middle of the night, with many woken by the screams of others and the smell of burning plastic


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4601902/Huge-inferno-West-London-tower-block.html#ixzz4jxU9nted
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God Almighty, those poor people.

If the tower block collapses then the death toll will rocket. I know the area though not sure which one this is as there are a lot of tower blocks there. Just heard that it has recently been renovated with new cladding - one of the survivors says he smelt burning plastic. LL

Worth looking at the Mail site, LL, it does look as if there is a lot of cladding on the building; I doubt if it will collapse if the central core isn't damaged. (And yes, jet fuel can melt steel girders, see medieval metalworking.)

BUT - the fumes off the cladding will be absolutely lethal - there have been a number of fires like this in the Gulf States, when plastic cladding has caught light.

More than 50 taken to hospital.   LL

I fear the death toll may be high, if people didn't get out quickly, which is unlikely as it happened in the middle of the night.

I hope Trump keeps his trap shut about this new horror.

From last year:

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/

KCTMO – Playing with fire!

Sample:

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:

Please note - that damned plastic cladding has been put on an awful lot of publicly owned/housing association properties in the UK because it's supposedly 'environmentally friendly'. The idea is to keep the rain off the concrete, and insulate the building, thereby saving on heating costs.

It's regarded as being Green.....

My friends, this was taken from Sky News:

http://news.sky.com/story/west-london-fire-live-fire-service-chief-confirms-there-have-been-fatalities-10915010

http://news.sky.com/video/aerial-footage-shows-scale-of-massive-blaze-10915042

http://news.sky.com/video/witness-the-fire-was-out-of-control-10915011

http://news.sky.com/gallery/fire-engulfs-west-london-tower-10915052

http://news.sky.com/story/grenfell-tower-fire-a-man-jumped-his-whole-window-was-on-fire-10915045

Thank you, Pedro, news about this tragedy is coming in all the time. Just horrible.

bb1, your words are mine.

Met police say there have been six fatalities, but that number is expected to rise.

IMO, anyone who inhaled that filthy burning plastic smoke is unlikely to have survived, unfortunately.

The death toll has now risen to 12, with more fatalities expected.

It's starting to look horribly as if, if the building hadn't been 'improved', it would have been little more than a kitchen fire. I won't be at all surprised if brown envelopes were involved, corners were cut, cheap East European labour was used, and cheap Chinese cladding was stuck onto wooden frames with flammable glue. And God knows what was done to 'improve' the interior.

Someone deserves jail for this preventable horror, IMO - the authorities can't even claim they weren't forewarned.

Only one story in tomorrow's papers....

'There is no one left alive': Rescuers say finding a survivor in the inferno tower would be a 'miracle' raising fears more than ONE HUNDRED have died as ministers face mounting pressure over why 'fire hazard' cladding was used
12 confirmed dead and death toll will rise after huge inferno broke out at a residential tower block in London
Dozens including children and elderly still missing after fire engulfed Grenfell Tower in White City at 1am
Residents were seen throwing themselves and their children out of windows to avoid being burned to death
More than 600 residents desperately tried to escape the flames as the fire broke out in the middle of the night
Surivors claimed there was no working fire alarm, sprinklers failed and the only staircase out was blocked
The London Ambulance Service said 79 people have been rushed to six different hospitals around the capital
Grenfell's residents warned landlord KCTMO about 'appalling' fire safety and say refurb contributed to blaze


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4605360/Cladding-turned-tiny-fire-hell.html#ixzz4k3jH4DMD
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Oh God, those poor, poor people.

I can see those responsible for the 'improvements' being charged with corporate manslaughter; residents' action groups were complaining months ago about the state of the building - it's a matter of record.

And they cannot claim they didn't know how dangerous that accursed cladding was - fires in Dubai, Russia and Australia had already demonstrated that.

Unbelievable that the powers that be couldn't see what could happen. And there is fire retardant material available. I had to install it in my property in Plymouth in 1972. By Law.

Ah, but you were a private landlord, Sabot - nothing councils like better than nitpicking and hassling them.

This was predominately social housing, though I understand a few apartments were privately owned, and expensive.

When the full story of this avoidable horror comes out, I fully expect it to involve backhanders, jobs for the boys, sloppy workmanship, cheap imported labour, cheap imported cladding, etc.

It also seems that pre-'improvement', the block DID have proper 'divisions' to isolate fires - these appear to have been taken out and not replaced.

And the core of the original building is still standing, albeit shakily, because concrete doesn't catch fire.

Unless, of course, you wrap it in the equivalent of cotton wool soaked in chip fat.

A high-rise with no fire alarms, extinguishers, emergency telephones on each floor? None of my properties is more than 5 floors, and we have all of those plus a panic button in each apartment set to ring in the nearest cop shop. Yes, it costs me to maintain this, but who wants to spend the rest of their lives with the knowledge they cause the death of innocent people? LL

The people who should have cared, didn't, LL - here they are, getting awards from the Sunday Times:




A tweet sent by KCTMO's Barbara Matthews on February 22 showing off the company's Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For award by The Sunday Times

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4603626/Taxpayers-11MILLION-company-managing-Grenfell-Tower.html#ixzz4k3thEvDW
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Meanwhile, last year, the people who actually live in the tower blocks were warning about an inevitable catastrophe:

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/


KCTMO – Playing with fire!
Posted on November 20, 2016

Quote:

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!

Government ministers were warned about the fire risk of cladding as far back as 1999

That would be in Tony Bair's time then. Who 'buried' the information?
Just asking as it seems to have vanished. LL

The confirmed death toll is now 17, and is expected to rise further.

It was installed on the council-owned Grenfell block in 2015 as part of a £10 million refurbishment by a company which was later liquidated after a firm they were working with refused to pay out in a dispute over their work.

LL