Tower tragedy was inevitable, allege residents
FIREFIGHTERS WORK TO MAKE BUILDING SAFE TO CONTINUE SEARCH FOR MORE VICTIMS
May orders probe into London tower blaze as toll rises to 17 ritish Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered a full public inquiry into the high-rise apartment blaze that killed at least 17 people in London amid growing public anxiety about whether similar blazes could occur in other housing blocks around the country.
May moved quickly to establish exactly what caused the fire — and why it moved so quickly, engulfing the building that housed as many as 600 people in less than an hour.
Fire safety engineers were stunned at the pace in which flames tore through the 120-apartment Grenfell Tower early Wednesday when most people were asleep. Senior fire officials described the progression of the fire as unprecedented.
“We need to know what happened,” May said. “We need to know an explanation. We owe that to the families, to the people who have lost loved ones and the homes in which they lived.”
London firefighters, many traumatised by the devastation, worked yesterday to make the building safe so they could continue searching for more victims. Entire families are still missing, and the death toll is certain to rise.
The apartment tower is so huge there is still no exact count of the missing. In addition, 74 people were injured in the blaze, with 37 hospitalised and 17 of them still in critical condition. Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said it would be a “miracle” if anyone else were to be found alive.
It is unsafe for firefighters to go into parts of the 24-storey tower, so the fire department is working with structural engineers to shore up the building so they can complete a “fingertip search” of the full structure, Cotton said. Structures may need to be erected inside the building to make it safe enough to search. Cotton said specialist dogs would also be brought in to help the search. B
Firefighters combing through the wreckage of a west London tower block don’t expect to find any more survivors, officials said yesterday.
At least 17 people died following Wednesday’s fire that ripped through a massive tower block that was still smoking a day after the fire started.
“Tragically, now we are not expecting to find anyone else alive,” said London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton. Speaking near the scene of the fire, she told Sky News that “the severity and the heat of the fire will mean it will be an absolute miracle for anyone to be left alive”.
Pleading for information
The number of people that are still missing is “unknown”, she said, suggesting that a thorough search of the charred building could take weeks. A number of worried family members have posted pictures of missing relatives on social media, pleading for information.
The British Prime Minister Theresa May visited the scene of the tragedy, and spoke to firefighters who had been working round-the-clock.
Wednesday’s fire was unlike any seen here in recent memory, a blaze that transformed a 24-storey high-rise that was once home to about 500 people into a charred ruin on the city’s otherwise gleaming skyline.
The cause of the fire remains unknown. But as the investigation continues, there are growing questions that a recent refurbishment could have contributed to the fire spreading so quickly.
The fire marked a fresh trauma in a city already roiled by terrorist attacks, an unhappy and divisive political campaign, and the lingering uncertainty over Britain’s departure from the EU, all of which seemed to endow the tragedy with an extra measure of dismay. But it was also, residents of the Grenfell Tower public housing development bitterly said, the specific and predictable result of years of warnings that had gone unheeded, an emblem of a city that is neglecting its most vulnerable residents even as it increasingly caters to the whims of the ultra-rich.
In one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods of London — a short amble from the homes of celebrities and royals — people living in one of the city’s increasingly in-demand havens of affordable housing jumped from 20 floors up after being trapped by the advancing flames.
Children banged on closed windows as they were enveloped by the thick black smoke. A woman dropped her baby, desperately hoping someone would catch the infant in the street below.
By early evening, police said that 12 people had died and more than 70 had been injured. But with many people still unaccounted for, authorities said the toll was almost certain to rise.
The scenes of a skyscraper engulfed in flames on a pictureperfect, blue-sky day evoked memories of New York in September 2001. But there was no reason to think terrorism was a factor, authorities said.
The investigation, they said, would take time to assess what officials hinted could amount to a series of failures that, together, amounted to what Cotton described as “an unprecedented incident.”
“In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale,” she said as the building continued to belch smoke that could be seen for miles around.
At least 40 fire engines responded to the scene, where 200 firefighters waged a futile battle to contain the blaze.
Tragically, now we are not expecting to find anyone else alive. The severity and the heat of the fire will mean it will be an absolute miracle for anyone to be left alive.” Dany Cotton | Fire Commissioner