By Peter Olorunnisomo – The sight was ghastly to behold. The multi-storey building took on gory blaze of a persecution down the ages when cities were razed by armies so desirous of conquest. Only this time, there was perhaps no war to justify such an inferno and no preparation to give understanding to a possibilty of what might ensue.
Grenfell Tower, a part of the Lancaster West Estate, an enclave of social housing managed privately on behalf of the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. While the borough is one of the most affluent in London, North Kensington is a particularly deprived district.
The tower was reported to be built in the 1970s and recently subject to a redevelopment in millions of pounds, according to property firm Rydon. The building was to undergo specific improvements to fire safety and ventilation works.
So fierce and furious was the fire that London’s fire chief, Dany Cotton, said there was little chance of finding anyone else alive in the charred remains of the tower. Dozens of people would, no doubt, remain missing. She had said “genuinely” that she had no idea about how many people were still missing. She admitted that it would be an “absolute miracle” if there was still anyone alive in the tower and that it would take “weeks” to complete a proper search with the building still unstable.
Witnesses described people leaping from the building and trapped children banging on windows as the fire broke out around 1 a.m. local time. At the height of the blaze, around 200 firefighters, 40 fire trucks and 20 ambulance crews were at the scene.
Yet London’s fire chief said there was little chance of finding anyone else alive in the charred remains of the tower.
Official reports confirm that at least 17 people have died and police expect the toll could rise. About 78 people were hospitalized, 18 of whom are in critical care. While Fire Brigade says it has rescued 65 people from the tower. It is estimated that about 125 families live in the building, which also houses a nursery.
Firefighters were seen still working to dampen the blaze and search for remains of the dead into Thursday.
Prime Minister May praised the actions of the emergency services and the local community in coming together at such a difficult time.
She also sought to reassure residents who had lost their homes that they would be rehoused in London and as close as possible to the local area.
“We need to know what happened, we need to know an explanation,” she said. “We owe that to the families, to the people who have lost loved ones and the homes in which they lived.”
A prominent London Member of Parliament, David Lammy, of the opposition Labour Party, said corporate manslaughter charges should be brought against those held responsible for the tragedy.
Lammy called for arrests to be made over the fire and said he had yet to hear from family friend Khadjia Saye who lived in the tower, and called the fire “an outrage”.
Speaking after visiting the site of the devastating fire in North Kensington, London, May said she wanted to make sure “this terrible tragedy is properly investigated” and announced a full public inquiry into the disaster, as grief turned to anger a day after the blaze.
May’s government was facing growing questions about why ministers did not act on recommendations following an earlier fire in London, which led to calls for sprinkler systems to be installed in residential blocks and for a full review of Britain’s fire regulations.
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said in an earlier call for a public inquiry that it should produce an interim report by the summer.
In the hope of would-be survivors, the Police commissioner said that urban search and rescue dogs would be deployed inside the building. While the core of the building was structurally sound, dogs were lighter and more agile than people, she added. Her staff will remain on scene for “days to come” and that the search of the tower would be a “slow and painstaking process.”
Parts of the building would have to be shored up in order to make it safe for rescue workers to reach each floor.
While the search for survivors ended on Wednesday night, recovery operations continue and an investigation is just getting started into what caused the deadly blaze.
It is yet unclear how many people are still unaccounted for. The Italian Foreign Ministry said at least two Italians are missing. By the afternoon, emergency centers had been set up at nearby churches and posts. Community members and organizations handed out food, clothes and other supplies to those left with no home to return to.
It was suggested that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan helped contain the fallout. The neighborhood is home to a large number of Muslims who were awake when the fire broke for their early morning meal before starting their daily fast.
“A lot of lives were saved because of that, because they were awake,” said neighborhood resident Ahmed Shellat, who claimed to know people in the building. “They felt the fire quickly, and they saw the heat so they just ran out. If it was like a normal day they would’ve been asleep and there would have caused a lot of casualties.”
As night fell Wednesday, Londoners gathered near the building to participate in a candlelight vigil and contribute to relief efforts.
Eye Witness accounts
Eye witness account that some residents were told to stay inside their apartments as the fire raged.
One woman said her friend was 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.
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.
Turufat Yilma, who managed to escape, told CNN there was “no fire alarm at all.” She only learned of the fire when a neighbor called her.
Several witnesses also described the horror of seeing 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,” said Samira Awil said, adding she had seen bodies of men, women and children covered in sheets outside the building.
Samira Lamrani, who lives next to Grenfell Tower, told the Press Association that she watched a woman throw her baby from a window to a man on the ground.
Survivors said they felt lucky to be alive. Michael Paramasivan said he was watching TV in the building as his girlfriend and daughter slept when he smelled burning plastic. Soon he saw the smoke and chaos.
“I grabbed my little girl and ran down the stairs,” he said. “Half of the building was ablaze by the time we got out. And it was just spreading like wildfire.”
