A massive fire raged through the night at a 24-storey block of flats in central London on Wednesday, with multiple fatalities confirmed.
A massive fire raged through the night at a 24-storey block of flats in central London on Wednesday, killing a number of people and injuring at least 50 more as some residents were trapped inside the towering inferno. London Fire Brigade reported over 200 firefighters tackled the flames through the night, with 40 fire engines also sent to the north Kensington tower block. More than 50 people were injured and taken to hospital following the blaze at Grenfell Tower, where several hundred people lived. “At this time I am very sad to confirm that there have been a number of fatalities, I cannot confirm the number at this time due to the size and complexity of this building, ” Dany Cotton, commissioner of the London Fire Brigade said on Wednesday morning. “This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale, ” she added.
The fire was first reported shortly after 1.15 a.m. BST. British media reported that residents had become trapped in the upper floors and were desperately screaming for help as the fire spread through the building. The tower block contains around 120 homes.
A police update at approximately 4.00 a.m. BST said residents at Grenfell Tower were still being evacuated.
“Over 100 of our medics are working hard to respond to this incident, including ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, advanced trauma teams from London’s Air Ambulance and those staff managing the incident in our special operations center, ” Stuart Crichton, assistant director of operations at London Ambulance Service, said in a statement.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, issued a statement and described the flumes as a “major incident”.
The cause of the fire remains unknown at this stage, the Fire Brigade said.
An action group at the west London tower block repeatedly warned of a fire risk and suggested a similar incident was narrowly avoided after a power surge in 2013. The Grenfell Action Group claimed their concerns were dismissed by Kensington and Chelsea council, which owns the block of flats, as well as the local tenant management organisation (KCTMO) which runs the borough’s homes. “All our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time, ” the Grenfell Action Group said in a blog post published Wednesday. Kensington and Chelsea council were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC on Wednesday morning. Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
