Grenfell Tower fire: 'number of fatalities' as blaze engulfs London tower block
June 15, 2017
Two hideous sounds
summed up the horror – the screams of children and the sickening thump as
people leapt to their deaths.
In scenes akin to New
York on 9/11, at least five desperate souls chose to jump from the towering
inferno to try to avoid burning to death.
One mother dropped her
baby from a ninth-floor window, which was miraculously caught by a man holding
out a blanket below.
In just fifteen minutes
of horror, 120 homes were turned into a towering inferno.
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Six hundred people lived inside 120 flats spread over 24
floors in Grenfell Tower. In just 15 minutes, they were completely consumed by
a towering inferno that is believed to have ended dozens of lives
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Others tied bed sheets
together to try to form ropes while some attempted to make parachutes out of
bin liners.
Residents had been
advised to stay in their flats and await rescue. But for those who did, the
ferocity of the blaze meant they almost certainly perished.
The stairwell – the only
escape route – was engulfed in intense heat and black smoke.
As the flames drew
nearer, families phoned their loved ones to say goodbye.
It is almost
unbelievable that such a tragedy could unfold in a country with some of the
strictest fire regulations in the world.
12:50am and fridge
explodes in flat 16
The fate of the 600
residents of Grenfell Tower was sealed shortly before 12.50am, when the fridge
in Flat 16 on the fourth floor apparently exploded into flames.
Neighbour Maryam Adam,
41, who is pregnant, said: 'He [her neighbour] knocked on the door, and he said
there was a fire in his flat. It was exactly 12.50am because I was sleeping and
it woke me up.
'When we got up, I saw
outside his flat his luggage – there was a big bag with his clothes.
'That means he took the
stuff from his flat, and then he told the neighbours.
'The fire was small in
the kitchen. I could see it because the flat door was open. There was no
alarm.'
At 12.54am, the fire
brigade was called, and the first engines arrived within six minutes. But
witnesses said that the speed at which the fire tore up the tower was
incredible – like 'a tissue being set alight'.
Samira Lamrini said:
'The man whose flat it was came out and said it was his flat. He was a slim,
tall, white British man.
'He was pointing at the
fire on a lower floor and said, 'That's my flat, that's it'. He said it was his
fridge that had exploded.
'He started filming it
on his phone. He was upset but I don't think he had a clue about the scale of
what was happening.
'After that the fire
went up in minutes, it was so fast. The speed with which it took hold was
terrifying. It was like a tissue being set alight. It just went whoosh, so
quickly. I didn't see him after that.'
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A man at the scene told witnesses that his fridge exploded on
the seventh floor in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The first calls were
placed to emergency services at 12.54am and fire fighters arrived six
minutes later
Despite the rapid response time, the building was well alight
by the time rescuers arrived, with some saying it went up 'like tissue paper'.
Questions are being asked about whether the cladding was to blame
Chaos and a cacophony of
screaming children
Chaos and confusion swept
through the tower block as its residents were woken up by sirens, screams and
the smell of acrid smoke.
Mrs Lamrini said: 'The
sound of children begging for help as they were trapped in the upper floors is
something I will never be able to forget.
'It was a cacophony of
anguished screams, horrendous to listen to. It was traumatising – their voices,
their high pitched voices – I could hear them screaming for their lives.'
Within minutes, it
became clear that the advice to residents to stay in their flats until help
arrived was beginning to cost lives. Some had left their flats but been ordered
back inside by emergency services, it was reported.
Witnesses watched
helplessly as people trapped in smoke-filled flats took it in turns to suck
breaths of air through windows designed to open only fractionally.
Mobile phones used as
torches to signal help
Trapped residents
flashed torches, their mobile phones and even fairy lights from their windows
in a desperate attempt to attract the attention of rescuers.
One witness said:
'People were taking in turns to get air from the window, and flashing their
phones, and then the fire just took them. You could hear people yelling from
the top, 'Help, get my children out!' and you are just standing there, and
watching people die, burning…'
Miracle of the baby
caught in a blanket
Mrs Lamrini said: 'A
woman shouted down frantically for someone to help her baby. A man came with a
blanket and waited down below. Amazingly he caught the baby, which looked OK.
The child was about 11 months old.
'But one middle-aged man
came down from a long way up, and landed on the floor with an awful thump. I
don't think the paramedics could do anything for him, he came from so high.'
Desperate residents jump
to their deaths
It is believed the first
five people to be confirmed dead were those who had jumped or fallen.
One resident wept as he
described how people 'just threw their kids out, screaming 'save my children'.'
Another said his mother stepped over a dead body to escape the building.
One man claimed he saw a
child who was on fire leap from the 22nd floor, adding: 'He walked to the
window, and he jumped.'
Another witness, Mahad
Egal, said he saw children being thrown from the building, adding: 'It was
rapid, the fire was growing well out of control. There is only the stairs,
which is smoke, it's dark, it's scary, it's a trip hazard. There are elderly,
there are children, there's disabled people. People were jumping out of the place,
there is a man who threw two of his children.'
Another resident, called
Zara, said she saw a mother with a boy who looked about five at a fifth or
sixth floor window. She told LBC: 'She actually threw her son out of the
window. I think he's OK.'
Such was the desperation of people trapped inside by the
smoke and flames that they even tried to construct makeshift parachutes from
bin bags. One constructed a 30ft rope out of bedsheets
VERY SAD NEWS FROM ENGLAND IT IS ONLY OUR PRAYER THAT MAYBE GOD BE WITH THE FAMILIES INVOLVED
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