London fire – Survivors tell how fire escape was pitch black with smoke but they could ‘feel’ bodies as they tried to escape
SURVIVORS of the tower block inferno stumbled over bodies as they desperately fought their way through black smoke to escape down the stairwell.
Dozens of residents at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, West London, are feared dead — weeks after a £10million refurbishment of the block that developers said was safe.
Those who were lucky enough to make it out alive have revealed their horror at discovering their only escape route was "littered" with bodies.
Describing his family's dramatic escape, survivor Marcio said: “As soon as we opened the door all the smoke came in.
“But at that time we had no choice because the fire started coming in through the windows.
“We had to go down the stairs from the 21st floor.
“You couldn’t see anything. We had to step over bodies with my young daughters and my seven months pregnant wife."
It is believed virtually all the residents in the top three floors of Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, West London, perished in the devastating fire, which burned at over 1,000C (1,800F).
The death toll stood at 12 last night but was expected to rise. A further 74 victims, 18 of them critical, are being treated at six hospitals.
Firefighter fighters are removing bodies and said they do not expect to find anyone else alive - as desperate families search for their missing loved ones.
It emerged that the blaze spread through external cladding fitted to thousands more UK buildings after warnings fell on deaf ears.
At least 12 people have been killed and 18 more are fighting for their lives, including babies and young children left in comas.
Desperate residents were seen flinging themselves from the building, jumping to their deaths as they tried to escape being burnt alive.
A baby was caught after being thrown from the ninth floor, while some frantic residents lashed bedsheets together in a crude attempt to escape the rapidly growing blaze.
Harrowing pictures show shadows of residents trapped inside their homes, as witnesses heard people screaming for help as they leaned out of their windows.
Horrified witnesses told how they saw some families throwing children out of windows in scenes "reminiscent of 9/11".
Friends of missing residents - who had been told to stay put in their flats by firefighters - described how messages from their loved ones became increasingly desperate as the flames ravaged the building.
A mum sent a harrowing video message to her best friend crying “forgive me everyone, goodbye” while trapped on the 23rd floor.
Another resident is believed to have sent a Snapchat from inside the burning tower block telling friends: “Guys I can’t get out”.
Denise Bloomfield, 37, who was evacuated from a nearby flat, said: "You could feel the heat from where you were standing. It was scary. It was like watching a movie.
"People were like zombies in their pyjamas. It was just not real."
She added: "There were people who were just surviving ... and waiting for the fire to take them, just waiting to die."
A distraught mum lost her 12-year-old daughter after accidentally letting go of her hand as they tried to escape down the pitch black stairwell.
Firefighters rescued 65 people from the block, but a local community leader said they are working with a missing list of "possibly hundreds";.
The committee member, who asked not to be named, said: "I have been told that anyone past the 21st floor did not make it.
"The firefighters told them to stay where they were.
Witness Judith Blakeman, who lives opposite the tower, rushed outside when she heard about the blaze at 5am.
She said: "Neighbours had been watching it all night, they said the cladding went up like a nightdress by a fire - it just went whoosh."
Questions are now being asked about the cladding, with suggestions it may have been installed to improve the appearance of the tower block for wealthy residents living nearby.
Planning papers said "changes to the existing tower will improve its appearance especially when viewed from the surrounding area".
"There is a family of three who live quite high up, a heavily pregnant wife, husband and two little girls aged ten and 11."
There is no official confirmation of how the blaze started but one witness claimed it sparked after his neighbour's fridge exploded.
Celebrities such as Rita Ora and Jamie Oliver joined ordinary Londoners in an extraordinary effort to provide food, clothes, cash and shelter for the survivors.
What we know so far:
- The Metropolitan Police have confirmed 12 people are dead but the death toll is expected to rise after a huge fire engulfed Grenfell Tower in West London just before 1am on Wednesday night
- The 24-storey high tower block has 120 apartments
- Around 74 people have been taken to six hospitals in the capital, with 18 in a critical condition, while dozens of others are missing and feared dead
- The Prime Minister launched an urgent investigation into the disaster
- Authorities say the cause of the fire is still not known — with some suggesting it was sparked by a fridge fire
- Experts warned the blaze was spread by cladding panels which are fitted to countless buildings across Britain
- Residents were seen jumping from upper floors in scenes reminiscent of September 11
- Horrified witnesses told of babies being thrown from windows by desperate mothers
- It was revealed the block had only recently undergone a £10million refurb but still had no sprinkler system installed
- Designers insisted the refurbishment work complied with building regulations
- Residents raised safety concerns four years ago, but were ignored
- A former housing minister was blasted for postponing a government review into tower block safety
- Celebrities and ordinary Londoners have united to provide food, clothes, money and shelter for survivors
Westway Sports Centre has turned into a refuge for residents - with gymnastic mats laid out on the floor of its main hall.
Peter Boulton, 61, spent the night there with around 30 others after being evacuated from Treadgold House in the early hours of Wednesday.
He said: "We were all evacuated at about 2.30am.
"I just sat on the pavement yesterday - I didn't know where anyone went.
";It was only at 4pm that I went to a church and found the centre - it was chaos.
"Hopefully we will be allowed back in today but until the engineer gets in there no one knows."
Mr Boulton, who has lived in the block for 15 years, added: "They spent such a lot of money and tarted up Grenfell but it seemed to be plastic and seemed to be flammable.
"I've never seen fire go up so quickly in my life. Within 20 minutes people from the 10th floor upwards didn't have a hope."
Residents claim that the building was checked by the fire brigade as recently as Saturday.
Corinne Jones, who escaped with her partner from the 17th floor, told the that a team from the fire service inspected the building over the weekend and gave advice, including remaining in the flat during a blaze.
Another resident saw a man catch a baby that was tossed from a ninth floor window.
She said: "She wrapped her baby in what seemed like a sheet or blanket and threw the young baby out of the window.
“A member of the public, a guy ran forward and just miraculously grabbed the baby at the right moment and then the shadow, I assume the mother, went backwards and that was the last we saw."
Those who fled said that no fire alarm sounded, sprinklers failed and stairways were blocked in the building.
Theresa May said she was "deeply saddened" by the news.
The government has ordered checks at other tower blocks which are being refurbishment after fears recent building renovations could have contributed to the spread of the blaze.
The London Fire Brigade, which was on scene withing six minutes of the first 999 call, has confirmed there have been a number of fatalities.
London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton described the situation as "unprecedented" calling it the largest scale fire she had seen in her 29 years of service.
Cotton later said a number of firefighters have been injured, but confirmed none of the injuries are life threatening.
NHS England said no details were available at present on the condition of people taken to hospital.
The five hospitals are St Mary's, Chelsea and Westminster, Royal Free, St Thomas' and King's College Hospital.
Sadiq Khan has also demanded an explanation as to why residents were told to stay in their flats in the event of a fire.
Construction firm Rydon, which completed an £8.6million refurbishment of Grenfell Tower in May 2016, said it is "shocked to hear of the devastating fire" adding that the work "met all required building control, fire regulation and health & safety standards".
They added: "We will co-operate with the relevant authorities and emergency services and fully support their inquiries into the causes of this fire at the appropriate time."
Kensington's new Labour MP Emma Dent Coad, who is a local councillor and a member of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, said she had raised concerns with the authority about fire safety at tower blocks in the area.
"There have been a lot of concerns over the past few years on various fire issues," Ms Dent Coad told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"I have brought it up quite a few times. The blocks are of a certain age.
"Some of them have been refurbished, some haven't, and we have an ageing population."
There are 120 homes in the flat and the leader of the local council said "several hundred" would have been in the tower block when the blaze broke out.
Mahad Egal escaped from his flat on the fourth floor with his family, including two small children, just before 1am.
He was reduced to tears as he recounted the terrible events of the night on the Victoria Derbyshire show:
"The fire started on the fourth floor, my neighbour told me it was his fridge that exploded.
"We were one of the first 10 families who got out no later then 1.10am and at this point the fire was no higher than an average tree.
"At first it seemed it was controllable, but really quickly the fire started to rise as the cladding caught fire."
For updates as they happen follow the Sun Online's Live Blog on the Grenfell Tower blaze
The fire brigade reportedly deployed foam matting around the base of the tower to cushion people's falls in a bid to save more lives
One woman with two young children was seen shouting for help from the eleventh floor.
Another man begged with the crowds below to help him as he waved his shirt out of the window.
Resident Tamara told BBC News: "We could hear people screaming 'Help me' so me and my brother, with some other people who live in the area, ran over to the estate to where you could still get underneath it and there were people just throwing their kids out saying 'Save my children'.
"The fire crew, ambulance and police couldn't do anything, they couldn't get in, and they were just telling them to stay where they are, and we'll come and get you. But things quickly escalated beyond measure and they couldn't go back in and get them.
"Within another 15 minutes the whole thing was up in flames and there were still people at their windows shouting 'Help me'. You could see the fire going into their houses and engulfing the last room that they were in."
Another witness, Samira, told BBC News: "It escalated really quickly. Around midnight the fire was only around the third floor and then, before you know it, the whole 23 floors of the building were all on fire and there were people screaming for help and throwing kids out.
"I think everyone felt really helpless because no-one could get to them. Everyone was really scared and they didn't know what to do and it was really sad to see. These are all people that we grew up with and people that we see every day, like our neighbours."
Tamara went on: "My brother has a lot of school friends who are still wondering if their friends have made it out, they haven't got in contact with them or heard anything. One of the girls lives on the top floor, which the police advised that if you were living on that floor that it is most likely that they haven't made it."
Samira added: "I saw people flying out of their balconies and windows. I saw a man who flew out of his window, I saw people screaming for help. We saw a lot of people jumping out that basically didn't make it.
"It was from the eighth floor and up, and that kind of floor you wouldn't really make it."
Dramatic footage captured on Sky showed a man being lifted from the building.
Fire officers were seen carrying the man to safety through a sea of debris.
Tsigehana Asefeha, 63, has lived in the building opposite the tower block for 27 years and was evacuated last night.
She said: "Our neighbour came down and said there is smoke we just came out because we heard the children screaming 'help help' - it's really terrible. We saw children - they were doing CPR on one.
"I hope the people there are safe."
Burning debris was seen falling from the mammoth building and residents were seen in tears and wheeling belongings away in suitcases and trolleys.
Dana Ali, 30, said that her parents Maria, 51, and Khalid, 61 were were trapped in their flat on the tenth floor of the building.
After speaking to them on the phone she said: "They said they're in their living room, they're closing all the doors, they can't get out. They opened the main door and saw black smoke.
"They couldn't see anything so they closed the door back. And now I'm trying to call and they're not answering."
The building has been gutted by fire and is engulfed in "acrid" black smoke.
London mayor Sadiq Khan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's very distressing, not just for those of us watching as lay people, but also very distressing for the emergency services."
More than 100 police officers were on scene, alongside 100 medics and 250 firefighters, he said.
Pressed on reports that residents had been advised to stay inside their flats in the event of a fire, Mr Khan said: "Thankfully residents didn't stay in their flats and fled to safety.
"One of the concerns that we have is it's a 24-storey building but for obvious reasons, with the scale of the fire, our experts weren't able to reach all the way to the top, so of course these are questions that need to be answered as soon as possible."
George Clarke, a BBC presenter who lives in the building, told Radio 5 Live he was "getting covered in ash"; as he fled the fire.
"I'm 100 metres away and I'm absolutely covered in ash," he continued. "It's so heartbreaking, I've seen someone flashing their torches at the top level and they obviously can't get out."
Khalid Sarang, 23, lives in neighbouring block and reported it was like "hell on earth".
"I have friends who live on the top floor and I can't get them on the phone.
"There is a family of four trapped up there now screaming.
"The first thing I heard were the screams and I came running out.
"It's like hell on earth."
Jody Martin said he got to the scene as the first fire engine was arriving at Grenfell Tower.
He told the BBC: “I grabbed an axe from the fire truck, it looked like there was a bit of confusion about what to do.
“I ran around the building looking for a fire escape and couldn’t see any noticeable fire escapes around the building. A lot of debris falling down.
“I eventually gained entry onto the second floor, and once I got to the corridor I realised there was so much smoke there.”
He added that given the thickness of the smoke, he would be surprised if anyone could have left the building without assistance.
Jody said: “I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window ... hearing screams, I was yelling everyone to get down and they were saying, ‘We can’t leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors.’";
The tower, built in 1974, recently underwent an £8.6m redevelopment, with some residents reporting most of the flaming debris falling from the structure was cladding added during that process.
Nick Paget-Brown, the leader of the Kensington and Chelsea council said: “Several hundred [people] would have been in there. It’s a question of establishing how many were in there at the time of the fire.”
Paget-Brown confirmed the building had been inspected last May following the refurbishment, and said he toured the building at the time.
He said: “I’m really not in any position to answer any questions about the structure.
The posted a blog in the aftermath of the fire saying they had "predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time."
In March, the group said that residents "had received no proper fire safety instructions". They also alleged that an announcement in a "regeneration newsletter" merely advised residents "to remain flats in the event of fire."
The long-standing resident's protest group said they had posted "numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower", but that they "had fallen on deaf ears."
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