Emergency services in London have confirmed that at least 12 people have died as a result of the Grenfell tower blaze, with that number expected to rise as firefighters continue to search through the debris.
At least twelve people are dead and dozens are still missing after a fire ripped through a London apartment complex. #9News pic.twitter.com/Q1feY6uJNX
— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 14, 2017
Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan police said that a full search of the building was being conducted, but that he did not anticipate that any survivors would be found. “The thoughts of all of us from the emergency services … and from all of London, our thoughts will be with those so affected by a fire on a scale that is unprecedented,” he said.
According to the ambulance service, at the current time there are 68 patients being treated in six hospitals, with 18 in critical care wards.
The sadness about the death toll and those critically injured is wrestling with a growing anger – as residents argue they had raised concerns about fire safety numerous times in the years prior to the blaze, including during recent renovations.
Housing activists in the city have blamed the fire on a “combination of government cuts, local authority mismanagement, and sheer contempt for council tenants and the homes they live in.”
Early reports on the blaze blame an aluminium composite in the cladding panels which were recently added to the structure. It’s clear that something caused that building to go up in flames so rapidly and spectacularly like that. Mayor Sadiq Khan issued a statement suggesting an independent review will take place.
There are genuine concerns, reasonable concerns, that have been raised in the course of the night and it’s really important that these questions are answered. I will be demanding answers and I can assure you I will be ensuring there is independence in relation to it. Across London we have many, many tower blocks and what we can’t have is a situation where people’s safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained.
We’ll keep you updated.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Getty Images.
