London‘s Fire Commissioner has confirmed that there have been a number of deaths in the fire that first engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower earlier today.
In a statement, Dany Cotton said that, at this stage, they were unable to specify the number of fatalities:
“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. It would clearly be wrong for me to speculate further.”
Firefighters were called to the scene at 12:54 am local time, with 200 firefighters and 40 fire rescue vehicles attending:
“This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never ever seen anything of this scale. Firefighters are working very hard at the moment.
“This is a major fire that effected all floors of this 24 storey building from the second floor upwards.”
Cotton says that the cause is still unknown:
“Equally the cause of this fire is not known at this stage.“We are working very closely with our colleagues in the Metropolitan Police and the London Ambulance Service to bring this situation under control.”
In 2016, concerns were raised by a group of residents about the fire safety of the building.
30 people have been hospitalised so far, across five different hospitals.
Flames are still visible on the middle floors, right through to the top. pic.twitter.com/WfipemhB7C
— Hannah Al-Othman ?? (@HannahAlOthman) June 14, 2017
Around 30 blocks of apartments around Grenfell Tower have been evacuated and there are currently concerns that the building might collapse.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Getty Images / Leon Neal.
