Grenfell Tower Fire BBC News Special

Hello. Good morning. This is North Kensington in London and behind me

about 250 meters away is Grenfell Tower or in fact what remains of

Grenfell Tower. You can see perhaps in the bottom left of your picture

water from the Fire Service from the emergency services still, still

being projected on to the tower. This is what, eight hours after the

fire began. Certainly eight hours after the calls were first made to

the London Fire Brigade. What you notice as soon as you get here is

the smell. The burning smell of acrid smoke. All around us are

charred remnants which have blown in the wind from that tower and all

around us are shocked and devastated residents. People who have escaped

from this tower, people who know people who live in the tower and

people who were very confused about how a modern block of flats could be

consumed by fire so rapidly in this country in 2017. This, you don't

have to be a fire safety expert to know that something has gone

chronically wrong. This is what we know so far.

Eyewitnesses say people are still trapped and there

are fears that the tower block could collapse.

More than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze

To the right of your picture there are flames in the middle of the

tower block still. The building is thought to be at least 24 storeys

high. London Ambulance say 50 people are receiving hospital treatment

and, "A significant number of people are thought to be unaccounted for."

This morning we're going to show you footage that is distressing. Footage

that has been filmed by people who live here, local residents and this

was the scene at around 4am. So three hours after the Fire Brigade

received their first calls. This was the scene at around 4am. Flames

engulfing the entire building. Eyewitnesses reported people being

trapped in the block, desperately turning not only their lights, but

their phone lights, the lights on their smartphones, trying to attract

attention and call for help. Residents heard people crying out,

"Help me. Help me." It has been reported that residents saw children

being thrown out of the building in a desperate attempt to save them.

We're going to talk to people who escaped from the tower this morning.

We're going to talk to local residents. I mean this is absolutely

devastating for this community clearly.

I'm going to introduce you to someone who is with me. You escaped

from your flat on the fourth floor. Tell us what happened. It was just

before 1am. My wife and I were in the sitting room. The kids were

asleep obviously. You have two young children? Yeah, two young children.

A two-year-old and a three-year-old and a boy and a girl. There was a

sudden bang on the door before 1am and when I went to investigate, I

was greeted by smoke and some dark cloud. So the bang at the door was

someone knocking on your door? To alert us and once I opened the door

there was so much smoke, I shut it. There was no one standing there

because the person attempted to knock more doors. I got towels and

wet them and I alerted my wife screaming, "Fire. Fire. Fire." Went

into the kids room and wrapped the towels over their heads and

proceeded to just exit the premises. It was so dark and there was so much

smoke. There was people running down the stairs. Some people even had

luggage. There was just so much confusion. There was no sound of

alarm or bells whatsoever. Is there a fire alarm in Grenfell Tower?

Generally there would have been a fire alarm that would go off in such

incidents, bau there was none and we only heard that alarm after 1.30am.

So, this was like an actual fail in terms of safety measures that should

have been in place to alert the residents. So no fire alarm, but

someone banging on your door, you get your wife and your two children?

I knocked on the door on my right-hand side, I gave a good two

kicks and kept running because at this point I didn't want the kids to

be inhaling anymore more smoke. As you were trying to run down the

stairs, how far ahead of you could you see? How dark was it? It was too

dark. It was too dark. Arm's length. Arm's length. The hole fire started

off on the fourth floor and I live on the fourth floor. How do you know

that? Because once we were going down the stairs and we came to the

ground floor exiting the premises I was confronted by my neighbour who

lives at number 16. He said look, are you OK? He was checking me and

the kids? Are you all right? Is your wife? I know his wife was in the

premises. I did show concern, where is your wife? He said no, it is just

me, it was my house, my fridge exploded. The guy who lived next

door to you on the fourth floor said his fridge exploded? At which point

the Fire Brigade were well aware of it. The supervising, the senior Fire

Brigade were also there when they took some statement or some

understanding from him what was going on. What time was that then?

What time was it when you got out at the bottom of your block of flats?

This is no later than 1.10am. OK. At that point there was smoke on fourth

floor, down the stairwell, clearly, in your next door neighbour's flat?

It has gone up to the fifth floor through the stairs. The doors were

open because people were constantly going in and out. When you got out

and you looked up at the tower block, where did you see flames or

did you not at that point? When we got out, we were the first ten

families that would have been out of that promises to be honest with you.

With speed and just, we just went out. Now, there was very small

amount of fire on the whole premises. It would have been no

higher than an average tree height. This would be in three rows of

panels that were on fire. That we were by the green underneath

Grenfell and I had my child in my arms and I said did you see fire? He

was fascinated because he's only three. Did it look like the

emergency services are here, there is going to be more of them, they

will project the water on to the blaze? It seemed like it was

controllable and everyone was confident it was controllable. We

were very close to the building. What happened then is very, very

happenedly the flames started climbing up towards the right column

of Grenfell Tower. We were like I said, we were the first few people

and we are seeing the Fire Brigade and the emergency services, we see

it that it can be tackled. They can probably swing this the fire

engines, but there are bollards that are blocking off the Fire Brigade

from coming into the green and parking. There were hoses

everywhere. The Fire Brigade were doing their best. They were

gathering information and intelligence from the residents who

came out as to where the incident and the fire was taking place, what

they know so far. So the residents were giving as much information to

the Fire Service, but also there was a sense of hesitation from the Fire

Brigade because they weren't willing to tackle this. It was not tackled

straightaway in a sense, this hose on the Fire Brigade activity

starting well into 2am and maybe 3am sorry. Now... That's not the

information that we're getting from the Fire Brigade, but... No, but in

terms of tackling the fire and letting out the water and more in

support units for the Fire Brigade arriving, it was not until about

3am. This took a significant amount of time. Even my personal house keys

is what I gave to the Fire Brigade as they couldn't gain access to the

building itself. So when we were out, we came just to the front door,

I set the kids down. Are you OK? The door slammed shut. The Fire Brigade

couldn't even get into the blag. Building. So I said here, there is

my keys, take the fob. So I gave them my fob. They can smash the door

down. They were stuck. They had a lot of equipment they wanted to take

into the premises. Some of the equipment was oxygen tanks. So I am

assuming with the policy in Grenfell Tower, it's a case of emergency

services and fire, there is a stay put policy. What do you mean? Who is

imposing that policy? Where is that coming from? There is a sticker all

around every floor by the lifts that says, "In case of an emergency,

there is a stay put policy if you are within your premises stay put."

In this case what I assumed because they were going up, they were going

to take as much oxygen tanks up. But access and not gaining access and

also the fire support units not having the right access into the

building was a bit of a struggle. By this time, the right column of the

building was already engulfed in flames. The left-hand side of the

building and the middle column where would be the stairwell looked

cleaner and a lot less disturbances. At which point there is more

explosions and bangs and like purple blue flames. It was rapid. The fire

was growing well out of control. Can I ask you why you think the fire

consumed Grenfell Tower so speedily? We don't know, but you've lived

there for how long? I've lived there since February, but since February I

have been campaigning against the shortfalls that have been happening

at Grenfell Tower. I have been speaking to the housing officers and

the representatives... That's the management? About gas pipes being

stored on the stairwell which are has hardous and in the case of a

fire that could easily explode. That is causing a lot of people not to go

down the stairs. With the explosions the people on the higher level would

have stayed in their place as it is much more safer. There was no lift

in this situation. There is only the stairs. The stairs, there is smoke.

It's dark, it's scary. It's a trip hazard. There was all sorts, there

is elderly, there is children, there is disabled people, there is luggage

in the stairwell. Some lights were not working. So it was so dark in

there. It's incredible. It's incredible we survived. So many

people were left inside. We had so many relatives and family that

called and said, "We are still trapped. Let the Fire Service know

we are still here." A kid called to say he was trapped in his room. It's

a very horrible situation. Lives have been lost. I can confirm that

lives have been lost there have been fatalities of some of our friends

and some of our family and some of our loved ones and neighbours. I'm

really sorry. It's heartaching. It really is. You just don't know,

right now, we can only offer prayers. We can only offer support

to the people who have lost loved ones. We can only pray for those who

have passed away. We can only praise the Fire Service for their efforts.

We can only prays the emergency services for their efforts in trying

to make some sort of sense and save as many people as they can. This was

really horrific. There is people who were jumping out of the place. There

is a man who threw two of his children.

Wow. We saw a lot. We saw a lot with our own eyes. We saw friends,

families... It's all right, you do not up to say any more. I am so

sorry. Mahad really emotional and

distressed but managed to tell us in an incredibly articulate way how he

escaped Grenfell Tower with his two young children and his wife, some

incredibly distressing descriptions of some of the people who lived in

the tower and did manage to get out. Simone helped a lot of people, tell

us how you helped? Around 1230 I was in my living room and heard a lot of

sirens and helicopters, but I know my road is blocked off so I was

wondering where they were going to. As a nurse it's my duty to help so I

came outside, I saw people running, I asked Willey were running and they

said there was a fire. I ran to the cordon and told them I was a nurse,

can I help and they said sure. They station me beside the leisure

centre. I have seen some things but today I cannot even describe it.

Mothers have come out and lost children. Firefighters have come out

injured, we don't know if they can come out safe. The police, they were

amazing. At one point, around 1:30am, around about 30 men, I don't

know where they appeared from and they were all trying to rush towards

the building and it was very unsafe, I tried to help the police to calm

them down, they said the police did not care about them, but that was

not true, the police did care about them. It was horrendous. As a

community I don't know how we will get over this, I am not interested

in the whys and the house, it is how do we move forward? What do we do as

a community? People have lost homes, children have seen things, people

were jumping out the window. We just need to rebuild as a community now.

There are many questions, Simone, thank you for talking to us, we

really appreciate it. There are many of you watching who will know

exactly where we are right now but for those around the country let me

try to describe where we are, we are about 250 metres or so from Grenfell

Tower. Behind me is Latimer Road Tube station, you can see the

railway line there just in front of the tower, that is the underground

line. From Latimer Road it takes you to Ladbroke growth which is Notting

Hill, the borough is Kensington and Chelsea, one of the richest in the

country. I spoke to the council leader earlier who said it's very

early stages. He had no steer on how this buyer managed to spread so

rapidly. Now steer on the cause. He said what they needed to establish

is the many people were in the flats. We know there were at least

120 apartments, we do not know how many were in each of the flats. He

says it is devastating, he thanked the emergency services and confirmed

Grenfell Tower had been recently refurbished. He went on to tell me

that my understanding is it would have had to pass a number of

stringent fire safety regulations after the refurbishment. We will try

to talk to him alive later on, the leader of Kensington and Chelsea

Council. Let me introduce you to more local residents, Moira, and

Linda, thank you so much for talking to us. This is absolutely

devastating for this community. It's absolutely shocking. Because they

have, I'm afraid, been some cause for concern on the safety of

Grenfell Tower. So in some ways it's horrific but in some ways it was I

feel it was an accident waiting to happen. The concerns you are

referring to come from the Grenfell action group who wrote a blob post

in November last year, warning there would be some kind of catastrophe

and stating, I think it will take a loss of life for people to take our

concerns seriously. Absolutely. They warned about the instructions

residents had been given about what to do in a fire, about some of the

safety features around the building especially given there had been a

lot of building work around there and the residents felt their safety

had not been taken seriously in light of the fact we had had a fire

in the borough, and in 2013 there had been a massive power surge which

had concern a lot of residents. I think that worries us as local

residents about the extent to which the borough is taking seriously the

safety of council tenants. This is a council owned block but it is run by

an management agency. Let me ask you what you first heard and saw, what

you could smell in the early hours this morning? I heard the helicopter

circulating and I went and got into my living room, I live on the corner

and there is another tower block just there. I thought, it would like

a fire in the window so I went and got my husband, I said I think it's

a light and he said no, it's a reflection. I walked out the back

and this way was all red, it must've been reflecting. We ran down that

way and all the side was on fire, about 2am. There were people

screaming. But their windows. It was going to the middle and there were

people at the top window in the corner and I was shaking, please let

somebody help them, I could hear women and all that. There were big

blue flames and banging and everything was falling. The light

was on and then it went to the middle and over and the light went

out and I just turns and is it went up. And what did you first see or

hear or smell, that is the one thing which strikes me coming here, we are

surrounded by bits of charred remains from the debris which has

blown out of the tower and you can smell that acrid smoke. At around

quarter to two I was woken up by my son who said you need to come and

look on the balcony because Grenfell , there is a block on fire, a flat

on fire. I went on the balcony and there was only a section at 145 that

was on fire. At that point I said that is awful, it reminds me of the

fire at Hammersmith, hopefully the fire brigade are dealing with it. I

then actually fell back asleep but was woken up an hour later, went

back on the balcony and by this time my daughter was in floods of tears

and said she had been called by a number of her friends in the area

saying they were down stairs at Grenfell and people were calling for

help. I went back on the balcony and by then the flames had taken over

and spread quite rapidly. By 4am the whole building was on fire, it was

shocking. I just hearing Sadiq Khan is going to give news conference at

quarter to ten, about 20 minutes time, we will bring that to you

live. He has already said this morning questions will need to be

answered following the deadly fire at the London tower block. Some

residents have said to me the building had been refurbished

recently, the last six months, and external cladding could potentially

be a problem, we do not know of course. We heard from Mahad who said

his neighbour had had some kind of fridge blow-up which could have

potentially started a fire, what are you hearing in terms of the

refurbishment? I think all of us have talked about the cladding, we

have talked about whether or not, because I think for us it's quite

shocking... Is it the same that is on that school? To the left, you can

see the green and blue, is that plastic? I am not sure. Is that a

school? Yes. So that is the same cladding on the school you can see

in your picture which was on the whole of the tower block? When they

rebuilt the school and refurbished the sports centre, the swimming

pool, they put on as a kind of compensation for the tower that had

endure two years of building work, they put the cladding on. This is a

tower block built in 1974, it is not old and credit, it should withstand

all sorts one would have thought. My brother is terrified, he lives in

the tower block over there on the 17th floor and now he has said he's

not going to sleep at night, they should have sprinkler systems, he

said, how will he know if there is a fire on the forest floor? He is

scared to death. There should be sprinkler systems, in this day and

age, going, water systems, so when there is a fire it comes on. How

they can put people in them, and there are loads of tower blocks here

all with the same problem and it's got to be done because my brother is

on the 17th floor and scared for his life now. Because it is up and down

in Shepherd's Bush, not long ago. We do why were worry about the closure

of fire stations which Boris Johnson has implicated across London, what

effect that has on support services to deal with a disaster like this.

Thank you both, my era and Linda, thank you for your time. -- Moira

and Linda. What we know so far is a huge and devastating blaze has

consumed a tower block here in North Kensington. It is in the middle of

two Tube stations between Latimer Road and Ladbroke grove. We now

people are being treated in hospitals across London. It has been

confirmed there are fatalities, at least 120 flat in Grenfell Tower, we

have no idea how many people were in those flats last night. We will show

you some footage now which is distressing, upsetting as you would

expect from a story of this nature. It shows an individual at a window

waiting for help. This footage was taken earlier and we know that that

particular area of the tower is not as badly fire damaged as other

parts. I'm going to introduce you to our

reporter... I'm going to introduce you to our

reporter Jim Reed who has been finding out more about what the

Grenfell Action Group have been concerned about in recent months.

Tell us what know, Jim? A lot of people on social media talking about

this. A post in November talking about fire safety and concerns that

were raised with various authorities about it. Writing back in November,

"Only a catastrophic event would expose these issues." And concerns

about getting fire trucks and police vehicles up to the building itself.

Now the person who wrote the blog post doesn't want to talk on camera,

but I have come off the phone to him. He is very, very shaken up as

you would imagine. He was on the 16th floor of that building. He says

he only got out by the skin of his teeth. He said he wrapped a wet

towel around his mouth. A fireman's hand grabbed him towards the stairs

and he got his way down. He says, this has come out again and again

from other people. No fire alarm. He could hear no fire alarm in that

block. He said he was woken by a neighbour's smoke alarm. He talks

about warning signs in the building. He says under pressure from this

action group they contacted the authorities and about six months ago

they did put in some warning signs in the block to tell people what to

do in the event of a fire. But the warning signs said, "Stay inside

your flat. Board it up. That should give you an hour's worth of time."

The speed at which the fire spread means that advice didn't work in

this event. He said some of the other blocks in the area, they

complained as well, they have not yet received the warning signs so he

is very angry about what is happening.

And in terms of the people that we have both been speaking to this

morning, a lot of confusion. Devastation, people have lost

friends and relatives. There is two things that come out, I think and

this came out from the interview you did earlier on. The idea that this

started on the fourth floor of the block and there is lots of talk

about this being a fridge fire. It is unconfirmed, but multiple people

told us. The other thing is the idea of cladding on the outside of the

building. The building we refurbished a year ago and it is

something to do with that school. There was concern when they were

building that new academy and as compensation for that they agreed to

put the cladding on the outside of the building. A lot of people

talking about how quick the fire spread and how the cladding could be

blamed for that, no confirmation, but a lot of people talking about

it. Thank you, Jim. We are awaiting a news conference from the fire and

Ambulance Services. Of course, we will bring that to you. That's due

any moment now. An emergency number has been set-up for anyone concerned

about friends or relatives in the fire. This number is: 0800 0961 233.

That is just for people who are worried about loved ones and who are

perhaps trying to find out where they are. Let's talk to someone

else. Hi, how are you? I'm fine, thank you. Hi, I'm Victoria. Thank

you very much for talking to me. And Kath Burns is here, one of our

reporters. I think some of your friends were in the tower, is this

correct? I have heard a couple of classmates that were in this tower.

One of them made it out safely alive. He is one of my friends. I'm

not sure about the other one, but I'm praying and yeah... How old are

you? I'm 14 years of age. 14? Yes. Where do you go to school? That

academy over there. Which is closed today. Yeah. Presumably a number of

pupils from that school live in that tower block? A lot of them live in

that tower block. There have been a couple of girls missing that

attended the school before. They can't find them. One of them has

been found, I'm not sure about the other one. There has been people

saying that one of the girl's sisters is in the block. She is only

eight years of age and she is still in the building right now as we

speak. It's quite touching and sad. How are you? Yeah, I'm just fine.

I'm just happy that I am still alive because this could happen to anyone.

This really could happen to anyone. As I look around me, just behind

you, there is another tower block over there. It doesn't have that

cladding on and there is one, I mean there is one right here. This is

Whitstable House, this is traditional brick. That's my tower

block. That's where you live. Is it OK living there? Yeah, it's good. Of

course, like, I don't think the fire would have turned out as bad as this

as there is no materials, just concrete, but due to them

refurbishing it and using different types of materials obviously they

would have set fire. I mean we don't know if that's one of the

contributory factors to the fire spreading rapidly, but something

went chronically wrong, that's clear because in this day and age a fire

should not spread as quickly as it did. Thank you very much. We hope

you find your friends. Thank you. Kath, hi, good morning to you, you

have been talking to lots of people, as well? People are just absolutely

devastated. I walking down the road about an hour ago on this side of

the building when a group of people just started pointing out and they

started yelling to the paramedics saying they could see someone

waving. This is at 8.30am? 8.30am and there was about four different

people convinced they had seen a man waving something white, a T-shirt, a

pillowcase, they said he was waving half-way on the 11th floor and he

just collapsed. Nothing has been seen since. We don't know if what

they saw is true, but they are convinced it's what they saw. How

high up the tower was that? It's about half-way up. Right, OK. I have

been staring up at that window just to see, it is just ridiculous to see

if anything has happened and I can't see a thing, but the people I spoke

to, I went back and they are utterly convinced that they saw somebody.

Thank you very much, Kath, thank you. This is BBC News. I am going to

give you that emergency number again for people who maybe concerned about

missing loved ones. The number is: 0800 0961 233.

This is what we have learnt this morning from talking in particular

to Mahad, a father of two who escaped from the fourth floor at

about 1.30am. Someone was banging on his door, his next door neighbour

and he opened the door to thick smoke. So he woke up his wife and

his two young children. One aged two, one aged three. He put wet

towels around their heads. He left his flat and through dark smoke. He

could barely see in front of him. He managed to get down the stairs with

his family and out of Grenfell Tower and that was about 1.30am, 2am. As

he told us, as he looked up at the tower, there were flames no further

than perhaps the fourth storey which was his, the floor that he lived on.

And he described the fact that it wasn't much longer than that that

the flames began to shoot rapidly up the tower block. We can talk now to

our correspondent Wyre Davies, where are you and what's the latest? Yes,

we are at the corner of Lancaster Road. This is half a mile from the

tower block itself which is still on fire. We have got a press conference

which is about to start with Dany Cotton from the London Fire Service

and Stuart Cundy and Paul Woodrow. These three individuals are arriving

now. We'll go live to that press conference as soon as they are in

position. We already know, of course, there have been several

fatalities today. We are not sure of the numbers, but let's go live to

the three commissioners as they speak now.

Good morning, everybody. At six minutes to one London Fire Brigade

received the first of many calls to a fire in Grenfell Tower that you

can see behind me. The first crews were on scene in under six minutes

and found a rapidly developing fire. As you can appreciate from looking

at the building now, this has been a very serious and a very complex

fire. Our firefighters on scene have been working tirelessly and continue

to do so to extinguish the fire and search the building for any

remaining people inside. We have had at the height over 200 firefighters

and 40 fire engines on scene with a range of specialist officers. We

have been working closely with all of our partners to establish what is

going on here. We will continue to work closely in the coming hours and

days to look at the cause of this fire and to investigate what has

happened. We have got a structural engineer who in conjunction with my

urban search and rescue advisor is monitoring the stability of the

building. At the moment the building continues to be safe for our crews

to go and work in. I want to thank everybody who has been involved in

this ins didn't so far, what has been a very difficult time and send

our si sear condolences to everybody involved in this really terrible

incident. As you can appreciate this is a very difficult time. It is

still in a dynamic stage of this incident and it would be wrong for

us to cause about the -- to speculate about the cause of the

Fryer or anything further at this moment. We have taken over 50

patients to hospitals across London. And clearly, our thoughts are with

everyone affected by this tragic events. We have over 100 of our

medics working hard here in response to this incident including emergency

ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, specialist trauma teams,

and hazardous response teams. We continue to work closely with our

partners from the London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police

Service. Our priority is to ensure that patients get the treatment that

they need and are conveyed to hospital as quickly as possible.

Whilst we continue to manage this ongoing ins didn't I would like to

ask Londoners to only call us in a genuine emergency and if they could

call NHS 111 for any urgent health care requirements, thank you. Good

morning, everybody. As you've heard this is a very much a dynamic

situation at this point in time and clearly my thoughts go out to all

those who have been affected and all those residents that are currently

displacedment we are working with colleagues from the London Fire

Brigade. There are significant number of police officers here in

this locality and I know there is significant disruption both in term

of road closures, and other travel closures and if you are travelling

in this area please go to the TfL website, but I would urge keep to

keep away from that vicinity. If you have any concerns, any concerns,

about anybody connected to this awful, awful event, please phone the

Casualty Bureau. The number has gone out. But to repeat it. It's 0800

0961 233 0800 0961 233. That's 0800 0961 233.

And if you have any concerns, please use that number rather than dialling

999 or 101. If you are a displaced resident, the current reception

centre being co-ordinated by the local authority is at the Portobello

trust. The local authority will be putting out through their press

statements as well. As I say, this is a very dynamic situation. It is

very early days. As you can see behind me us at Grenfell Tower, this

is a truly, truly shocking fire that's occurred overnight and my

thanks to the colleagues from the LFB for the sterling work that

they're doing at this point in time. REPORTER: Any word about the

integrity of the building itself? There have been concerns from

residents about fires in the past, what can you say about the integrity

of the building? It is far too early to speculate about the building

itself and that will be subject to an investigation in the future.

Structurally at the moment it is safe for our crews to be in there

working, but I will not comment any further about the building itself.

You mentioned fatalities, have we any numbers or updates about

fatalities from the incident? No, as you can appreciate it's still very

early days on that. We're working closely with our colleagues in the

LAS. As soon as numbers become available. You're live on Good

Morning Britain. I was told by a fire officer that you only managed

to clear the first 12 to 13 floors and anything above that, your fire

officers weren't able to go inside the building and put the flames out.

Can you give us some detail? We are still working very hardment we

rescued large numbers of people from inside the building very early on

across a range of different floors. I have spoken to crews who have been

up as far as the 19th and 20th floor. We are making steady progress

in going through the whole building. INAUDIBLE

I am unaware. It is too early to speculate and not appropriate when

we are dealing with such a dynamic incident. We have no idea. What we

would ask if there are any displaced residents who have not reported

themselves to the local rest centre or to the police, please make

yourself known so we can check you off against the list of people we

believe was in the building. That's very important. Any residents from

the building if you have not reported in or told somebody where

you are, please do that, it is very important, not only for us to

account for, but for your loved ones who are making contact with the rest

centres. The three commissioners with a dramatic update on what has

been happening in West London. We know there have been fatalities.

Several people have been taken to hospital and there are concerns

about the integrity of the building itself. We have been hearing from

some residents that concerns were raised before today about the

structure of the building and whether or not it represented a fire

hazard, but the most, the biggest concern now is to to account nor all

the residents, to treat the injured and to clear the area because there

are concerns about the integrity of the building. Back to you.

goal and thank you very much, if you are just tuning in, the London Fire

Brigade commissioner of seeing a structural engineer is

monitoring the stability of the building but it appears safe for

now. One or two residents saying they are of course consumed by the

fact people are still being searched for in the building, they are

worried about the stability of Grenfell Tower. But as we have just

heard, the London Fire Brigade commissioner says a structural

engineer is monitoring the stability of the building and it appears safe

for now. We are expecting a news conference from the Mayor of London

Sadiq Khan, as soon as he starts speaking we will bring it to you. We

can talk to the Reverend of Saint Clement 's church which as I

understand it is about 300 yards from Grenfell Tower, can you hear me

OK? Yeah, can you hear me? I can, thank you for talking to us. Tell us

who you are looking after right now? Sorry, the helicopter is directly

overhead, could you repeat the question? Tell us about the people

you're helping work after at the moment? The Church has been open

since about 3am. Hundreds of people have come to the church. Many of

them evacuated from housing around the tower and we are also serving as

an information point for people who are looking for people. We are

operating INAUDIBLE Just round the corner from us but we

are helping hundreds of people. Who need a place to rest for the time

being. What kind of things are people saying to you about what they

witnessed, what they experienced? People obviously acutely distressed.

My main effort at this stage has been to provide people with the

basic things they need, water, breakfast, tea and coffee. We have

been catering, giving them a toilet to go to, there's been a massive

community response. People have been bringing in supplies since 3M. It's

been largely a question of coordinating this fantastic

community response. How long do you think they will be

there, do you have any idea? I do not have any idea and do not want to

speculate. People had been evacuated from their homes so we have to wait

and see when it is safe to return. We are planning for the rest of the

day, we'll be providing lunch, supper and if necessary we will also

provide people with a place to stay overnight. But we hope it would come

to that. Of course. You mentioned the community helping out, I have

bumped into allsorts of people, jade carrying a trolley full of water, it

had been given to her free, it had been brought down to close where I

am broadcasting, I have seen bags of blankets and dressing gowns, people

having to leave their homes, some in a state of undress, do you need

anything else you are, more provisions? To be honest I think we

are, we have more provisions than I ever would have expected, people

have been so incredibly generous. I don't want to discourage people from

bringing water or maybe blankets, they are always useful, but the

community response has been fantastic so far. Thank you very

much for talking to us. Saint Clement Church is about 300 jars

from Grenfell Tower. This is the emergency number to call if you

concern for missing loved ones, 0800 0961 233. We are going to cross to

another church not far from where I am, the Latimer community Church,

what is happening there? Yes, I think we are about 200 metres

INAUDIBLE People have been gathering since 2am

INAUDIBLE And had been evacuated from nearby

homes. Occasionally when the wind blokes you get big chunks of

charcoal falling through the air, this children's maths book was

floating through the air INAUDIBLE I'm going to interrupt, I apologise,

it's just really difficult to hear you so we are going to try to

establish a better line. In the meantime we will talk to Glenda,

thank you very much for talking to me, tell us what you saw, what you

heard last night? First of all I heard the helicopters which is what

woke me up this morning. Then when I came down here I saw the fire going

from the bottom of a leap to the top and saw a lot of debris. I was with

my daughter, she is a nurse and we went to the pub not too far down and

there are quite a few casualties there. Because my daughter is a

nurse we were treating some of the casualties. A lot of them had masks

because they had inhaled a lot of smoke, those who were actually in

the building. Mothers, children, fathers, even an man assisting a

little child. At the moment my daughter is in hospital I think

because we were standing over here for quite a few hours, she inhaled

some smoke so she is at hospital. You can still taste it this morning,

it gets to the back of your throat. Thank you so much for talking to us,

what did you see last night? We were walking about 1:15am by the sound of

screams and sirens, we could hear people screaming for help. Where do

you live? I'm staying with relatives in another part of the Lancaster

estate, we were about five minutes walk from the tower itself. We could

hear helicopters and once we looked out the window and saw the tower was

on fire we started to panic, screaming out to the neighbours to

wake up and start contacting friends because we know friends of friends

and relatives in Grenfell Tower. Did you showed from your building? Yes,

just trying to wake up the area and get everyone roused. Ten minutes

later we threw on some clothes and went down and got close to the

police cordon and stayed there for a few hours just watching. At about

quarter past one you said? That is right. How far up the tower had the

flames gone? I was taking videos at 130 and it was right from the bottom

and straight to the top and moving across the building. The movement of

the fire across the building did not take more than half an hour, 1:30

AM- 2am. By 2am it was all in flames. That is extraordinary. It

was really, really fast. That is something sadly you associate with

the slums of the developed world, that speed of fire hold. We were so

shocked, we felt like people are going to be killed by this, the

feeling we got was that this was a situation which cannot be stopped.

Especially as we knew the fire engines which were sent were not

sufficient, they could not get close enough because that is a known

problem with how these estates are laid out. What do you mean they

could not get close enough? There are all these greens which stop car

is getting too close to the buildings and where there are

pathways they are blocked by pollard 's or have not been updated to allow

for the movement of emergency vehicles and it's a big problem.

People are unaccounted for in safety plans for a lot of this state. You

can see why the greens are here, it breaks up the concrete, it is

attractive to look at, green space and so on and so forth but if it

stops, if you look at the green behind us, there is a metal fence

around it and pollard 's at the end but usually there are keys so they

drop in the grounds of vehicles can get through. You would hope so, but

these are old roads, not enough has been done to make sure everyone can

be saved. There is no fire escape that you can really see, a lot of

questions around safety and security for people on this estate. Yeah,

Glenda, do you know people who live there? I do. Three of our members

live in this tower block so I am concerned. I have also heard there

is somebody on the 18th floor who is disabled, housebound. So my concern

is how they could have gotten out... This is absolutely... Unbelievable

isn't it? My heart really goes out to the people. Even just looking at

the building, being told to stay in the building I was wondering to

myself how are these people getting out of the building? From that, I

knew a lot of people were going to die. If we look at Grenfell Tower

now, this is 10am almost, the fire took hold at about 1am, nine hours

this tower block is still burning. Viewers might be able to see the

water hoses, projected onto the lower half but you can see it still

smoking, still burning higher-ups. On the other side, he could still

see flames halfway up the tower. You cannot see that on this side. But

there are many, many questions you will want answered. Definitely. A

lot of questions, how could this possibly happen? Given the wrong

information, telling people to stay in the building, not come out of the

building. The other side had a chance. Why'd say that? Because the

fire started on the side, so they could have gotten out of the

building. They were just told to speak to the emergency people, talk

to them on the phone whether they can come out. OK. Thank you. Thank

you both. We are coming up to 10am, we will bring you the latest, let's

talk to our reporter Jean MacKenzie, we could not hear her, what is going

on? I have been around 200 metres around the corner that is where

people have been evacuated, when they were getting out the tower

block this morning and people in the nearby homes, I have been there

since 6am and it was quite quiet this morning because everybody was

inside in a state of shock and it's in the last couple of hours it

started get really busy because everyone is coming to the community

centre desperately hoping they can find their loved ones. People in an

absolute state of drama and shock. Some mums searching for daughters,

44-mac hours, trying all the different community centres and

having no luck. I have seen some people arriving at being reunited

with children but still people arriving and not knowing whether

children are and moving onto next centre. There is such a state of

trauma and shock. It's still thick with charcoal, all over the floor

and when the wind blows you get it all in the air. What I found a few

minutes ago was this sheet from a children's maths book which has come

from the tower block. We know there are a lot of children who do live in

that block. We spoke to one person in the last half an hour, 14 years

of age, goes to the academy right next door to Grenfell Tower and he

said a lot of pupils from the Academy live in Grenfell Tower and

he did not know some of his friends wear. That is what I have heard as

well, people saying children may now are unaccounted for and there is a

list on the door of people there which is helping to speed things up,

saying they are not here but here are the places you can and work.

Someone else volunteering to go to the local hospital to get all the

names so they can go and get that and bring that down, trying to help

people locate people. In that centre you have people who are really

traumatised who are not on the block itself that in the neighbouring

places which have been evacuated. I am sure you have been hearing this

morning that they have got some of the most horrific stories because

they were the ones who were awake at 2am watching it unfold, hearing the

screams. One gentleman said he could hear the words saved me, help me,

repeated by people further and further up the building. He said to

me it is those screams he think will take a long time to be able to get

out of his head. Very distressing, thank you.

Some, very, very distressing reports here from North Kensington this

morning as you would expect. This is BBC News. It's 10am. I'm Victoria

Derbyshire. A until of people have died in a massive fire which has

torn through a tower block in West London. It is not yet known how many

people have lost their lives. We do know that 50 people have been taken

to hospital. It was so dark and there was so much

smoke. There was people running down the stairs. Some people even had

some luggage. There was no alarm or bells whatsoever.

Grenfell Tower in North Kensington was built in 1974 and contained 120

flats at least. Residents describe the horror as they heard screaming

and saw parts of the building crashing to the ground. There was

smoke everywhere. Literally everywhere. There was people

downstairs and there was bits of the cladding falling off that was on

fire and people screaming because obviously people were still sleeping

on the higher floors and they didn't have a clue halfs going on. They

need to ring 999 and there is a dedicated line for this incident,

OK. 200 firefighters have been battling to bring it under control.

There are unconfirmed reports that a faulty fridge on the fourth floor

could be the cause. In the past half an hour, fire chiefs confirmed the

operation is still ongoing. Our firefighters on scene have been

working tirelessly and continue to do so to extinguish the fire and

search the building for any remaining people inside. We have had

at the height over 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines on scene with a

range of specialist officers.