14/06/2017 London News

Good evening, you are watching BBC throughout the afternoon.

Good evening, you are watching BBC London News, welcome to viewers on

the BBC News Channel as well. This is my view of the burning tower

block which you can see smoke is still coming from the building on

the 15th floor. You can see flames depending on when the wind turns

this way, flames and letting the side of the building, which is why

we've been told to wear these facemasks, because there is debris,

cert and dirt on the air. Their rockets flying around, this is

directly from the building itself. These are on the streets. They have

taken days -- it will take days to clear up. A bird's eye view of the

building, this level of devastation has been caused, the fire began at

1am this morning, and it has claimed lives. Currently 12 lives is the

official total, but the Metropolitan Police tell us that number is likely

to go up. Reporters have been on the ground and around the area all day

from early this morning. We will be hearing from them later in the

programme. We will hear from Karl Mercer at a nearby mosque which

opened its doors to help those in need tonight, who were evacuated

from the tower block itself. Alice has a different vantage point of the

one I've got now. Firstly, I think we should hear from those affected

most. People who tonight are counting themselves lucky to escape

alive. People who lost their homes and in many cases, people who have

lost just about everything they own... Today is the 14th of June...

2am, I was woken up by the siren noise.

We ran downstairs, it took us a solid four minutes to get out,

just as I was entering the ground floor, the fire

I looked down and there was fire on the left side.

Every minute, it was getting worse and worse.

People were in the building after an hour.

The people screaming, the worst thing.

People were calling out and asking what floor they were on.

There were people on the tenth and 11th floors, where

they were actually using the fire hoses, and they saw people waving

from the windows and a woman screaming that she had

Already, she's out, but her brother and wife

We don't know if they are safe or not.

For me, the one image that sticks in my mind was seeing a family

waving what appeared to be a towel for around an hour.

There was a helicopter coming about 400 metres from their window,

For me, the thing I took from this was how agonising must that have

been for that family, when they were there.

We watched them stop moving from the street.

This is one of my main concerns about living in a tower block.

On Saturday, we did have the fire brigade team come around and speak

They told us that the protocol was to close your door

because the fire door will withstand the heat for a duration of time.

But I think what has happened is they haven't understood

that the fire had spread around the building.

That is wrong information for that building and

If you are staying in your house, you could still be trapped.

If you had stayed... If I listen to the advice given to me by the fire

brigade and by the TMO management team, we could be dead. You've got

family on the 18th floor, and you spoke to them last night? What were

they saying? Smoke. They couldn't get out because of the smoke. I

asked... I don't know what I would do if I was him. He just stayed in

the room, hoping the fire brigade would get up there. That is what

they were told? Yeah, they stayed in there to follow the instructions.

Not much you could do from the 80th floor and they cannot fly. -- 18th.

He was like an older brother, always looking after me. What is the

latest? Apparently it has been confirmed that he has passed, due to

the chemicals from the building, in the hospital... I just... I don't

know what to think. The moment that building went up, how, why? There

are a lot of questions to be asked. The

voices of those affected by the tower block fire in the early hours

of the morning. I noticed as soon as I came to the area this afternoon to

see the fire myself, people were approaching me immediately and

asking if we had heard from their loved ones,

one of those people is Ray Fiasco, tell us about them? A good friend of

mine. Her and her mother, the last we heard from them was at 3:30am.

Did you hear from them on the phone? No, they were messaging a friend on

Twitter. As soon as he heard, he got there and from 2:30am to 3:30am,

they lost contact. I woke up to a phone call saying to check the news,

Khadija is in there. I could not get through. I turned to social media

and I thought, you know what? Maybe someone has seen her. You are

handing out leaflets in the area. All the best of luck. I hope you do

find Khadija. That is typical of a number of people in the area. It

seems to me, London is a huge city with millions of people inside. When

it comes to a tragedy, Londoners behave like one community, as you

would expect in a small village somewhere, of people coming together

and supporting those in need. Karl Mercer is in a mosque a short

distance from where I am now. He's been looking to see how people are

doing just that, and coming together. Karl? Yes, we've seen it

across west London all afternoon, people coming with bags and bringing

food. Here we are, just about half a mile from the scene. You can see

just how busy it is. If you take a walk inside, when we arrived at 12

o'clock this afternoon, there was hardly anything here. Hardly anybody

here. But, take a look at what has happened since. This room has been

full, a lot of water and food from here has already been taken to those

in need. If we swing to the other side of the room, we've got a lot of

clothes donated and a lot of bedding as well. As I say, it is something

that's been happening across West London this afternoon. People have

been approaching us as well and offering us assistance. We are now

joined by the chief executive of the cultural centre and mosque here.

Abdul-Rahman Kassig Ede, a very difficult day for you and many

worshippers he would also have suffered? Yes, people worried about

their loved ones. People do not know what happened to their loved ones.

They do not have any information but in the meantime, we are doing our

best to offer all the help people need. We've been inundated with the

generosity of the community. People have called us from as far as Luton

and Gatwick to offer us assistance, supplying us with food and blankets.

And it has been very personal for the cultural centre and mosque as

well, some of your staff have family and many of the worshippers would

have worshipped here? Yes, some worshippers have family in the

building and don't know what happened to them. Worshippers as

well. It is a difficult situation we are in but we are trying to cope by

providing emotional and material support the community needs, as a

centre. We have deleted there. Thank you very much. As you can see, the

effort continues here -- we have to leave it there. It's been a

difficult day for people who have been losing their homes, and our

correspondence Catherine Carpenter has been finding out their stories

of the day. Thank you very much. A neighbour brings 88 of Mary Dennis a

chair, she's been awake since the early hours when she fled her home

afraid and confused. I heard banging on my door, bang, bang. I did not

get up. But what happened, when they banged it and I got up... They said

to evacuate out, out. There is fire. I rang in my nightie. There was

enough screaming, children screaming, everybody screaming.

Another neighbour offers food and water. Thiago says he needs to keep

busy so he does not dwell on what he heard and what he saw. I could hear

people from the tower, there were a lot of casualties, and they said

people were jumping from the building... Overnight, Saint Clement

's Church became his century. Here and at every rescue centre,

donations have flooded in all day -- sanctuary. We are Londoners.

Everybody is a London. We had to help each other. I've been here all

morning. I have older clothes for older people this time... I will

help you. Thank you, darling. This morning it was kids clothes. I've

seen loads of locals coming down. This mosque counts many Grenfell

Tower residence among its worshippers. Today they were sorting

clothes and cooking, for those breaking fast tonight or in need

after the longest of days. Other members of the community took people

into their homes. At least three families crammed into this terrace

in the early hours. My son is asthmatic and was having an asthma

attack. As soon as she saw us, this woman took as an here. If not, we

would have been out all night. Also taken in, this four-month-old. Her

bed for the night is a stranger's sober while her mother waits for

news of missing friends. -- sofa. Catherine Carpenter, BBC London

news. As you can see, the charity effort

continues and will continue late into the night. My colleague has

been out today talking to people living in the area about their fears

of living in high-rise blocks. That's right. I've been here all

day. I am now on the balcony of a low-rise block, just on Bromley

Road, as you can see right in front of the Grenfell Tower. I've been in

the area all day, speaking to people. Some local residents and

some from outside the area, who have come to offer their help and

support. I've also been speaking to firefighters, I spoke to some this

morning coming off shift. They've been here for 12 hours. They told me

when they arrived at this fire it was too dangerous to go in. Debris

was falling. It was only when riot police were able to make a tunnel

out of shields that they were able to enter the building. As you can

imagine, people living in this block saw exactly what happened next door,

as well as people living in all of these tower blocks. There are plenty

around here. The fire raises questions about the safety of

London's tower blocks. In 2009 there were recommendations made after a

similar fire in Southwark, but critics say some of the

recommendations haven't been followed, and lessons have not been

learned. Here is our correspondence Tom Edwards. Knowing full well, when

you are watching this that people are not going to be OK, that this

isn't going to be OK, this isn't going to end well... Yeah, it's

heartbreaking. REPORTER: Angela lives on the 90th

floor in the block opposite Grenfell Tower. After last night, she is now

extremely concerned about the fire risk in her own building -- 19th

floor. What came to mind at 3am this morning is what is the security

protocol in this building, if something similar were to happen?

What would I do and where would my parents go? How would we leave

quickly? This fire raises questions about London's housing stock. The

last major fatal fire was in Southwark in 2009 where six people

died. The coroner made recommendations,

there should be clarity of residents should stay put or get out.

Councils should retrofit sprinklers and simplify building regulations

about what can be changed. The chances of getting a fire are very

low... In 2010 the London assembly also highlighted concerns about the

capital's high-rise housing stock. We found that there was a relatively

low risk of actually having a fire in a tall loading. Really, you are

fairly safe but the problem is if there is a fire, advice is often not

given about the right way to behave and information not being given to

tenants by landlords and councils not giving advice to landlords.

According to city hall, 8% of London's population live in

high-rise flats, blocks over 11 stories tall. Around 690,000 people,

most were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But, more are now

planned for the future as the capital grows. There have been

changes. Southwark council says that it now gives a regular full fire

risk assessment to its blocks. But fire unions and campaigners have for

many years been calling for the government to review building

regulations. Lessons have not been learned. Today is an absolute

tragedy, and it is caused by the lack of proper regulation of

refurbishment standards. The government have been pressed for a

number of years by the all-party Parliamentary committee on safety.

To do a review of the building regulations, to test the integrity

of the materials used in refurbishment, and they have

continually put this off. The government says that work is still

ongoing. And, checks will not be carried out on blocks going through

similar refurbishments. But there is no anger and questions. What

happened in Latino house, after it had been

-- what happened in Southwark, the fire spread. It looks like that is

what happened in Grenfell Tower, it has been refurbished and the

compartmentalisation of the fire has been compromised, so it has spread

and people lost their lives. There has been a lot of publicity about

what should be done surrounding external cladding and making sure

that tower blocks are fire proved inside properly. And

compartmentalised, meaning that the fire should not spread beyond flats,

the fire should be contained for a period of time where people can be

evacuated or for the fire brigade to arrive and deal with the incident.

It is difficult to see why this has happened and there are not many

excuses. This man lives in the block opposite and hasn't been able to

contact a friend who lived in the tower. If you move to the right, you

can see there is a gap, where the smoke is right now. That is where he

used to live. It isn't clear why the fire happened, but it is a very

clear thing that safeguards clearly failed.

Tom Edwards, BBC News. As we've been hearing, this tower block underwent

a ?10 million refurbishment that was completed last year. Tonight, the

fire minister has said that they will carry out emergency checks on

all other tower blocks undergoing similar processes of refurbishment.

Part of the refurbishments included new cladding. Questions are now

being asked about the risks posed by that cladding. Gareth Fergie

reports. Arnold is a fire safety expert and

is about to carry out a test... What we are testing here is polyurethane

expanding foam... He's doing this because he has a theory about why

the fire spread so rapidly at the Grenfell Tower. It's to do with a

material that may have been used when cladding was fitted... The

rigid board insulation, that I believe is most likely to have been

used, is made from the same material, Polly Youth Arena. I'm

setting fire to this. This is the rate at which it burns. --

polyurethane. It is very rapid and is typically used in these kinds of

buildings. It was put out easy by an old, but it is a theory that these

buyers can quickly go out of control.

I have a theory that it has been clad with a flammable insulation

material on the exterior. Of course, there is no official statement on

because of the fire yet and its reason for such a rapid spread. But

three years ago, at a safety conference, he publicly warned that

cladding high-rise buildings could end in disaster. He now fears he may

have been proved right. It looks typical of a cladding related fire,

on the exterior of the property. All the external cladding has completely

gone. That is what you would expect if you've got flammable materials.

The principle of the design of the cladding is that it is there to

allow rain to effectively get in and run down the cavity. The problem is,

it also allows fire to spread up, and what will happen is it will

create a path for the fire to spread and encourage the fire to spread

faster and more intensely. A spokesperson for the contractors who

completed the refurbishment last year said it met all required

building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards. The

company Harley Facades Limited, also involved in the refurbishment, said

it would not be appropriate for it to comment or to speculate on any

aspect of the fire or its causes, in advance of the enquiries.

At this time, the company said it was not aware of any link between

the fire and the exterior cladding. Back here, across the road from Glen

fell tower, I'm joined by Jim Fitzpatrick, a former firefighter

who was part of the Parliamentary safety group -- Grenfell Tower. And

the Archbishop of Canterbury himself. What we are seeing is a

real coming together of people, of communities in the area to help

those affected? It has been the most extraordinary sight around here.

People selling at churches, but people from all faiths, using church

buildings, halls, whatever centres that they can find. Bringing things

aren't working together. Huge teams of volunteers working effectively

together. As someone said to me earlier, it is the community of

Christ in hospitality, in partnership with everybody else. And

everyone gets stuck in. Of course, this extraordinary work by the

emergency services, I've been talking to them, and just exhaustion

written across their faces. Stress, and yet courage. This is becoming

typical of London, how people come together. They forget their

differences. It is mosques, synagogue Law. -- Synagogues. It is

a tragedy but brings out the best in others? As we have seen, and in

Manchester, we saw everybody coming together. When there is a tragedy on

this scale. Just an outpouring of the most extraordinary love and

generosity, and people just getting stuck in. Putting their own

interests aside. It is incredible. Jim, you were a firefighter. What

were your thoughts when he heard of this fire this morning? I turned on

the TV at 5:45am and saw the pictures, I was horrified, like

anyone else. Who saw the same images. And there's awareness of a

state put thought, that some people say that they were told to stay put

in the tower block in case of a fire. What do you have to say about

that? That is the advice given to people. Every flat is contained, if

doors are up to the appropriate specifications, doors will give one

hour of safety for people inside. The normal advice is to stay

indoors. The fire brigade will have turned up and can take control of

the situation and make a decision. When they arrived at 1am, the fire

had a solid hold, the rapid spread meant that the advice changed and

people were trying to get out of the building. There are different advice

for different circumstances but normally it is safer to stay inside

of the flight you are in if a building catches on fire, until you

are advised by the emergency services of what to do. What do you

think of the moment, how do we stop something like that happening again?

Sprinkler systems will have prevented the fire going further

than one room in one flat. The fire in Southwark, 2009, where six people

died, the coroner made a lot of recommendations, some of which were

acted upon, others were not. The fire safety group and parliament

have asked for a review of building regulations in government since

2013. We are still pressing for that. The government will issue new

standards as buildings are different now to when this was built in 1974.

The London skyline shows different structures and materials. There are

different risks and we need to stay ahead of the curve, but that is not

what happened here. We could have prevented this. What is your advice

to people still looking for missing loved ones? Get help. Be alongside

with other people. Don't be by yourself. The pressure is so

extreme. Find someone, there are so many people around. Go to one of the

community centres, one of the churches and say you are looking.

They will sit with you. We have grief counsellors, doctors, all

kinds of people who will help you. Do not be by yourself. That is the

main advice. Secondly, to know that the whole country is standing at

your side, and grieving and worrying with you.

Archbishop, that is very good advice. We are all standing by their

sides. Thank you for your time this evening. For those looking for loved

ones, friends and family, the Metropolitan Police have opened a

dedicated line to help those people. It's the Metropolitan Police

casualty number, on the screen now, 0800 0961 233. It is also on the

Facebook page and on the BBC website. But now, it is time for the

weather forecast with Matt. Weather-wise, a fresher day across

London and in the surrounding areas. 27 degrees at Heathrow Airport,

dropping on Friday before temperatures climb as we head into

the weekend. Fresh air tomorrow, to the west of Ireland. This weather

front will come across as later through tomorrow. Tonight, southerly

winds, fairly light. It will be a fairly muggy night across the

region. Temperatures no lower than 16 or 17 degrees. It leads to dry,

sunny and warm starts on Thursday. A lot of blue skies overhead for the

morning rush hour. The most sunny part of the day is the morning.

Light winds, temperatures rapidly rise. Cloud will thicken from the

West, pushing across the capital and may produce the odd shower. Most

places will be dry and into the afternoon, breezy as sunshine

returns. Temperatures up to 25 for some time but dropping as we head

into the afternoon to 21 or 22 degrees. Fresh at this time tomorrow

night, and on Friday, high pressure builds in from the south once again.

We see temperatures of similar values on Friday, but at the weekend

they could climb above 30 degrees. A quick look at the outlook as we

finish Friday. The windiest conditions on Friday, winds easing

down as high-pressure built-in. Blue skies overhead, strong sunshine

overhead, and it could be the first time this year that we get above 30

degrees in the UK. Some of those high temperatures last into next

week as well. Back to Asad. This time yesterday, Grenfell Tower

was inhabited with hundreds of people, hard-working families

getting on with their daily business.

Now, it's a shell of a building destroyed by an intense fire. It is

a day where we have seen the best of Londoners coming forward and

devastated Londoners missing loved ones, looking for their families and

looking for those they love most. I will leave you with some images.

I will be back at 10:30pm on where people always seem to

understand what I do - Japan. I go there a lot and it's

a constant source of inspiration.