London tower fire: 6 dead, Pinoys among injured

LONDON – A deadly night-time fire raced through a 27-story apartment tower in London early yesterday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more. Some desperate residents threw their children from high windows, hoping someone on the ground would catch them.

Filipinos were among those hurt in the fire, the Philippine embassy in London said.

“A number of them are in the emergency shelters at St. Clement’s Church, the St. Francis of Assisi Church and the Portobello Rugby Club on Walmer,” the embassy said in a statement.

Police commander Stuart Cundy said there were six confirmed fatalities, adding that the figure was likely to rise “during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days.”

People in the apartments cornered by the quickly advancing flames and thick smoke banged on windows and screamed for help to those watching down below, witnesses and survivors said.

Flames from the inferno lit up the night and smoke spewed from the windows of the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington where more than 200 firefighters battled the blaze and went into the building with breathing apparatus. A plume of black smoke stretched for miles across the pale sky after dawn, revealing the blackened, flame-licked wreckage of the building.

“This is an unprecedented incident,” Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters on the scene. “In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never, ever seen anything of this scale.”

The London Fire Brigade received the first reports of the fire at 12:54 a.m. and the first engines arrived within six minutes, she said. Flames could still be seen more than 10 hours later.

There was no immediate word on the cause, but angry residents said they had repeatedly warned about a potential fire threat. One resident said the fire alarm did not go off.

Samira Lamrani, a witness, said a woman dropped a baby from a window on the ninth or 10th floor to people on the sidewalk.

“People were starting to appear at the windows, frantically banging and screaming,” Lamrani said, and the woman gestured that she wanted to drop a baby. “Somebody did, a gentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby,” Lamrani told Britain’s Press Association news agency.

Ruks Mamudu, 69, escaped from her first floor apartment wearing only her purple pajamas and bathrobe. She and her grandson sat outside the building and watched people trapped on higher floors cry desperately for help. “I sat there watching my house burn down and watching people cry for help who couldn’t come down,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Philippine embassy said it would provide assistance to Filipinos affected by the fire.

The Department of Foreign Affairs had earlier said Filipinos may call the Casualty Bureau at ?(0800) 0961 233 or (0020) 7158 0197 for  information about their relatives in London.

The embassy may also be reached at its emergency number ?+44 7802 790695 and e-mail address [email protected]. – Pia Lee-Brago, AP, Reuters