Massive Fire in London Apartment Building, At Least Six Killed
LONDON (AP) — A fast-moving overnight fire engulfed a
24-story apartment tower in London on Wednesday, killing at least six people
and injuring 74 others, police said. Desperately trying to avoid the flames,
residents threw babies and small children from high windows to people down on
the sidewalk, witnesses said.
The inferno lit up the night sky and spewed black smoke from
the windows of the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, where more than 200
firefighters battled the blaze. The smoke stretched for miles (kilometers)
across the sky after dawn, revealing the blackened, flame-licked wreckage of
the building, which was still burning over 12 hours later.
People trapped by the advancing flames and thick smoke
banged on windows and screamed for help, witnesses and survivors said. One
resident said the fire alarm did not go off — bolstering the arguments of a
community group, which only months ago had warned of a potential catastrophe at
the subsidized housing block.
"The flames, I have never seen anything like it, it
just reminded me of 9/11," said Muna Ali, 45. "The fire started on
the upper floors ... oh my goodness, it spread so quickly. It had completely
spread within half an hour."
"This is an unprecedented incident," Fire
Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters. "In my 29 years of being a
firefighter I have never, ever seen anything of this scale."
She said she feared more victims would be found still inside
the tower, where up ...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Gregory Katz and Danica Kirka, Associated Press Tags: Major Incidents News Source Type: news