LONDON Through the night and deep into the day, the crackling fire raged, sweeping through apartments and destroying lives like an out-of-control inferno from an earlier century, or perhaps from a less-affluent part of the world.
But this was London. This was 2017. And Wednesdays fire was unlike any seen here in recent memory, a blaze that transformed a 24-story high-rise that was once home to about 500 people into a charred ruin on the citys otherwise gleaming skyline.
The fire marked a fresh trauma in a city already roiled by terrorist attacks, an unhappy and divisive political campaign, and the lingering uncertainty over Brexit, all of which seemed to endow the tragedy with an extra measure of dismay.
But it was also, residents of the Grenfell Tower public housing development bitterly said, the specific and predictable result of years of warnings that had gone unheeded, an emblem of a city that is neglecting its most vulnerable residents even as it increasingly caters to the whims of the ultra-rich.
In one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of London a short amble from the homes of celebrities and royals people living in one of the citys increasingly in-demand havens of affordable housing jumped from 20 floors up after being trapped by the advancing flames.
(Amber Ferguson,Karla Adam,Griff Witte/The Washington Post)
Children banged on closed windows as they were enveloped by the thick black smoke. A woman dropped her baby, desperately hoping someone would catch the infant in the street below.
By early evening, police said that 12 people had died and more than 70 had been injured. But with many people still unaccounted for, authorities said the toll was almost certain to rise.
The scenes of a skyscraper engulfed in flames on a picture-perfect, blue-sky day evoked memories of New York in September 2001. But there was no reason to think terrorism was a factor, authorities said.
The investigation, they said, would take time to assess what officials hinted could amount to a series of failures that, together, amounted to what London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton described as an unprecedented incident.
In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale, she said as the building continued to belch smoke that could be seen for miles around.
At least 40 fire engines responded to the scene, where 200 firefighters waged a futile battle to contain the blaze. As fiery debris rained from above, theyraced into the building wearing breathing tanks and searched floor by floor for survivors even amid concerns that the structure could collapse.
Outside, residents who had survived praised the firefighters but blamed the fire on official neglect. They said they had repeatedly raised fire safety concerns, which they said included the buildings inadequate escape routes, the absence of an integrated alarm system, and a renovation last year that they worried had left their building clad in panels that were shiny and new but not up to code.
Anyone who earns below 10million pounds a year is not human in this borough, said James Wood, a resident of an adjacent public housing development who said that he and people from Grenfell Tower had lobbied the local council to take the issue seriously, to no avail. They dont care about fire safety.
The Web page of the Grenfell Action Group, a residents organization, testified to the long-standing concerns, with blog entries stretching back years that warned of the dangers.
All our warnings fell on deaf ears, the group said in a post added Wednesday morning, hours after the fire broke out. We predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time.
The target of the groups ire the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organization, which runs public housing in the area on behalf of the local council issued a statement late in the afternoon in which it acknowledged that residents had earlier raised concerns and vowed to co-operate fully with all the relevant authorities in order to ascertain the cause of this tragedy.
[Could the catastrophic London high-rise fire have been prevented?]
Nick Paget-Brown, who leads the borough council, also acknowledged that residents had had long-standing concerns. He did not discuss them specifically, saying, There are always concerns about fire safety in high-rise buildings.
Paget-Brown told the BBC that there would be a thorough investigation into why the fire started and why it spread so quickly.
Although officials would not speculate, experts said Wednesday that their focus was on the buildings exterior cladding, which was supposed to be fireproof but which witnesses said had burned like paper, quickly transmitting the fire from unit to unit and from floor to floor.
It appears that the external cladding has significantly contributed to the spread of fire at Grenfell Tower, said Angus Law, an expert with the Building Research Establishment Center for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh.
Law said that British regulations are intended to halt the spread of fire between units and floors in high-rise buildings, but that when that fails, the consequences are often catastrophic.
Grenfell Tower, built in 1974, contained 120 units of publicly subsidized housing, with low- income and disabled residents given priority. It was one among a cluster of high-rises that stick out from the northern tip of leafy and stately Kensington, marking an unofficial western entry point to central London.
The first hint that something was wrong came just before 1a.m. when, according to a fourth-floor resident interviewed by the BBC, a neighbor knocked on the door to say his fridge had exploded.
Experts said firefighters should have had time to extinguish the blaze before it spread to other units. Instead, it leapt within minutes to other floors but somehow never triggered any building-wide alarms.
Hundreds of residents, many of whom were asleep when the blaze broke out, were forced to flee over the coming hours down a cramped, dark and smoky stairwell the buildings only escape route.
Adeeb, who declined to give his last name, said he learned of the fire only when his daughter woke him in their ninth-floor apartment.
She said, I can see fire, and I opened the door and could see smoke, said Adeeb, who is from Syria but has lived in Britain for 16 years. It was like a horror movie. Smoke was coming from everywhere.
Adeeb, who is on crutches, hobbled to safety with his wife and three daughters. One daughter was later hospitalized.
Others were not nearly as fortunate. Several residents said emergency responders had ordered them to stay inside, in keeping with the buildings protocol for fires. But the protocol assumes that a blaze will be contained, not that it will consume the entire building.
Throughout the morning, witnesses reported harrowing scenes as residents trapped on top floors leaned out windows, flashing their cellphone lights and calling frantically for help.
Wood, the resident of an adjacent building who said he had lobbied the local council, said he saw a woman on about the 13th floor holding a baby out a window until all hope of a rescue had passed.She dropped the baby, he said. Im hoping it was into someones arms. But I dont think the mother made it.
The 32-year-old graphic designer also said he saw children, about 5 years old, banging on a closed window.
And then it was black smoke. It was all up in flames, he said. I know they didnt make it.
Read more:
Londons burning, but this fire wasnt so Great.
Londons first Muslim mayor stays calm amid terrorist attacks
The new theory about Oaklands deadly Ghost Ship warehouse fire
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Read the original post:
An inferno seemingly from another time or place kills 12 in London - Washington Post
- 'Immaculate' ending explained: Was the baby a demon? - Business Insider - April 2nd, 2024
- 10 Horror Movies That Would Have Ended Earlier If Their Heroes Were Smarter - CBR - Comic Book Resources - April 2nd, 2024
- Terrifier 3 director reveals they filmed 'most insanely horrific scenes' that nearly made lead actor vomit on set - UNILAD - April 2nd, 2024
- The Latest Stephen King Horror Movie Has A Killer Cast And Director - SlashFilm - April 2nd, 2024
- THE FIRST OMEN 2024: Release Date, Cast, Plot, And Everything You Need to Know - FANGORIA - April 2nd, 2024
- Sting Review | Excellent Creature Feature with an Emotional Backdrop - MovieWeb - April 2nd, 2024
- IMMACULATE Interview with Director Michael Mohan, Discussing the Making of the Film, Reactions to the Ending, and ... - Daily Dead - April 2nd, 2024
- Mood 'Windigo' - Book and Film Globe - April 2nd, 2024
- A 2016 Thriller Is The Top Movie On Netflix Right Now - HuffPost - April 2nd, 2024
- 10 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching Beetlejuice, 36 Years Later - Screen Rant - April 2nd, 2024
- All the Horror Movies We Can't Wait To See in 2024 - The Mary Sue - April 2nd, 2024
- A Buzzy Korean Horror Movie Is Sneakily One Of The Biggest Box Office Hits Of 2024 - SlashFilm - April 2nd, 2024
- Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 3 horror movie confirmed, after second film debuted to a surprise perfect Rotten ... - Gamesradar - April 2nd, 2024
- Fear Street 4 Is Reviving An Old Horror Trend That Was Perfected 48 Years Ago - Screen Rant - April 2nd, 2024
- Lisa Frankenstein Hides The Fact That It Cast The Real Star Of 2023's Viral $181 Million Horror Movie - Screen Rant - April 2nd, 2024
- Finally, Someone Confirms That A Sequel To HELLRAISER Is In The Works - FANGORIA - April 2nd, 2024
- We're definitely hard at work on: Hellraiser Sequel Promises to Be Even More Terrifying as Producer Vows to Take ... - FandomWire - April 2nd, 2024
- Future Chucky Movie Will Connect To The Series, Says Don Mancini - Screen Rant - April 2nd, 2024
- After Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, Freddy and Jason Need to Cameo in the Poohniverse - MovieWeb - April 2nd, 2024
- Chucky Creator Reveals He is Working on a New Child's Play Movie: 'Whatever Keeps Me Working' - MovieWeb - April 2nd, 2024
- AI In Late Night With The Devil Sparks Controversy - Forbes - March 24th, 2024
- A horror movie based on a Stephen King novel with a disappointing Rotten Tomatoes score is climbing Netflix's top 10 - Gamesradar - March 24th, 2024
- This is why we're so obsessed with nuns in horror movies - according to the official source, a nun - Gamesradar - March 24th, 2024
- Stephen King reveals the one horror movie he couldn't sit through as he was too scared - UNILAD - March 24th, 2024
- Late Night With the Devil directors address the use of AI art in the film - JoBlo.com - March 24th, 2024
- David Dastmalchian on Late Night with the Devil, The Life of Chuck and Good Fiend Films - Kansas City Pitch - March 24th, 2024
- Welcome to the Poohniverse: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey Team to Unite Pooh, Bambi, Tinkerbell and More in Low-Budget Horror Crossover (EXCLUSIVE)... - March 24th, 2024
- Late Night with the Devil is the best horror movie of the year so far - Yahoo Movies Canada - March 24th, 2024
- Sydney Sweeney 'wanted to be drenched in blood' in 'Immaculate' - Entertainment Weekly News - March 24th, 2024
- Film of the Week: 'Stopmotion' - The best horror film of 2024 so far - Euronews - March 24th, 2024
- How to Watch Immaculate: Is the Sydney Sweeney Movie Streaming? - TheWrap - March 24th, 2024
- THE FIRST OMEN: A Battle With The Devil And An NC-17 Rating FANGORIA - FANGORIA - March 24th, 2024
- Elevated Horror: The New Wave of Artful Scares Taking Over Hollywood - LRM Online - March 24th, 2024
- Late Night With the Devil Plot Explained: The True Meaning of the Movie - The Direct - March 24th, 2024
- David Chase is directing his first film in 12 years. Its a horror movie. - NJ.com - March 24th, 2024
- Us Was The Box Office Hit That Gave Jordan Peele True Power In Hollywood - SlashFilm - March 24th, 2024
- Cast of 'Gremlins': Catch Up With the Stars of the '80s Hit - First For Women - March 24th, 2024
- 'Immaculate' Review: Sydney Sweeney Is Wide-Eyed but Sly - The New York Times - March 24th, 2024
- Sydney Sweeney explains that bloody 'Immaculate' ending - Entertainment Weekly News - March 24th, 2024
- When Will Sydney Sweeney's Horror Film, 'Immaculate,' Be Available to Stream? - AOL - March 24th, 2024
- Blumhouse to Return Insidious and Other Titles to Theaters for Halfway to Halloween Fest - Hollywood Reporter - March 16th, 2024
- Every Movie In The Wrong Turn Franchise Ranked - SlashFilm - March 16th, 2024
- Blumhouse Celebrating 'Halfway to Halloween' With Five Horror Movies Returning to 100 AMC Movie Theaters - Bloody Disgusting - March 16th, 2024
- DeWanda Wise Sings Creepy Theme Of New Horror Film: 'Imaginary' - The Root - March 16th, 2024
- Hostel: Part II (2007) WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? - JoBlo.com - March 16th, 2024
- New LEPRECHAUN Movie Will Be Funny, Scary And Full Of Practical Effects - FANGORIA - March 16th, 2024
- Blumhouse Celebrating Halfway to Halloween With Five Horror Movies Returning to 100 AMC Movie Theaters - IMDb - March 16th, 2024
- The Horror Nail-Biter On Max With A Controversial Ending - Giant Freakin Robot - March 16th, 2024
- "Says the person who was in Madame Web": Sydney Sweeney is Getting Skewered for Saying Modern Horror Movies ... - FandomWire - March 16th, 2024
- First trailer for horror movie reboot The Crow features an unrecognizable Bill Skarsgrd on a bloody mission of revenge - Gamesradar - March 16th, 2024
- You'll Never Find Me Is Unforgettable Horror, See The Terror In Action - Giant Freakin Robot - March 16th, 2024
- The First Omen star has seen all of your internet theories about the horror movie prequel and, well, they're all wrong - Gamesradar - March 16th, 2024
- Sltface take on horror movies with their new single, 'Final Grl' - Dork Magazine - March 16th, 2024
- From 'Five Nights at Freddy's' to 'Imaginary': Why Blumhouse loves PG-13 horror - theday.com - March 16th, 2024
- The First Omen's Big Death Reveal Really Doesn't Bode Well For The Prequel - Screen Rant - March 16th, 2024
- 20 Scariest Horror Movies to Come Out in the Last 5 Years - MovieWeb - March 16th, 2024
- 'The Animal Kingdom' Exclusive Clip Previews the Gnarly Body Horror of Magnet's New Movie - Bloody Disgusting - March 16th, 2024
- 'Oddity' Review: This Supernatural Horror Film Will Tear You To Pieces | SXSW 2024 - Collider - March 16th, 2024
- "Marketing is failing this movie tremendously": David Dastmalchian's Late Night With the Devil Dubbed as One of the ... - FandomWire - March 16th, 2024
- STOPMOTION is a handcrafted tale of beauty and horror - Moviejawn - March 16th, 2024
- Horror Lovers Will Love this Dining Spot in Texas - klaq.com - March 8th, 2024
- Is Late Night With The Devil Based On A True Story? - Screen Rant - March 8th, 2024
- Kooky King: 6 of the Weirdest Stephen King Film Adaptations - Nightmare on Film Street - March 8th, 2024
- The Unknown, the Viral Willy Wonka Experience Villain, Is Already Getting Their Own Horror Movie - IGN - March 8th, 2024
- 13 Original Horror Movies We Can't Wait to See in 2024 - Screen Rant - March 8th, 2024
- From 'Imaginary' to 'Five Nights at Freddy's.' Why Blumhouse loves PG-13 horror - Los Angeles Times - March 8th, 2024
- Imaginary Movie Review: M3gan Meets The Boogeyman - Mama's Geeky - March 8th, 2024
- Christopher Nolan Originally Conceived Inception As A Horror Movie - SlashFilm - March 8th, 2024
- 'Whalefall' Movie in the Works From 'No One Will Save You' Director Brian Duffield - The Mary Sue - March 8th, 2024
- Horror Movie Based On THE UNKNOWN From Glasgow's WILLY WONKA Experience In The Works Horror Movie ... - CBM (Comic Book Movie) - March 8th, 2024
- Horrifying 'Late Night With The Devil' Trailer Released - Outkick - March 8th, 2024
- Imaginary review: M3GAN, take the wheel - Dexerto - March 8th, 2024
- The Unknown: Horror Movie Based on Unofficial Willy Wonka Experience Is in the Works - ComingSoon.net - March 8th, 2024
- Imaginary Film Review: Light on Frights - Loud And Clear Reviews - March 8th, 2024
- Dead Mail Directors on Their '80s Horror Influences - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- HORROR BEAT: Blumhouse offers a non-update on the future of THE EXORCIST - Comics Beat - March 8th, 2024
- And the Oscar for best picture doesn't go to ... horror! - NPR - March 8th, 2024
- Shaitaan OTT Release: When And Where To Watch R Madhavan And Ajay Devgn Starrer Horror Thriller Film - Indiatimes.com - March 8th, 2024
- The 'Wonka Experience' Is Being Turned Into A Horror Movie - UPROXX - March 8th, 2024
- 8 new horror movies on Netflix, Max, Shudder and more in March 2024 - TechRadar - March 8th, 2024
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero