London tower fire: Several killed, scores injured as blaze engulfs high-rise
Several people have died and over 50 people have been hospitalized after a huge fire ripped through a 24-storey London apartment block early on Wednesday, according to emergency services.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at Grenfell Tower, an apartment block located in the neighbourhood of Kensington, shortly after Tuesday midnight, reports Efe news.
London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said that a number of people are thought to have died.
“I am very sad to confirm that there have been a number of fatalities. I cannot confirm the number at this time due to the size and complexity of this building. It would clearly be wrong for me to speculate further.
“In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never ever seen anything of this scale,” Cotton said.
Councilor Nick Paget-Brown, who represents the area in which Grenfell Tower is located, said the tower block contains some 120 individual apartments, many of which house young families, meaning the number of people trapped by the blaze could run into the hundreds.
Some 200 firefighters and 40 fire trucks were deployed to the scene and emergency workers were battling to get the fire under control.
London’s Ambulance Service (LAS) said over 50 patients had been taken to five different hospitals across London following the blaze.
LAS Assistant Director Stuart Crichton said: “Over 100 of our medics are working hard to respond to this incident, including ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, advanced trauma teams from
London’s Air Ambulance and those staff managing the incident in our special operations centre.”
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HORROR:: #Grenfell Tower #London Eyewitness: We can see residents trapped & jumping#GrenfellTower firepic.twitter.com/I1R5uZgYao
— Zippy (@princezip) June 14, 2017