TWENTY-FOUR hours after the alarm first sounded, at around 1am yesterday morning firefighters finally doused the blaze that had taken hold of the 24-story Grenfell Tower high rise in West London.
At the time of going to press the death toll was 17, but it will likely increase significantly over the next few days.
At one point police said they had 400 people reported missing, though said it would be wrong to suggest that would mean 400 deaths.
It is believed there has been much duplication in that figure. One person was reported missing 46 times.
Many of those missing are elderly, many of them on the higher floors, many of them following the official advice to “stay put”.
One of those missing is five-year-old Isaac Shawo.
His mother Genet Shawo was making her way down to safety from their 18th floor flat, with her husband and with Isaac, and three-year-old Luca.
Isaac was holding a neighbour’s hand and got lost in the thick black smoke, his mother told the Evening Standard.
“I will not fear the worst. I am still hoping and praying for him. He is a beautiful boy,” she told the paper.
Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered an immediate full public enquiry into what happened, and why it happened.
“People deserve answers,” she said. “The inquiry will give them.”
May faced fierce criticism after visiting the site in North Kensington but failing to make time to meet any of the survivors.
May spoke police and firefighters in a tightly controlled visit, while Jeremy Corbyn and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan spent time meeting with families and residents and some of the thousands of Londoners who have rushed to the scene to help out.
Locals and volunteers are furious.
There has seemingly been little organisation or reaction from local authorities to the tragedy. Many spent their second night in temporary accommodation.
Labour’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman said that it was “not OK” for the Prime Minister to go to the area but not meet residents.
“Theresa May should have met Grenfell Fire residents. She should have been prepared to listen to them Not OK to speak at them via TV.”
After meeting with residents Corbyn issued a statement saying: “I feel very angry that it was possible for the fire to spread in the way it did. I feel very angry that so many lives have been lost when the system didn’t work.
“The many residents I met today are very angry too; their concerns about the building were not responded to and their questions were not answered. They asked me to speak for them when I get back to Parliament and I will make sure I do”.
Six victims have been recovered and identified, their bodies found outside the building, while 11 have been located inside but cannot be removed.
Briefing press, Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said: “It may be — and I just don’t know — it may be that ultimately some victims remain unidentified.
“I won’t know that until we’ve gone through the full recovery from Grenfell Tower and we know exactly what we’ve got and I anticipate that is going to take a considerable period of time.
“Not just the immediate recovery of the bodies we have found but the full search of that whole building we could be talking weeks we could be talking months — it is a very long process.
“There is a risk that sadly we may not be able to identify everybody.”
He refused to speculate on whether the total number dead would reach triple figures, he said: “From a personal perspective, I really hope it isn’t, for those of us that have been down there, it’s pretty emotional, so I hope it is not triple figures, but I can’t be drawn on the numbers.”
“It would be wrong for me to get into numbers that I do not believe are accurate. We do believe that that number [17] will sadly increase.”
The first victim was named as 23-year-old Syrian refugee Mohammed Alhajali.
In a statement, the Syria Solidarity Campaign said the civil engineering student had been in his home on the 14th floor when the fire broke out.
He followed the advice issued to residents and stayed inside his flat, where he spent two hours on the phone to a friend in Syria.
Meanwhile. the former chair of the Grenfell Tower residents’ association said their warnings of the risks of a catastrophic fire had been ignored by the authorities.
David Collins, who moved out of the building last year said the tenant management organisation and council had been told about structural issues with the building following the cladding. I just want people to know that if they had listened to the residents, and acted upon what was told to them, it could have been different,” he said.
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