Today, a tragedy happened in West London. As West London is my home town and where much of my time was spent before starting my own family, I wanted to express some feelings with the steemit community.
If you're unaware, an extremely serious fire tore through Grenfell Tower situated in Latimer Road, North Kensington W10, in the early hours of this morning, some of you may be familiar with The Nottinghill Carnival? Well, this is it's home.
(Photo taken from The Telegraph, 2017)
According to Haroon Sadique (The Guardian, 2017) their are 12 confirmed fatalities, 18 in critical condition and many people unaccounted for. The Sun newspaper (2017) believes there are no survivors from the top three floors of the tower block.
Through my own sources I discovered that a teacher working in the local school said five children were not at school today in her class alone, two of which in a critical condition due to smoke inhalation. News sources state many distressed and concerned people are unable to locate family members that lived in the block. The fire spread from the bottom to the top within thirty minutes, many people fearing the worst.
Although this is not confirmed, an exploding fridge on the 7th floor may be the cause. Recent renovation meant plastic cladding outside the building caused the fire to spread rapidly to the adjacent floors. In the event of a fire, residents of Grenfell Tower were instructed to stay in their homes. Due to these instructions many people stayed inside and could be heard screaming for their lives to be rescued. A baby was thrown from one of the windows and a man caught the baby, as were two young children. Witnesses described watching people jumping out the windows as the flames spread into each home. Other members of the public looked on in horror as the sound of young children screaming help could be heard, feeling helpless, all that they could do was watch as the firefighters made there way up to each floor.
(Image from The Telegraph,2017)
Community spirit....
In this particular area of west London there is a very strong community of many different ethnicities and from what I have read, watched and listened; today has made me proud to be a 'West Londoner'.
Through research I discovered that many people celebrating Ramadan were able to alert fellow neighbours of the fire which may have saved many lives!
Communities from all over London and the UK have donated thousands of items for the many victims off this terrible fire, some of which are now homeless with only the clothes on their backs. Many residents escaped wearing their pyjamas and underwear as were alerted in the middle of the night when most would be sleeping.
The community spirit is over whelming, many centres in the surrounding area of Grenfall Tower have collected clothes, food, toys, toiletries, blankets, money and more for all the people effected.
If you would like to donate please do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/kandcfoundation/grenfell-tower
The aftermath...
Although the community managed to show residents a small bit of light on such a traumatic and life changing day, what happens in three weeks time?
As the community centres are unable to home residents, supplies begin to run out and money is spent on hotel rooms; is when the true psychological and financial damage will begin to rear its ugly face to many of these innocent residents. From my point of view, I hope the council and government ensure these people are provided with on-going help and support over the next six months as the extent of the damage begins to surface for many residents of Grenfall Tower.
Peace and love to all.
Haroon Sadique, The Guardian (2017) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2017/jun/14/grenfell-tower-major-fire-london-apartment-block-white-city-latimer-road
The sun newspaper (2017) https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3794912/london-fire-grenfell-tower-latimer-road-latest-news/