PM May orders public inquiry as Grenfell death toll rises to 17

LONDON — The death toll from the devastating fire in a West London apartment tower rose to 17 yesterday and rescue workers continued to search for the missing.

Prime Minister Theresa May ordered a public inquiry into the disaster, after coming under pressure as to whether the tragedy could have been prevented.

Smoke was still wafting out of the shell of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower yesterday, with firefighters facing hazardous conditions as they searched the charred building.

“Sadly I can confirm that the number of people who have died is now 17,” London police commander Stuart Cundy told reporters. He said that number was expected to rise.

Firefighters have said they did not expect to find any more survivors after rescuing 65 from Wednesday’s fire, which turned the social housing block — home to about 600 people — into a flaming torch in minutes.

Thirty-seven people remained in hospital, with 17 of them in critical care.

“Our absolute priority for all of us is identifying and locating those people who are still missing,” said Mr Cundy.

London Fire Brigade chief Dany Cotton said urban search units backed by specialist dog teams would scour the building as structural surveyors helped to make the tower safe.

The cause of the blaze, the worst in the British capital in a generation, was being investigated, although Mr Cundy said nothing suggested the fire was linked to terrorism.

Mrs May, already under pressure after a series of terrorist attacks and an election in which her Conservative Party lost its majority, said yesterday that a public inquiry was needed to ensure “this terrible tragedy is properly investigated”.

“We need to know what happened, we need to have an explanation of this,” she said. “People deserve answers. The inquiry will give them.”

She visited the scene earlier yesterday, as did opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Still, the political fallout from the tragedy intensified as Members of Parliament demanded to know why fire safety standards at the tower had not been more rigorous.

Residents say there had been repeated warnings about the safety of the building, which recently underwent a £8.7 million (S$15.3 million) exterior refurbishment, which included new external cladding and windows.

The many questions being asked now include whether a “stay put” fire protocol, which called for residents to remain in their apartments if there was a fire elsewhere in the building, might have turned a lethal fire even more deadly.

Other questions include what role aluminium exterior cladding might have played in the fire’s rapid spread; and whether sprinklers and alarm systems had been in place and functioning properly.

As donations of clothes and bedding poured in — with more than £1 million raised online for the victims in about 24 hours — frantic families and friends took to the press and social media to look for lost loved ones.

Among those still missing were a young Italian couple.

The building housed people from many countries, including Eritrea, the Philippines, Somalia and Sudan.

Ms Farah Hamdan, her husband Omar Belkadi and their six-month-old daughter are still unaccounted for, according to Farah’s father, Rkia.

“We’ve been to all the hospitals and we’ve been searching all day but we still haven’t found them. We just want to know they are safe,” he told The Sun. AGENCIES