Several people have been confirmed dead and more are missing following the fire at Grenfell Tower in north Kensington overnight, which left a further 50 people in hospital.
Survivors have described how the building's fire alarms were not working at all - and sprinklers also failed. It has also emerged that the block's residents were told to 'stay put' in their flats in case of the fires, and the only stairwell used in the evacuation may have been blocked. Residents said that they were only alerted to the fire, which broke out after 12 A.M., by neighbours banging on doors or phone calls from people living in the area who saw the tower was alight.
Paul Munakr lives on the 7th floor and told BBC News: 'I managed to get out the building, not by a fire alarm, or something like that, it was by people down below screaming to people, don't jump, don't jump off the building.
'Now, honestly I don't know for certain if people jumped off the building to get away from the fire, but the main thing for me with this incident is the fact that the fire alarms didn't go off in the building.'
Jon Hall, former chief fire officer for the Midlands, who advised David Cameron's government, said today that "this is a Third-World type accident that represents a failure of every component of fire safety & building management."