Outrage grows as dozens feared dead in London blaze
16 Jun 2017-Dozens of people are feared dead in the London tower block fire as firefighters continued searching for bodies in the high-rise on Friday amid outrage over the use of cladding blamed for spreading the flames.
Police have confirmed that at least 30 people have died as a result of the blaze at in the 24-story Grenfell Tower. More than 70 people are unaccounted for. Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said that of those who were killed, one died in hospital, BBC reported.
Police have warned that some of the victims may never be identified because of the state of the remains, AFP wrote.
Firefighters were using drones and sniffer dogs to search the building, saying that some of the upper floors are still inaccessible for humans because of concerns about the stability of the structure.
The area surrounding the council-owned tower has been plastered by desperate relatives with pictures of the missing, from grandparents to young children, and large numbers of volunteers were assisting survivors.
Anger has grown about local residents' fire safety concerns being ignored for years.
The government has ordered a judge-led inquiry into Wednesday's disaster but is under pressure to act quickly.
"Something's gone wrong here, something's gone drastically wrong," Communities and Local Government Minister Sajid Javid told BBC Radio.
Javid said inspections of similar buildings had been ordered, with particular attention to the modern cladding used to beautify and add an insulation layer to ageing concrete and steel structures.
May under fire
Prime Minister Theresa May has come under criticism for not meeting residents when she visited the site on Thursday and locals yelled questions at mayor Sadiq Khan when he walked through the neighborhood.
The fire forced residents to flee through black smoke down the single stairwell, jump out of windows or even drop their children to safety.
Questions are growing about how the flames spread so quickly, engulfing the tower's 120 apartments in what fire chiefs said was an unprecedented blaze.
The focus of criticism is on the cladding fitted to external walls of the 1974 tower as part of a £8.7-million ($11-million, €9.9-million) refit completed last year.
According to the BBC, the cladding had a plastic core and was similar to that used by high-rise buildings in France, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, which had also suffered fires that spread.
The Times reported that the type of cladding used on the building was banned in US buildings taller than 40 feet (12.2 meters) because of fire safety fears.
It said the company that manufactured the cladding also made fire-resistant models that cost fractionally more than the standard version.
In addition to debate over the cladding, questions have also been raised over why there was no sprinkler system in the Grenfell Tower which could have helped stop the fire spreading, or any central smoke alarm system that would have woken sleeping residents.