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London fire: Death toll rises as police announce criminal investigation

Nick Miller

London: British Prime Minister Theresa May was rushed away under heavy police guard on Friday as protesters shouted "Shame on you" after she met residents who live near the Grenfell Tower block in London.

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Community rallies for London fire victims

While charities bemoan the lack of official direction for helping London fire vicitms, the community is pulling together in mourning and mutual support..

The death toll from the inferno that gutted the building on Wednesday is now up to 30, police said, as they revealed they were looking at possible criminal offences behind the fatal fire.

The protests came after London mayor Sadiq Khan wrote a furious letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, warning her the community affected by the fire was "increasingly angry" and felt "their grief has been made worse" by poor government response to the tragedy, leaving survivors homeless and other tower block residents terrified their homes were at risk.

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The anger in the Kensington community boiled over on Friday afternoon, with more than 500 protesters at the town hall – and some inside – complaining that in the country's richest borough some of its poorest people had been left without adequate support in a "chaotic" fire aftermath.

They chanted "we want action, we want justice", and "get some help".

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Mrs May had earlier announced a £5m ($8.4 million) fund for emergency supplies, food and clothing during a meeting with survivors.

"The package of support I'm announcing today is to give the victims the immediate support they need to care for themselves and for loved ones," she said in a statement.

"We will continue to look at what more needs to be done. Everyone affected by this tragedy needs reassurance that the government is there for them at this terrible time – and that is what I am determined to provide."

Mrs May also visited the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital which is treating eight survivors, three in critical care.

Police expect the death toll to rise even further, as the slow process of recovering the dead from the gutted 24-storey building continues.

The BBC reports 76 people are still missing.

At lunchtime Friday, Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said their investigation into the fire would "establish the facts and provide answers" as to the cause of the fire.

They will "look into what criminal offences may have been committed", he said, without giving details of who police suspect may be to blame for the fire, or what kind of offences they are investigating.

However he did say that specialist investigators have examined what they believe to be the original location where the fire started, and there was "nothing to suggest the fire was started deliberately".

On Thursday Labour MP David Lammy, who lost a friend in the fire, said the disaster was "corporate manslaughter" and called for arrests to be made.

Tower blocks such as Grenfell had been left in an unacceptable condition, he said.

"They haven't got easy fire escapes, they've got no sprinklers, it's totally, totally unacceptable in Britain that this is allowed to happen and people lose their lives in this way," he said. "People should be held to account."

Cdr Cundy said the death toll was now 30, up from 17 the day before.

One of the victims had died in hospital despite receiving the "very best medical care", he said.

There are still 24 people in hospital with injuries from the fire early on Wednesday morning, with 12 in critical care.

Police expect the death toll to rise further and were still collating calls from the public to try and determine exactly how many people were missing, Cdr Cundy said.

Only 12 of the victims have so far been taken to the mortuary as the other bodies remain at the tower.

All fires in the building have now been put out, but conditions inside the building were "particularly hazardous" for investigators, Cdr Cundy said, and it was going to take a considerable period of time to fully work through the tower, locate all the victims, recover their remains and complete the investigation.

He said they were working as quickly as they could.

"It's important that we can find the answers as to what has happened, and why," he said.

Richard Mills, Assistant Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said specialist teams were inside the building helping to recover victims and stabilise the building to allow access to the upper floors.

He was not prepared yet to comment on the cause of the fire, which has been widely reported to have started with an exploding fridge on the fourth floor.

He defended the work of firefighters on the night of the fire, saying they committed "as many resources as physically possible" into the building to try to rescue its inhabitants.

The most junior to the most senior firefighters at the scene were all committed to the rescue effort, he said.

"We did everything we possible could within the time-scale we had to carry out rescues," he said.

Cdr Cundy said emergency services made "very challenging decisions" and paid tribute to the bravery of firefighters who went into the building as it was consumed with fire.

London mayor Sadiq Khan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday, published on social media, telling her there was growing community anger over the government's response to the fire.

"I spent several hours yesterday talking to local residents around Grenfell Tower," he said. "These were difficult conversations with a tight-knit community that is understandably distraught, frustrated and increasingly angry. They feel the Government [sic] and local council haven't done enough to help them in the aftermath of this horrific incident, or to provide answers to their increasingly urgent questions.

"The local community feels their grief has been made worse by the lack of information about their missing family members and friends. They are fully aware of the true scale of this tragedy but cannot comprehend why they are not being given more information. There is also insufficient support for victims on the ground."

Khan said there was an urgent need for more victim support, and some residents had not been given new accommodation, or told it was available.

He had heard many stories of local residents being given conflicting advice by the local Kensington council, which appeared overwhelmed.

"The scale of this tragedy is clearly proving too much for the local authority to cope with on their own," Khan said.

He also said residents of other tower blocks were "terrified" about the risk of a similar fire, particularly those in buildings renovated with cladding similar to that blamed for helping the Grenfell blaze to spread.

The government needed to set out a clear timeline for the investigation of those buildings, and guarantee that residents would be re-homed immediately if a risk was identified, the mayor said.

"Finally, I would seek an assurance that if the (official) inquiry or police investigation finds any individual or organisation to have been negligent in their duties, then they will be prosecuted," Khan said.

He asked the Prime Minister to reply the same day.

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