Fire. In my 29 years in the London Fire Brigade i have never seen a fire of this nature and i have seen many high rise fires. Around 70 people are being treated in six london hospitals, 18 of them are in a Critical Condition. In the us, a gunman opens fire on republican members of congress during a Baseball Practice in virginia. The attacker is killed by Police Officers. We are united in our shock. We are united in our anguish. We are united in our shock. We are united in ouranguish. An we are united in our shock. We are united in our anguish. An attack on one of us is an attack on all others. Of us. 21 hours after this fire started in g ru nfeld 21 hours after this fire started in gru nfeld tower, the 21 hours after this fire started in grunfeld tower, the fire is still blazing. The fire service had been working tirelessly to put the fire out. They have managed to get a hydraulic Crane Imposition and they are firing water remotely into the upperfloors of are firing water remotely into the upper floors of the Apartment Block, but the state of it at the moment, this wreckage of a building tells you it will take them some time to get in there and fully account for the people that are missing. Let me remind you of where this Apartment Block is in relation to west london. Grenfell tower is part of a Social Housing complex of nearly 1,000 homes near the Westfield Shopping Centre in west london. Our home editor mark easton now reports and a warning, there are distressing images, from the start of his piece. Oh my god, theyre screaming. It is a tragedy that plays to our darkest fears. The fire started between midnight and 1am. The screams from the flats and the acrid smell of burning, waking neighbours. It was just people jumping out, literally. And putting sheets down to try to get out of the building. Windows exploding, big, massive pieces of debris falling to the floor. We came here, Saw People Jumping Off. You Saw People Jumping Off . People had jumped off because they had no other option. How high up . The top floor. I saw people jump. Someone was on fire and he jumped too. He didnt make it. Some people picked up their children and threw them out for the police to pick them up because there was no other way out of the building. Did you see that as well . I saw kids at the window shouting, help me, help me, i cant breathe. Help me. And all these people have lost people in their lives and i know how that feels, yes. My heart goes out to them. The fire raced through the 2a Storey Council block in this deprived part of North Kensington. On the seventh floor, this family were led to safety when a fire officer made it up to their flat. There was smoke everywhere, people screaming. The neighbours were coming out. There was a fireman there going, get out, get out. Iran back in in my boxer shorts, grabbed the little girl, put her under my Dressing Gown to cover her face from the smoke, got my girlfriend up, running down, got to the fourth floor and it was pitch black. With dawn, grim, is expected news, that lives have been lost. Im looking for my brother. You dont know if he is ok . Many people, numb with shock, frantically searched to find missing friends and relatives. This womans sister and 12 year old nephew were unaccounted for. My sister and her son. He is 12 years old. A 12 year old boy . As well as the smoke and the smell of burning, numb, shock and tension hangs over this area. In the 21st century, in a country with some of the strictest Fire Regulations in the world, a desperate tragedy like this just should not happen. What floor are you on 7 seven . Seven, yeah . Well into the morning, the crowds watching the horror unfolding in front of them reported seeing people still trapped in the block. I saw somebody there. Waving, in white. In a white shirt . Yes. A man was eventually brought out by the Emergency Services at noon. This off duty nurse helped tend to some of the injured rescued from the building. I have seen some things, but today. I cant even describe it. There are mothers that have come out and lost their children. There are firefighters that have come out injured. We dont know if they are even going to come out safe. People have lost their homes, children have seen things, people jumping out the window. We just need to rebuild as a community now. This is a neighbourhood that feels ignored. There is anger on the streets. People are demanding answers. This is your building, isnt it . We have a number of high rise buildings here and in other parts of london. We do have to meet stringent Safety Standards, and in a refurbishment there will be a thorough inspection by the fire authorities. Doesnt seem to have worked . It clearly hasnt, we will have to get the bottom of what has gone wrong. The mayor of london promised there will be a thorough and independent investigation into what happened. My thoughts and prayers, as i am sure the thoughts and prayers the entire country, with the family and friends of those in the building and affected by this and horrific fire. I would also pay tribute to the amazing Emergency Services, from the fire service, we have more than 250 firefighters, many of whom have been here since the beginning. The streets of North Kensington are littered with ashes. The Charred Ashes of homework of a school child. But the neighbourhood is also scarred by grief that will not pass for a long, long time. We must prepare ourselves for the eventuality that the death toll will rise. It is 12 at the moment but they havent been able to search all of the upper floors of this Apartment Block and there are many people missing and accounted for. We must be prepared for that. Let me introduce you to chris myers. He is a forensic architect. My specialist areas in is looking into how things go wrong in buildings, and stop them going wrong. In the case of a fire i would often be involved after the fire, understanding what happened, how was it constricted and design. Looking at some of the remnants we have, looking at the drawings and working out why it was the fire occurred and spread in the way it did. With the necessary caveats, we cannot jump to conclusions did. With the necessary caveats, We Cannotjump to conclusions because we do not know the whole story, but if you were to cast your professional eye on that, what would you say happened . Firstly, i am surprised to see the extent of the fire, how widely it burned through the building and as i understand it, rapidly as well. We would expect to see less fire spread and that allows the fire brigade to attend and bring it under control before it spread so widely round the building. We need to understand how it was built and constructed to the exterior. We have seen how that burned. But we should not forget about the interior. Because the spread of smoke within the building can be very damaging and ultimately fatal to people as well. So if smoke escapes through corridors and escapes staircases, that can put people at risk. We have become Amateur Experts on rainproof cladding. There were incidents in dubai earlier in the year at a hotel where this cladding proved to be a problem. What went wrong there . We have not yet seen the full forensic report on the address in dubai. The cladding there was a different type of cladding from that which is permitted here. It was a more compost above cladding with a higher risk of burned. That was permitted in dubai and the uae up until 2012, so in dubai and the uae up until 2012, so the older stock there had a higher risk of burning. What you see on the outside is a three layer sandwich with two layers of aluminium and then it is the call between the layers of aluminium which is critical in terms of fire resistance. But what we see on the outside is part of the external cladding system. So behind that we have a void which is normally ventilated and then insulation as well. Does it work like a flue . That is the risk. If it doesnt work behind the cladding, we could have a chimney, in fact. Which is why we saw, in the space of half an hour, we saw the smoke and flames leaping from one floor to another. If you ta ke from one floor to another. If you take these Cladding Systems, if the horizontal subdivision is not installed , horizontal subdivision is not installed, the fire can spread quickly behind the facade, so it is behind the cladding and breaking out higher up the building. But we are speculating because we dont know fully. The point about the state Put Instruction that exists in a building like this where residents are supposed to stay in their Apartment Blocks, is because those units are supposed to be fireproof foran units are supposed to be fireproof for an hour. That certainly didnt happen . We will have to look at the reports, but that is certainly the case. We have to look at fire and smoke, because the people may have been affected by smoke as much as fire. They should be fireproof, they have fire resistant construction and fireproof doors. As well as staying put you have a protected means of escape. Once you are in the corridor and the escape stairs, you should be ina and the escape stairs, you should be in a place of safety. Somebody told me that if this building had been built three years earlier, it might have collapsed. They changed the Building Structures in the 1970s after a similar incident, so how is this Building Difference . This building was built in 1974 and the regulations changed in order to allow for the sacrificial element in the structure. The structure is designed to accommodate this. Having said that, i would expect as part of the investigation, the structure in this building will have to be carefully reviewed to see if it can still withstand the loads required because the fire may have affected the steel . Surely they will have to demolish it . It is a wreck on the outside, i cannot say for certain. Spare a thought this evening for those hundreds of people who have lost everything, their Worldly Possessions and they dont have a place to stay in the weeks ahead. They will have some Emergency Accommodation the night, but they will have to plan in the days and weeks ahead and it will be difficult, bearing in mind what they have been to. Many are being put up at community centres, churches and mosques around this area. Lucy manning has been taking a look at that and meeting the people searching for their loved ones. The air was punctuated with the sound of crying. Some have lost their home. Others, much, much more. They gathered outside the community centre. The one thing nobody could offer was good news. For this family, it was, understandably, to much. My mum, my sister, her daughters and husband. Yeah. They are all still in the building. I dont know if they are out, we dont have any information. Susan gave us this picture of her three smiling neices. What floor were they on . The 27th. You havent been able to contact them . I phoned my sister when she was in, all i could hear was screaming. I was trying to tell her, get out, get to the nearest fire exit. I am shouting, so she can hear. The Police Officers heard me shouting on the phone. I reallyjust wanted to go in there, basically, do something. I felt helpless, standing there. A blanket, at least. People jumping at the window. In the last hour, she heard news that someone might have spoken to her family. She is hoping it is true. After the panic of the night, the day brought only silence. I havent seen my brother in law, his wife and three children. The children are aged 20, the boy is 20. A girl of16, 17. A boy of eight years. He spoke to them as they were trapped. I said, why are you not coming . She said, they asking us to stay. She said her husband was talking to the emergency people. They said, they are coming to get us, but the heat and smoke is coming. I said, get a wet blanket, put the kids on the floor and cover them and wait. She said, we cant do it, because the smoke is killing us, the smoke is coming. The smoke is coming through the doors. She is keeping covering it, but it is heavy. That was the last time we have heard from her. For those on the lower floors that did make it out, and to the centre, some relief. I woke up at about 12. 45, hearing, help me, a woman screaming, my baby, my baby, and the sounds of chaos. The police were knocking on the doors, evacuate, evacuate. We felt we had to get the hell out of here, it is going up. Ed was saved by his friend calling him and telling him to leave. The smoke was so thick, you couldnt see anything. I got three quarters of the way and then i was using my hands to feel against the wall. I began thinking to myself, this is going to be me, you know . Im going to die of smoke inhalation. There was actually a Fireman Lying on the ground. This fireman, he saved my life. He just touched my foot and led me to where the fire exit was. Ed was instrumental in raising concerns about the safety of the building years ago. This accident never needed to happen. If people listened to what we were saying, what the blog was saying, what members of the community were saying. Inside the centre, those waiting for news or have lost their homes are gathered downstairs in the hall. As you can imagine, it is a fairly distressing situation. At times, people are sobbing as they wait for news. News that, at this stage, will possibly not be good news. It is also busy in there. They are getting help with housing, with food, and the medical help. They have no homes to go back to. Now, it is notjust the Burnt Out Building that looms over this community, but the fear that they will hear that many more of their neighbours have died. The Fire Investigation will begin in earnest and they will look at where the fire began and write it spread so the fire began and write it spread so quickly. Plenty of anger in this community. Theresa may has promised a full investigation and were lessons need to be learned, they will be learned. I have just received the latest update. 12 people have been confirmed dead in this terrible fire that has taken place and sadly the Police Expect that number to rise further. My thoughts are with the victims, theirfamilies further. My thoughts are with the victims, their families and all of those who have had their homes destroyed. It is impossible to comprehend the horror of what they have been going through. The response of People Living nearby who have provided help, compassion and support has shown the fantastic spirit of london. Earlier today i ordered a cross government meeting to manage the Emergency Service response and back group will meet again tomorrow. Once again, our Emergency Services, our fire service, ambulance, nhs and police have shown incredibly bravery working in appalling conditions. In their work will continue for some time and everybody will want to join me in thanking them for their amazing bravery. Many people will be working round the clock in the nhs to treat those who have been injured and working elsewhere to provide help and support to those who have no home to home to return to. Of course, once the scene is secure, once the recovery is complete, then an investigation will take place into the cause of the fire and if there are any lessons to be learned. Until then, our focus must there are any lessons to be learned. Until then, ourfocus must be on ensuring the Emergency Services have what they need to continue with their harrowing work and that help and support is being provided to all those who have suffered as a result of this tragedy. Prime minister, theresa may speaking a short time ago. Lets remind ourselves how events the day. Lets cross to ros atkins in our Central London studio for a closer look at what we know about the cause of the fire and the building. Lets find out what we know about the tower. It is in North Kensington in the west of london. You can see that next door to the tower are a number of football pitches, and number of football pitches, and number of football pitches, and number of other Residential Properties as well. The first time Emergency Services knew about this fire was via a Telephone Call at just before 1am but the situation was escalating and the entire building became engulfed in flames very quickly. It has raised concerns about the structure of this tower. This is an Architectural Design of the building. We have marked the fourth floor in green because that is where it is believed the fire originated. We note 20 stories are residential. Each floor typically has six flats. Making 120 in the building in total. We know these Council Flats are managed building in total. We know these councilflats are managed by building in total. We know these Council Flats are managed by the Kensington And Chelsea tenant Management Organisation. They act on behalf of the royal borough of Kensington And Chelsea. We note the borough funded refurbishments to the cost of £10 million. He is a council are talking about that. It has been recently refurbished and clad. They replaced the kitchens and the heating system. I would have thought it would have been the safest tower block in the borough. We have had fires in tower blocks before, but nothing like this. You heard about the council are talking about new cladding and there is a lot of attention on this cladding and it may have contributed to the speed at which the fire spread. This building did not burn as experts would have expected it to. One expert speaking to the bbc saying they didnt perform in the way you expect the building to perform. The expected to be contained to an individual department, but something has gone dramatically wrong. We have heard from the company who carried out these building works. We know several months ago, residents raised the latest in a long line of safety concerns they had about living in this building. This is a blog post from November 2016 written by the Grenfell Action Group and it raises specific Spire Safety Concerns and accuses the landlord of the tower, the same Management Organisation i mentioned a little while ago, and it signs off by saying the action group predicts it wont be long before the words of this post come back to haunt the management. Here is a former member of that group speaking earlier. So many concerns, concerns about the locations of heat interface units. Concerns about escaping and getting in and out. Concerns about lighting. I have heard the fire alarms did not go off in the building. To tell you, i wasnt surprised. Shocked, terrified, all the People Living here, but not surprised. This is fire Action Advise in Grenfell Tower. It is posted all over the building. It tells residents there isa building. It tells residents there is a State Put Policy unless the fire is in or affecting your flat. If there is a fire within the tower, u nless if there is a fire within the tower, unless it is immediately affecting your situation, stayed put. It is a policy applied to many tower blocks in the uk since the 1950s. It is based on the assumption when we had the fire experts talking a moment ago, ifa the fire experts talking a moment ago, if a fire does begin it can be contained in its place of origin within the building. Evidently and tragically, that didnt happen last night. And the role this advice played in the loss of life, along with many other policies and decisions that have led up to this fire, christian, are certainly to be urgently reviewed in the coming days, weeks and months. The light is starting to fade here in west london. As it does, we can see the fire is still burning. Six or seven floors down from the top of the building. Some quite fierce fires still burning. Obviously under control now, not raging in the way they were earlier in the day, but there are pockets in the building that firefighters, the men and women who have been tackling those blazers, wont be able to reach. I did say they have got a hydraulic crane in place next to the tower and they firing water into pockets of they firing water into pockets of the building to try and dampen down those flames. It is a treacherous environment for the firefighters because there is all manner of debris and masonry falling off this building, as there has been throughout the day. We saw firefighters going into the area around the building with Plastic Shields over their heads. Lets talk about the building itself. It is Still Standing and it is, we believe, structurally secure. Why might that be . Lets talk to a civil engineer. I did mention earlier, had this building being constructed a few years earlier, it might not still be standing . That is correct. What happened, the roman point collapse, a partial collapse of one corner of a building, all of the kitchens in one corner collapse because of an explosion in one kitchen. Although each element of the building was strong enough, they werent properly connected together. It was almost like a pack of cards. So one incident in one apartment was a lwa ys so one incident in one apartment was always going to run the risk of building the whole building down. After that, Building Regulations we re after that, Building Regulations were changed and by 1971, we had introduced systems of putting ties through the building, from top to bottom and across each floor in two directions and then peripheral ties running round the building, to tie the whole thing together so that should there be an issue at one place in the building, it wasnt going to affect anywhere else. And thatis going to affect anywhere else. And that is why the building hasnt collapsed in the way the twin towers did in 9 11 collapsed. Just to be clear, this block of flats you were talking about, it was a block of flats back court fire in east london in 1968. After that, they change the regulations . Yes, and it took three yea rs, regulations . Yes, and it took three years, until 1971 to get those regulations in force. This block was built in 1974, so we presume it complied with those more robust Building Regulations. We had chris myers, a forensic architect a few minutes ago. He said he wasnt aware of what the Structural Integrity of the building is at the moment, but maybe it wont have to be pulled down. I presumed it would be demolished. Is that not the case . |j would be astonished if it wasnt demolished. The cost of refurbishing that building would be greater than the cost of demolition and starting again. 0k. The cost of demolition and starting again. Ok. We are looking at some of the fire is still burning on the upperfloors this the fire is still burning on the upper floors this evening, is there anything about the construction of the building that concentrates the fire in the centre of the building and keeps it burning so long . Not really, i think what has happened here, something unusual in that i think the fire seems to have started around the perimeter of the building. From the fourth floor, initial explosion, the fire spread very, very rapidly. It cannot do that really through the building, because as we said earlier, each of the apartments has won our fire resistance. So if a fire was going to rise through 20 stories, it is essentially going to take 20 hours. That didnt happen. And i think the reason it didnt happen was the fire spread of the external walls of the building and the reason it is burning now internally is because i think the originalfire burning now internally is because i think the original fire burned away all the parts of the building near its perimeter and it progressively spread towards the poor of the building, where it is now burning. Thank you very much, very interesting. There are a lot of people looking back historically at these fires in high rise flats. There was one in camberwell and we hoped lessons would be learned from that and people have been asking questions whether there was a sufficient review. David shipman has been taking a look at some of these historical incidents and whether lessons should have been learned. The wreckage of Grenfell House stands amid a cluster of tower blocks. Like many cities around the world, london has seen the rise of the skyscraper. Homes and offices, perched high above street level, with a host of safety rules designed to resist fire. But eight years ago, a blaze at this tower block in south london killed six people. Southwark council was fined for breaching Fire Regulations. And there are plenty of expert voices today saying that the lessons of what happened here at Lakanal House have not been learned. La ka nal house demonstrated that people were at risk in their own homes. The fire in west london last night, this morning, as demonstrated that they are still at risk in their own homes. These fires shouldnt be happening in 21st century london. Weve got the ability to stop them from happening, and when fires do break out, to restrict them to small areas of flats or buildings. One key question in the spotlight today is about the design of tower blocks, and how they are meant to keep people safe in case a fire breaks out. Normally, a fire hose can only reach about 15 metres. Grenfell tower stands 67 metres high. In america, they rely on what is called active safety. Sprinklers fight fires in every room, but that can be expensive. The basic principle here, until recently, has been passive safety, designing the building to confine any blaze to a single room. Clearly, that has failed. Investigators will want to know why. Another focus will be on the cladding fitted to the outside of the building panels to improve insulation and the look of older buildings like Grenfell Tower. But dozens of fires have been linked to cladding around the world. Two years ago, a skyscraper in dubai caught fire, and the cladding was blamed. New rules there have tightened up on the kind of material that can be used. Investigators here will explore what role the cladding might have played. In the uk, it has to be what we call of limited combustibility. I am sure that is going to be questioned now, after this fire. What exactly that means, and what these types of Cladding Systems are adding to the fire load on the building. It was after the Second World War that councils and said the Housing Crisis by moving away from old terraced homes coming to new high rise tower blocks. But their safety from fire depends on good design and care for. London mayor says People Living in tower blocks will now need to be reassured, and fire professionals are shocked by how this blaze spread. Literally every single floor was on fire, internally. You dont usually see that. You see one floor, two floors, and then a hopping from floor to floor, maybe, over a period of time. You would not normally see an entire facade on fire, then all of the interior on fire at the same time. So, thats whats very unusual. So, the fire overcame whatever safety features were in place. Last year, the government promised a review into fire safety in tower blocks, but then delayed it. This disaster now makes that work a priority. David shukman, bbc news. We can speak to baronessjennyjones who wrote a report on the state of Social Housing in 2010. I understand you did look into this fire in an Apartment Block in camberwell in 2009, what do you think we learned from that and steve think we did come lessons were applied over the last few years, having missed something . The fire was that Lakmal House Which was a few yards from where i lived and so i took an extreme interest and the London Assembly looked at the fire and had lots of evidence and what we found was it was the fire Risk Assessment that was so lacking in so many places, not just there that was so lacking in so many places, notjust there but in other buildings and high rise buildings over london. Something like one in five was inadequate and the fire Risk Assessments are crucial because they dictate how you convey the risk and Safety Measures to the tenants. What we found was the advice given by the councils and by the assessors but also the examinations and investigations by the assessors were all often inadequate. Was there something in that report that we had in 2009 that might apply to what we have seen here with Grenfell Tower . Well, there were two big recommendations, we made several to the Department For Communities And Local Government but the two big ones where they should give National Guidance to all owners of tower blocks so they could do the right sort of fire Risk Assessments and ta ke sort of fire Risk Assessments and take everything into account and the other big recommendation was that all social landlords should publish all social landlords should publish a register of their fire all social landlords should publish a register of theirfire risks, what we found again and again was the information was not getting through to te na nts, information was not getting through to tenants, there is often a big turnover in his tower blocks of people and if you do not give every single new president enough information then it is likely they will not know what to do in the event of a fire. Essentially, the Fire Risk Safety Recommendations we made have never been implemented except by individual councils that chose to do it. There has been strong words from the grunfeld Tower Action Group in one of their blogs saying they were treated like vermin by the tenant Management Organisation. Do you think the social Housing Stock in london is of the right quality and does the need to be big improvements . the right quality and does the need to be big improvements . I live in an ex local Authority Block myself and i think it is superb so of course there are some buildings that are not going to come up to Safety Standards but in london we absolutely need Social Housing, we are not building enough and the thought that people do not feel safe in them is fairly horrendous. I think that there has to be a public enquiry now, i hate recommended public enquiries, they say take man, they are expensive but there is no choice here because we never want to see this again. No, indeed. Thank you very much for being with us. 12 people are confirmed to have been killed but the police are warning that the death toll may well rise. The bbc has confirmed the identities of six of the missing. He reads list of names there are another six and it is entirely possible that the death toll will rise as the police are warning. The London Ambulance service took over 60 people at hospital. Paramedics, trauma teams and the London Ambulance were all involved ina highly London Ambulance were all involved in a highly coordinated response. The key was to stabilise patients and get them to one of six hospitals where specialist teams were on stand by. At st marys we are caring for 16 patients, three of whom are in Critical Condition. At Charing Cross hospital we have four patients none of whom are critical. We are continuing to care for patients who are primarily suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation. Inhaling smoke can damage the lungs and airways and may also cause Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Specialist burns teams were on stand by but it is understood they did not treat any casualties. 12 hours after it broke out, a toxic cloud was still billowing from Grenfell Tower leading to concerned residents handing out facemasks donated by local firms. There are toxic su bsta nces local firms. There are toxic substances in the building that we aware of. And everywhere you look in the surrounding area, these black suttee fragments. This childrens playground is littered with pieces of debris which floated down from the building and are pieces of installation from the outside of the tower block and you can taste the soot at the back of your throat. Everyones main concern is for the residents of Grenfell Tower. But there are worries to for those living nearby. We found it hard to breathe and it felt like tasting the smoke so do not know the effect on our lungs. We have elderly vulnerable residents, people with severe disabilities, little children as well, under five. St marys and Charing Cross hospitals say the accident and Emergency Departments remain very busy and ask the public to use Walk In Centres or their gp u nless to use Walk In Centres or their gp unless it is an emergency. Allowing them to focus on those injured in this appalling tragedy. Within just a few hours of the fire breaking out people were arriving at the shelters that have been set up here in churches, sports and community centres. Some people in the stairwell in their Dressing Gowns and boxer shorts, no clothes, lost their Worldly Possessions and what is extraordinary is that the people from the community have pulled together through the day, people going through the course with bags of shopping, toothbrushes, toiletries and food and water, anything they can supply to help. And also facemasks because up until the last few hours the smoke in the airwas the last few hours the smoke in the air was pretty acrid and difficult to move around without filling it in the back of your throat. They have been overwhelmed with donations. Today we have bought the Phone Chargers and we have given people the Phone Chargers to help them call loved ones and to make sure they are safe and everyone knows where everybody is. We have also donated some money, to families, darren withdraw £1000 out of his account and we have been giving families £100 to see them over the next couple of days. Giving families £100 to see them over the next couple of daysm giving families £100 to see them over the next couple of days. It is amazing how ive run has come out in the community, people will stick together in a time like this. And how caring people are. This hall is full of provisions from shoes to toiletries, people are sharing their homes and others are offering their time. I see that londoners together and regardless of your background, i am from brazil, everybody got together, and amazing feeling. This hall is full of clothes, baby stuff and food and water it is amazing. On another corner, Just Moments Away from where people have lost their lives, and others all their possessions, there are more supplies. Bedding, headscarves, toiletries, everything you can think of that people might want. This is food, texts are coming in, new centres a re food, texts are coming in, new centres are opening where people can ta ke centres are opening where people can take donations. I happened to be nearby. I have a sevenyearold daughter and i took her to school and on that road there was a clear view of the tower and what was going on and the fire was really going at that point early in the morning and she understands what is going on and so she understands what is going on and so after school we came by here and she went to help low donations from this box into the van taking them on to the shelters. This is an area where there is wealth and those who have very little. People from all backgrounds trying to do their best. This community is strong, it is not about rich and poor, you see people with suits and people with tracksuits just helping and doing what they can do. There are also people here from different castes and colours. Yeah, we from the Sea Community are doing our best make sure there is wateraid. Such has been the Response Centres in North Kensington say they now enough supplies but for those who have lost everything, the need has onlyjust begun. Incredibly difficult day for the firefighters here, the men and women who have been here out of the building, it has been hot here in london and have worked tirelessly to put out fires in a building although tonight you can see behind me there are still some fires which are burning in the upper floors. Are still some fires which are burning in the upperfloors. Paul fuller is in dunstable for us. For those of us who are joining us, explain what it is like for a firefighter going into a Building Thatis Firefighter going into a building that is ablaze like this one was last night . Well, extremely arduous. Firstly, my eye for all of our thoughts to those people who are affected by this dreadful incident and also respect to the women and men of London Fire Brigade who have have worked so hard to hard to try to help them. In conditions which, as you identified, must be awful. Hot, very difficult, full of anxiety and certainly a very difficult operation for them. Can i get your thoughts on the state put message that was given to residents in the block, do you think it is still valid, should it still be in place in these Apartment Blocks . State put has been and will continue to be a very successful policy. In effect it means that we are using the design of the building to create Safety Compartments to which people can remain so the fire can be dealt with on another floor and once the fire is dealt with than the people are safely kept in their Fire Compartment which is their own home. It does depend on the way the fire behaves and the way the building behaves. And an Incident Commander will make a decision based on whether the fire is behaving as expected or not to decide whether to stay with the State Put Policy for that specific incident or move to evacuation. The problem is that when you change the instructions, the only way to get it out of the building when there is no Intercom System is to firefighters to go door to door and tell people to leave and that in a situation like thatis leave and that in a situation like that is not possible. And that is what London Fire Brigade have been doing so well today to evacuate people out of the building but clearly if people do not remain in the safety of their flats, then you have the problem of large numbers moving to the building potentially toa moving to the building potentially to a Hazardous Environment and say that decision has to be made at some point during the operation but that is an operational decision which would be made by officers at the scene according to their local policy. In terms of the fires that are still burning here tonight, i expect that is pretty common after a blaze as intense as this one, what to firefighters doing a situation like this, do you target those fla mes like this, do you target those flames or can you let them burn out . Each fire is different but clearly in this case the London Fire Commissioner and her officers will be trying to determine those best strategies for that incident. Ok, thank you very much indeed for that. Idid thank you very much indeed for that. I did tell you a short while ago that we have confirmed the identities of six of the missing. They are missing and not confirmed dead at this stage. He reads list of names they at six of the missing but i want to stress, they are not confirmed dead, they are at this stage only missing. If there are viewers in the uk who are concerned about loved ones who might have been in the Apartment Block there was an Emergency Number that has been for anyone concerned. The casual to bureau number. There has been another big story in the United States today. Another Big Story Today was the shooting of a us congressman in virginia. The gunman attacked a Baseball Practice for a Charity Match between politicians a senior republican, steve scalees, is in a Critical Condition after surgery. Four other people have been injured, including two capitol hill Police Officers. The gunman who had posted angry messages on social media against President Trump and other republicans died of his wounds in hospital. Heres laura bicker with the latest. It was a regular morning Baseball Practice that gunmen try to turn into a killing field. The horror was ca ptu red into a killing field. The horror was captured on camera by a dog walker. The shots ring out for several minutes with few pauses. One of the victims was congressman steve and his colleagues could not get him as the firing continued. His colleagues could not get him as the Firing Continuedlj his colleagues could not get him as the firing continued. I could see steve out in the field, he dragged himself from their second base 1015 into the field, further away from the gunmen. He was laying motion is out there and so i wanted to get to him but there were still shots going overhead from both sides and so finally when we heard the shooter was down, i ran low out to steve and started putting pressure on the wounds. The gunmen were 66 rods James Hodgkinson from illinois. A social media posts were anti republican and anti trump. He died in hospital after being shot by capitol hill police, survivor so this would have been a massacre without their help. Theyre trying to come to terms with Dodging Bullets on what should have been a day for batting practice. The emotional shock of seeing your friend shot, where you are helpless, you have a baseball bat, they have a rifle, you are defenceless. The shooting has shaken washington. Both sides of the political aisle are in shock. When you go to Baseball Practice for game per charity and you have to dodge bullets and you watch or colleagues laying in the field, it is mind breaking. This has to shot. Hate has to stop. We are united in our shock, united to shot. Hate has to stop. We are united in ourshock, united in to shot. Hate has to stop. We are united in our shock, united in our anguish and an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. President donald trump praised all those who serve in congress. We may have our differences but we do well in times like these to remember that everyone who serves in our Nations Capital is here because above all they love our country. It is not yet known whether or not this was an assassination attempt, there are reports the gunmen asked whether or not this was a democrat or republican practice. The annual game between the two sides was due to be held tomorrow, it has been held since 1909 and is a genuine moment of political bipartisanship. It is now marred by violence. These are extremely partisan times at the moment in the United States, nobody is making any excuses for what happened today but have politicians paused to take stock . They certainly have and in the last half an hour the democratic and republican managers of the two Baseball Teams that are due to play tomorrow appear together side by side at a joint Press Conference saying they will come together in this moment and put partisanship aside for now. They hope tomorrows Charity Baseball game will go ahead, it has been going for nearly a century and they say they hope they will have enough Security Measures in place and so that is the plan as of now. Steve scalise is still in hospital. He remains in a Critical Condition. Steve scalise will be out of the picture. What other republicans saying, what things they said about him today . It comes right from the top, the support for Steve Scalise, he was very close to President Donald Trump and it that statement president made earlier today he describes representative scalise as a patriot and fighter and 30 was a good friend of his and he is someone who is close to the white house. And a very senior of the republican make up a very senior of the republican make up in the House Of Representatives as you say. Of course the other thing to point out is a lot of people are making sure they mention the role of the Capitol Police in todays events because of Steve Scalise seniority he travelled with a Security Detail that helped step in and perhaps lives today. The ten oclock news is coming up in the uk for viewers on the bbc news channel. Just to remind you the fires are still burning, you can probablyjust see them behind me in the upper floors of the building and they may blaze through the evening. Still plumes of smoke going up into the night sky and spare a thought for those scores and hundreds of families perhaps who are without their Worldly Possessions this evening and do not know where they will sleep in the days and weeks ahead. Stay with us for more continuing coverage of the fire here at Grenfell Tower. We saw some warmth build extensively across Western Europe on wednesday, tempted and eastern parts of spain up tempted and eastern parts of spain up to 40 degrees and southern parts of france temperatures into the mid 30s. That heat culminated with some storms in eastern france again and there could be more here. For us, 27 was the high, the next couple of days will be fresher of the atlantic. After a quick rising temperatures and a sunny start and eastern parts, it turns fresher later on and a fresh appeal later on with more of a breeze and some showers in scotland, Northern Ireland and northern parts. Even though temperatures have dropped, compared with wednesday, it was still feel pleasant enough in the sun and out of the breeze, tempters above what they should be. Similar temperatures into friday, High Pressure nudging in from the south west but around the top of it Weather Front is work in. The first sign of those on friday morning with cloud building across Northern Ireland, clearer skies and fresher than starting thursday morning. Sunny spells to begin with, cloud amounts with occasional rainford Northern Ireland, more persistent rain across scotland but not especially heavy. Further south, stay dry, the best of the Sunshine Haysie and temperatures similar to thursday. Into the weekend, High Pressure starts to build further across the south, not enough to stop Weather Front is pushing in off The Atlantic Across Scotland and Northern Ireland so always more cloud and a north south split. Sunniest in the south, temperatures building into the high 20s but even with Breaks Eastern Scotland could live temperatures to 22 or 23. Not much changes into sunday except maybe the wind eases back across Northern Scotland. Less in the way of rain but still if you spots of rain or drizzle across western coasts and hills and it could be our first 30 degrees day. If not sunday, monday could be. High pressure in place, a weak Weather Frontjust sitting there across Northern Scotla nd sitting there across Northern Scotland producing more Cloud But Brea Ks Scotland Producing More cloud but breaks in the cloud and dont forget the sun is getting pretty strong, the sun is getting pretty strong, the Summer Solstice by this stage, brea ks the Summer Solstice by this stage, breaks in the cloud, warmer day in scotla nd breaks in the cloud, warmer day in scotland and the south getting close to 30 celsius. Into the start of next week, High Pressure across the uk, most places start the week dry and hot with temperatures still close to 30 celsius across southern areas. Could this low pressure in the Bay Of Biscay push towards us . That will set thunderstorms off with temperatures pretty high. But there is also a chance to break down could come from the west, this is what we are not sure about. If it does, fresher air will push in behind a band of rain which again could be on the thundery side. The huge amount of uncertainty to how next week develops, dry and warm and hot with patchy rain in North West Scotland but signs of a thundery breakdown, how quickly it happened and how it happens well have to keep you updated. Being responsible for the murder of a david mckenna. Tonight at ten, were in west london where 12 people have died and many are still missing after a residential tower block was destroyed by fire. Its thought Grenfell Tower was home to more than 500 people. The fire started at one in the morning, and Emergency Services were there within minutes. You need to ring 999 theres a dedicated line for this incident