My morning view of the Grenfell Tower fire

[06:30]

Awakened by husband poking an iPhone in my face. Glasses on and jaw dropped. Fire in West London he says. Look gobsmacked at the images on the BBC website, can’t quite take that in. How can a tower block in London in 2017 be that much on fire?

Switch the TV on. The BBC is all over it, with live footage of the fire. The building is a burnt out husk. It’s massive, around 24 floors and Westfield shopping centre is in the background. It’s near Notting Hill, it’s surrounded by tightly knit housing and transport routes. This is massive. This is Lakanal but 100 times worse. How can this be possible eight years after that tragic fire?

[07:00]

Little detail at this point, listening intently to Radio 4. Elections, Brexit, Theresa May all thrown off the news and replaced by this horror.

Scrolling through Twitter feed. Every fire and rescue service and senior personnel all tweeting media images of the fire and sending thoughts and prayers to the emergency responders. Look at the replies and see the impact on the ground.

The London Ambulance Service announces that they have 30 then 50 causalities at hospitals across London. London Fire Brigade confirms fatalities, just ‘a number’ at this stage but we all know the tally will be high, but just how high.

[08:00]

Some interviews with local Kensington and Chelsea residents, elected members and official but everyone is clearly in shock. There is no precedent for this. I’m sure.

[09.38]

Watch LFB Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton on the BBC, she is calm but with a hint of the distress she must be feeling right now as she relays the situation to the waiting media. 

[09:55]

Some commentators misjudge the mood. Owen Jones from the Guardian points to an article about delays in Government review of fire safety in tower blocks. All replies to this say too soon, way too soon to do this but it will come.

Reports about what caused the fire to spread so quickly are all speculation at this stage. Cladding, refurbishment, gas mains, all pointed to as potential reasons. 

[10:02]

Scrolling through Twitter feed. Come across an amazing photo of firefighters resting, sitting in a row against a building next to a train line. It's been taken by Nikki from Essex. Nikki’s photo is posted at 9.09 [ignore my date stamp, 8 hours out!], look how many people RT and Liked it within an hour or so. By 1038 it is gone. Nikki’s phone has melted. Nikki has deleted it, changed her profile bio and pic and gone back into obscurity. She didn’t know she would capture a moment and the zeitgeist quite so well.

[10:30]

I can hear the helicopters above. I’m a couple of miles from W11.

[10:53]

Hello, what’s this? Nikki’s photo has reappeared on Piers Morgan’s Twitter feed. He has 5.8 million followers. Nikki had 28 when she tweeted it.

[11:07]

Trawl the news websites. It’s everywhere but it’s nowhere on the Home Office website; it’s nowhere on the Home Office Twitter feed either. Nick Hurd MP took over as Minister for Policing and Fire just two days ago. He tweeted earlier and said he’d spoken to LFB. Here's the Daily Mail's website at this point.

[11:12]

Headline in Mirror now picking up the Owen Jones story from earlier.

[11:21]

The Express and the Evening Standard are first to report a fatality number, citing six dead. Met Police follow within the following half hour confirming this. The Standard has set up a fund for donations via its Dispossessed Fund. There are lots of tweets about where to take items to help displaced residents. The community is coming together to help and heal. 

[11:37]

Former Head of Grenfell Tower Residents Association interviewed about building works and management.

[11:55]

The recriminations have already started. Piers Morgan is talking about ‘blood on their hands’ for those who cut corners.

[12:12]

The story arc is changing as the questions about the building are starting to grow. BBC news is now starting to cover the building construction and shares a statement from the company that refurbished the building in 2016. They say they met all the regulations. Experts start talking about fire safety and building regulations. 

BBC shows 74 patients being treated in hospital.

[12:23]

PM statement and notice of meeting to discuss efforts later in the day read out on BBC News. There is nothing on Number 10 website or Twitter at this point. Jim Fitzpatrick MP and former firefighter (and one time Labour Fire Minister) is on BBC News talking about the 2009 Lakanal House fire. “How does this happen in 2017?” Building failures now focus of news.

[12:50]

Stay put policy starts to gain traction and mentioned by fire experts interviewed on BBC. It’s not something many people would know about. It’s for people living in high rises. Fire precautions, fire doors, compartmentation, protection of stairwells and so on. Coming across some references to a fridge exploding on the 4th floor but it's not getting picked up more widely. It may return in later news.

[13:08]

“Completely unprecedented fire in my 29 year history. And I have seen many high rise fires.” Dany’s speaking at lunchtime press conference with London Mayor, Sadiq Khan.

“We do not wish to speculate. We continue to search the premises. This is a very large and very significant fire. I anticipate LFB will be on site for the next 24 hours.”

[13:27]

The community rallies round. It has done so all morning.

[ Just over 12 hours on since the fire broke out. What words can express how all those affected, in whatever way that is, must feel right now. ]