LONDON — A fire transformed a high-rise apartment tower in West London into an inferno early on Wednesday (June 14) , sending more than 70 people to hospital and raising fears that others might have been trapped inside. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that 12 people had died and warned that the figure would almost certainly rise.

“In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never, ever seen anything of this scale,” said Ms Dany Cotton, commissioner of the London Fire Brigade.

By early afternoon, more than 250 firefighters from all over London were searching for victims and working to extinguish the remnants of the blaze, which was reported at 12.54am local time in Grenfell Tower, in the North Kensington area. 

More than 40 fire engines were deployed. A number of firefighters reportedly sustained minor injuries.

The fire was the latest tragedy in a country that has seen three deadly terrorist attacks, two in London and one in Manchester, since March. The office of Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in the Grenfell Tower and is being kept constantly updated on the situation”.

Reports said 20 of the injured were  in a critical condition. 

Parents wrapped wet towels around their children as they desperately tried to escape. At least one person was seen waving a piece of white cloth from an upper storey as flames ravaged the building.

Residents claimed the fire was spreading on the exterior of the tower, which had been covered in cladding in a major refurbishment completed last year. More than 10 hours on, flames could still be seen inside the charred building as thick, black smoke filled the sky.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that at the height of the blaze, firefighters were able to reach only the 12th floor. “A lot of people are unaccounted for,” he told Sky News television.

Mr Nick Paget-Brown, leader of the Kensington and Chelsea local authority, said “several hundred” people would have been inside the building.

Ms Cotton said the building’s structure was stable enough for fire crews to work inside. “We rescued a large number of people from inside the building very early on,” she said, adding firefighters had managed to reach the 19th and 20th floors.

Witnesses said they heard screaming from the upper storeys as the flames raced up the tower.

Ms Adi Estu, 32, who was in her pyjamas and a coat, said: “I saw people flashing their lights for help, families flashing their mobile phones like a torch. But the smoke covered them and then the fire destroyed everything. We saw them dying. How can you forget that?”

Ms Samira Lamrani, a witness, said a woman dropped a baby from a window on the ninth or 10th floor to people on the pavement. 

“People were starting to appear at the windows, frantically banging and screaming,” Ms Lamrani said, adding the woman gestured that she wanted to drop a baby. “A gentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby.” 

Constructed in 1974, Grenfell Tower has 24 stories, with 120 apartments across 20 residential floors; it is owned by the local government and managed by a private company. A refurbishment was completed last year. 

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but a tenant group had complained for years that the management company was inattentive and that the building was at risk of a deadly fire. 

The construction firm responsible for the refurbishment said its work “met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards”. AGENCIES