‘I saw people jumping out of windows’: Survivors recount night of horror in London as fire burns down building

People watched in horror as neighbours found themselves trapped or in desperation leapt to their doom as flames raced through the stricken Grenfell Tower.

A fire tore through a 24-storey apartment block in London before dawn on Wednesday, causing fatalities and injuring dozens, with terrified residents trapped inside.

The last time Hanan Wahabi saw her brother was when he and his family waved to her from their home in an upper floor after she had safely left the blazing building.

Wahabi, 39, who lives on the ninth floor of the Grenfell Tower, said she was awoken by smoke at around 1:00am on Wednesday.

"I could see there was ash coming through the window in the living room, which was partially open," she told AFP, sitting with her husband and son, 16, and daughter, eight, outside a local community centre.

"I looked out and I could see the fire travelling up the block. It was literally by my window," she said. "I slammed the window shut and got out."

Pedestrians look up towards Grenfell Tower, a residential block of flats in west London. (AFP Photo)

After the family escaped, she called her brother, who lives on the 21st floor, to see if he was all right. "The fire hadn't reached the top of the block at that point," Wahabi said.

"He said he had been told to stay inside, stay in one room together and put towels under the door. I told him to leave. He said he was going to come. Then I called him and he said there was too much smoke. The last time I saw him they were waving out the window, his wife and children. The last time I spoke to his wife, he was on the phone to the fire brigade. I've not heard from them since, the phone is not going through, the landline isn't going through. That was about 2:00am."

Two eyewitnesses told the Press Association news agency they saw children dropped by their parents into the arms of people on the ground.

One said a baby was dropped from the ninth or 10th floor, another that she saw a five-year-old boy dropped from a fifth or sixth floor window.

Khadejah Miller, who was evacuated from her home nearby, recounted a night of horor.

"I literally just heard screaming, I saw people jumping out of their windows, the building was literally on fire, the ambulances, the police. It was horrendous," she said.

Amanda Fernandez, 31, was evacuated from a different part of the housing estate.

Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

"When you live around here, you know people. And to stand helpless watching the fire and counting the floors, and thinking, 'Who lives on that floor? Who lives on that one?' Most of the people I know lived higher than the 10th floor."

Others reported seeing mobile phone lights and white cloths, and hearing screams for help from the windows, as the flame rose through the building at astonishing speed.

'I'm a goner'

Another survivor at the community centre, wearing shorts, a T-shirts and trainers and with a blanket draped around his shoulders, said he saved his own life with just moments to spare.

"My neighbour's smoke alarm went off and I thought he might have done some cooking," he said, giving only his first name of Eddie, 55.

"I was in bed and I heard people shout fire, fire, I opened my door and loads of smoke came in. Then two seconds later my neighbour (on fifth floor) called and said, 'Get the f*** out the building'!"

"I went into the bathroom and I got the towel and wet it and wrapped it around my head. I run out into the hallway, close the door behind me and ran for where I thought the fire exit was. I didn't find it. It was a matter of life and death - I thought, 'If I'm in this for another five seconds, I'm a goner'."

Smoke billows as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London. (Reuters Photo)

"Then on the ground there was a fireman, he touched my leg and pulled me into where the fire stairwell was. You couldn't see anything. I just ran down the stairs. There wasn't that many people on the stairs. Loads of people haven't got out of the building."

Abdul Hamid, 51, lives on the 16th floor lost everything he owned but counted himself lucky to be alive.

"I have nothing. My passport was in there -- it's gone. I'm meant to be flying to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. Now I'm homeless."

A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London. (Reuters Photo)

Source: 'I saw people jumping out of windows': Survivors recount night of horror in London as fire burns down building