The fire is often portrayed as a simple flat fire. But as events unfolded people have realised it was far more than that. This is an extract from a BBC news report : (Link to full story)
The fire began “in or around” a Hotpoint fridge-freezer in flat 16 on the fourth floor, according to a provisional report by Dr Niamh Nic Daéid, director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at Dundee University. Her report contains extracts from a witness statement by flat occupant Behailu Kebede, who described being woken by the sound of a smoke alarm. He went into the kitchen and saw smoke in the area of the fridge-freezer and near the kitchen window. Mr Kebede immediately called the fire brigade, which logged the call at 00:54. Four fire engines were sent to the scene, the first arriving at 00:59. The first fire crew entered the flat at 01:07 – an approximate timing taken from a thermal imaging camera. They initially searched the bedrooms and did not enter the kitchen until 01:14. In the kitchen, firefighter Daniel Brown described seeing an “isolated curtain of flame from about 2-3 feet in the air to the ceiling”. Thermal images captured by the fire crew appear to show that “hot fire gases and flames had spread across the window space”.