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Updated 10.45pm.
ANGRY PROTESTERS STORMED local authority headquarters this evening demanding justice as the death toll from the London tower block fire reached 30, with dozens more unaccounted for.
They shouted “Killers” and “We want justice”, accusing the authorities of ignoring the plight of the victims of the Grenfell Tower block blaze.
Firefighters continued the search for human remains in the burnt-out shell of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower, as anger grew over the use of cladding blamed for spreading the flames. Sky News is reporting that up to 70 people are dead.
Residents had long complained about fire safety risks at Grenfell Tower, but said the concerns of the multi-ethnic, largely working-class inhabitants had been brushed off by local authorities.
“It was a death trap and they knew it,” one person shouted as demonstrators swelled outside the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council offices, with dozens going inside and clashing with police and security guards.
“I have friends in the tower and they are not telling us anything,” said Salwa Buamani, 25, who came with her three-year-old niece on her shoulders.
May faces angry crowd
Prime Minister Theresa May had come under criticism for not meeting residents when she visited the site yesterday to talk with emergency service chiefs.
She faced cries of “coward” and “shame on you” as she returned today to meet survivors, residents and volunteers at a local church.
Dozens of police officers had to hold back angry crowds and break up scuffles as her car drove off afterwards.
She also met with injured survivors in hospital and announced a £5 million (€5.7 million) fund for emergency supplies, food and clothing.
Everyone affected by this tragedy needs reassurance that the government is there for them at this terrible time – and that is what I am determined to provide.
Earlier police announced that the number of confirmed deaths had risen from 17.
“We know that at least 30 people have died as a result of this fire… I do believe the number will increase,” police commander Stuart Cundy told reporters in front of the charred high-rise.
Cundy said police had started a criminal investigation but there was nothing to suggest “that the fire had been started deliberately”.
He also said the last flames had finally been extinguished, two days after the fire broke out early Wednesday in a working-class enclave of the wealthy Kensington district.
More than 70 people are unaccounted for, according to media reports, although it was not known whether some of those were among the bodies recovered so far.
Police have warned some of the victims may never be identified due to the state of the remains.
Cundy said one of the victims was a person who died in hospital. Twenty-four injured survivors are still being treated, 12 of them in critical care.
Firefighters were using drones and sniffer dogs to search the building, saying some of the upper floors are still inaccessible to humans due to concerns about the stability of the structure.
Queen visits survivors
The area surrounding the council-owned tower has been plastered by desperate relatives with pictures of the missing, from grandparents to young children. Large numbers of volunteers are assisting survivors.
Queen Elizabeth II and her grandson Prince William visited a community centre where some of the survivors are being housed.
The government has ordered a judge-led inquiry into the disaster, which is under pressure to act quickly, as anger grows among local residents about allegations that fire safety concerns were ignored for years.
“Something’s gone drastically wrong,” Communities and Local Government Minister Sajid Javid told BBC radio.
Javid said inspections of similar buildings had been ordered, with particular attention to the modern cladding used to beautify and add insulation to ageing concrete and steel structures.
Syrian refugee victim
The fire forced residents to flee through black smoke down the single stairwell, jump out of windows or even drop their children from the building.
One of the victims was named as Mohammed Alhajali, a 23-year-old Syrian refugee, who came to Britain in 2014 with his brother. The Syrian Solidarity Campaign said in a statement:
Mohammed undertook a dangerous journey to flee war and death in Syria, only to meet it here in the UK.
Alhajali was a civil engineering student at West London University.
“His dream was to be able to go back home one day and rebuild Syria,” the campaign group said.
A second victim named Friday was Khadija Saye, a 24-year-old photographer who had exhibited at the Venice Biennale.
Questions over cladding
Questions are growing about how the flames spread so quickly, engulfing the tower’s 120 apartments.
The focus is on the cladding fitted to external walls of the 1974 tower as part of an £8.7 million (€9.9 million) refit completed last year.
The cladding had a plastic core and was similar to that used by high-rise buildings in France, the United Arab Emirates and Australia which had also suffered fires that spread.
The Times newspaper reported that the company that manufactured the cladding also made fire-resistant models that cost fractionally more than the standard version.
Questions have also been raised over why there was no sprinkler system in the tower which could have helped stop the fire spreading, or any central smoke alarm system that would have woken sleeping residents.
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Skys days are numbered. Losing out on Premier League and Champions League rights to BT Sport. With the emergence of Netflix and other websites, no one is willing to pay for Sky Movies anymore.
Realistically it’s either SKY or UPC(Virgin). If most people had the choice and money wasn’t an issue you’d have SKY for Tv and Virgin for broadband. The SKY TV interface has always been faultless in my opinion and much smoother than UPC. If SKY had high speed broadband and weren’t piggy backing on Eircom’s lines SKY would dominate the market in Ireland.
Hardly. The majority of people don’t have broadband speeds necessary for on demand Netflix. Not to mention that the Netflix library is not great. I have Netflix and Sky. They are complimentary services imo. Netflix for when I want something specific to watch, but I use sky for the majority of my tv viewing. Nobody should be using Sky movies though. It’s a ridiculous expense for a bad selection
Anyone who pays full whack for sky is crazy!it probably costs approx €200 per month if you add in bt sports/setanta/lfc tv/mutv/Chelsea tv/boxnation aswell as the complete sky package.openbox v8s cost me €160 for the 1st year and only €70 a year after that
Eventually these sort of premium cable packages will go under but never underestimate how slow the mass audience is to change.
I mean, Xtra Vision and video rental still exists!
You’re being ripped off even at that, £15 a year through theukguy’s server on any openbox/dreambox etc
On demand content is very poor for new movies.
They didn’t lose out on premier league
Was paying UPC €160 a mth for TV and broadband for a complete package of all tv, movies and sports… on top of ur TV licence.. got an android box.. problem solved €44 a mth on broadband…
Which Android box did you get and what stations do you receive?
@christine.. its very difficult to get a seamless stream of live TV though on it. Dnt get me wrong, I love my android box and use it for tv shows without adds all the time and for movies too… but getting a reliable stream to watch soccer can be very frustrating.
Phoenix started using premier league pass. It’s not skipped or buffered on me yet.
I have an mxq box, there’s a new t8 box I think it’s called comin out and il be upgrading to that.. I bought it from go gadgets.. they come preloaded with all necessary apps/add ons.. ya can subscribe to Ntv for €14.99 garuantees a reliable stream and it’s basically a full sky package of all channels we done a 3 day trial an it worked perfect so considerong signing up its month to month ya dont have to sign into any contract, we’ve had the box a few months now we nearly always seem to find a decent link for the footie but i agree it can get frustrating the more ya play around an try different links ya get to know the good ones.. I use showbox and genesis mainly for shows an films, and got the ivue programme guide and it opens ya up to every live channel, even more sports options and links them to the add on, it probably sounds like gibberish what I’m writing here now but if ya have the box ya wil have all the above.. I really hope they stay around working cause the price of tv packages is absolutely scandalous now!
Sky/siteserve =redacted. I.d rather paint a wall and watch it dry then give that cant a penny.
Squeaky Bum time for Sky. Far better alternatives out there.
Like who? They’re all the same I.M.O. and cost the same. Very little competition.
The internet
I have android boxes in some rooms. It’s not the same. It’s better than nothing and free once you buy the box.
Look really really hard.
Some incredible alternatives.
How is this delivered? If through the satellite dish it can only handle two things at once at the moment and if through the internet, then will speeds be fast enough? The article doesn’t mention that Sky Q will also offer 4K broadcasting that will be available as a premium extra just like HD & 3D were years ago. I do not have Sky, only Saorview and Kodi which is enough and better than what Sky has to offer.
Kodi is brilliant. Problem is most of rural Ireland have not got speed for it. People buy 4k tvs and can’t use them to their potential. I’ve 1mb line I’m forced to stick with sky
Kodi is not brilliant, too often games are skipping or there’s no good stream. Only one stream for the Leinster match on Sunday and the quality was poor
Depends on the add on you’re using. I find Phoenix for premier league and sport devil for rugby work well. Have uktv now for UFC on BT sports. I never have an issue with quality but as mentioned above I’m lucky enough to have a halfway decent Internet. Not great but not the worst.
How much time do we need in a day for all this
I have kodi and I have a smoothstreams subscription for €60 a year where I can get any sports event.
Which add on may I ask?
Believe in better !!!!!!!!
Constant price increases, extremely poor customer service and nothing but repeat programming, I think Murdoch’s days are numbered with Sky.
Yeah like all companys these days…
I left sky at the start of the year and really haven’t missed it. I find myself watching less and less tv all the time and anything I do watch can be got on saorview, freesat, skysport app on vodafone or Netflix. If I’m anything to go by sky in it present form is in big trouble.
Sky can f**k off they keep upping their prices my mother is paying for all channels and they still wont give her a sky+ box she has been a customer for more than 15 years
I use kodi streamed from my laptop to tv using my phones Internet and never have any problems €20 a month for my Internet
New techno ways to watch the sam old tosh on Sky- reminds me of that Bruce Springsteen song “99 channels and nothing on”
MovieHD, CartoonHD, Showbox + cast to TV. Simples
Android boxes are sh*te…. you can’t beat a jarvis box running a linux OS… no back round bloatware like android boxes… and streamsupreme for sports.. happy out with that €35 for 3 months for all ur sky sports & BT sports in all the us sports channels, Being sports.. and premier league pass too for all ur 3pm ko’s
So it’s a step in the right direction as they know with time there dominance will start to fade as people move to new ways of consuming TV shows. But the Xbox one can do this stuff better, you can get free to air to with an adapter, it has a to guide as slick if not better than sky, and the guide also pills from Netflix and the to shows and new movies from within the Microsoft store. So new movies/tv box sets = like renting a dvd, my subscription for Xbox live plus Netflix and that’s the content. There is loads of other services u can plug in to for subscriptions for sport and so on. And then of course they have launched a DVR service that allows u to record programs and watch back, and run multiple devices. Microsofts issue is they don’t market the Xbox for those reasons so not many people know this but now you do :) it’s another option
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