Missing: The desperate hunt for lost relatives after London tower block fire

He said police had started a criminal investigation but there was nothing to suggest “that the fire had been started deliberately”.

May, whose Conservative Party lost its majority in Parliament last week, is facing one of the biggest crises of her tenure, as Britons have raised questions about safety procedures and construction safety after a fire that ripped through a 24-story apartment tower in West London.

Two British ministers said Sunday that the new exterior cladding used in a renovation on Grenfell Tower may have been banned under United Kingdom building regulations.

On Thursday, the trio were some of the first to donate money to the fund, set up to help the victims of this horrific fire.

On Friday, Mrs May visited survivors in hospital before meeting victims and community leaders at a church in Kensington.

“I have ordered that more staff be deployed across the area, wearing high visibility clothing, so they can easily be found, dispense advice and ensure the right support is provided”, May said after a meeting with survivors at her Downing Street office on Saturday.

The air barrier between the cladding and the building, which some British fire safety experts have speculated helped the flames travel faster up the Grenfell Tower, is considered an integral part of a sound rain screen design according to the NRC report and Perovic.

“It is human nature for most of us – if we know there’s a fire, start moving and get out”, said Robert Solomon of the National Fire Protection Association, a USA -based organization that studies fire safety globally.

May has pledged to hold a public inquiry into the fire.

And chants of “not 17” were heard as residents demanded answers from the council on the real number of people who have died in the tower block.

“The package of support I’m announcing today is to give the victims the immediate support they need to care for themselves and for loved ones”.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police commander Stuart Cundy responded to speculation that the number of dead could exceed 100, saying: “From a personal perspective, I really hope it isn’t”.

Tower residents and many others in the area are still struggling to come to terms with what they have seen and lived through.

The fire that consumed London’s Grenfell Tower, tragically killing at least 30 people, may have dissipated, but it has once again focused attention on the city’s social housing crisis.

The death toll rose to 30 on Friday but authorities warned it would increase further, as fire crews picked their way through the wreckage of the blaze in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The fire left the building, Grenfell Tower, a charred ruin, and has left hundreds of people homeless.

“It is hard to escape a very sombre national mood”, the world’s oldest and longest-reigning monarch said in a message on her official birthday.

Reynobond, the US company that supplied materials for the Grenfell Tower renovations, also sells products in North America.

The government has promised a full public inquiry, but that has done little to ease a sense of frustration at the lack of information about how the fire moved so quickly to engulf the building.

Residents feel they have not been listened to after claiming to have made repeated warnings about the fire risk of Grenfell Tower.

He said that his friend Khadija Saye, a 24-year-old photographer, is among those reported missing.

Accounts of people trapped inside as the blaze destroyed everything around them, shouting for help, throwing children to safety and trying to escape through windows using makeshift ropes from bed sheets tied together left the nation in shock.

Ade Deane-Pratt from Camberwell, south London said she was marching because of the anger she felt towards the Government. As the Prime Minister’s vehicle drives away, a man shouts: “Why are you running away from us?”