If you live in the UK you'll certainly know about this devastating tragedy. If you live outside the UK, I'm not sure how much you're hearing about it.
Grenfell Tower is an apartment building in Kensington and Chelsea borough, Central London. It's a vibrant and multicultural area, with a close knit community. I spent a lot of my childhood knocking about on the streets, where the highlight of the day was watching the Concorde fly over our heads. That was a sight (and noise) i'll never forget. And our football field was a 10 metre squared concrete patch (I still have the scars to prove it). These days I live in the South West of England, where people move at the speed of Sloths, and I get slowed down on the roads, not by immense traffic, but behind people driving at the speed of a snail.
So here goes. Sadly, in the early hours of Wednesday 14th June a fire broke out on the lower floors of Grenfell Tower. No-one knows the exact cause of the fire, but they believe it may have been caused by a faulty fridge.
My brother and I are visiting family for the first time in years. On Tuesday evening my brother went to visit some old friends. Guess where? Yep, you got it! Grenfell Tower!! We were staying about 5 minutes away at my Aunts house.
It was around 1am on Wednesday, I was sat with my Aunt and my cousin having a glass of wine. We heard the ear piercing sound of sirens, loads of em. This made us look out of the window. I could see huge amounts of smoke bellowing up from the direction I knew my brother was in. I tried calling his phone, but there was no answer. After the fourth time of trying he finally answered. "Where are you" I asked him. "In Cav's flat" he said, really calmly may I add. Now Cav is an old friend of ours, he's lived in the same place for years, Grenfell Tower! He continued to tell me that there's a fire somewhere in the building, and that they've been told to stay in their homes until the fire fighters get to them. My heart sank, and then started pounding out of my chest. I felt sick with fear. I took a deep breath, and said "Jamie, listen to me, I know you never do, but please listen to me now. That building is going to burn down, I mean all of it. We can see the smoke from here. Get Cav, and whoever else is with you, and get the fuck out" He said "But there's smoke everywhere, and they're shouting for everyone to stay in, shut the doors and put towels over the gaps". I raised my voice this time and said "Jamie, honestly, if you don't find a way out, you and everyone with you, are going to die". I don't know what it was inside of me, but I just knew the Fire Service weren't going to win this battle. It had only been a few minutes, but there was so much smoke, and we could see flames starting to travel up the outside of the building. Thankfully, my brother listened to me for once. Him, and the others with him grabbed some towels, wet them, and put them over their face. Luckily they didn't have too far to travel, and they all managed to get out. They got a bit of grief from the firefighters, but in hindsight it was obviously the correct call.
My brother and his friends were some of the lucky ones. The death toll as I write this is at 17, and lots of people are still missing, so that number is likely to rise. Walking around and seeing people crying, posters everywhere, it's heartbreaking. So many people are helping and raising money for the residents of Grenfell Tower, and whoever else has been effected. So I wanted to do my bit, in my own way.
I've only just joined steemit, and to be honest I don't know too much about it. Please don't think I've joined just to write this, as I haven't. I've recently got into cryptocurrency and through my research I came across this site, which sounded pretty cool. I was wondering what I could write as my first story, and then it was obvious.
If this story does happen to get up-voted or earn steem currency (See, I told you I was a noob) I will donate it to the fundraising going on in aid of this tragic event. What I will ask of you though, is to click on the justgiving link, I will provide below and please donate. Even if it's just a small amount, it will still help. Kensington and Chelsea Borough will certainly need the help, as there's a lot, and I mean a lot of Grenfell residents that will be homeless. The local council will not be able to house everyone, like they've promised, no chance!!
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/categories/emergencies/grenfell-tower-fire
If you don't want to donate via justgiving and you want to donate cryptocurrency anonymously, here is a Bitcoin wallet address. Anything that goes to this address will be sold, and then donated. Thank you for reading my first blog, and I look forward to spending more time on steemit in the future.
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