London Fire Injures At Least 50; 'A Number Of Fatalities'

In a scene the London Fire Commissioner called "unprecedented," more than 200 firefighters were called to the city's North Kensington section as a 24-story tower was engulfed in flames. Dozens were injured and an unknown number of people are dead.

The fire was reported just before 1 a.m. local time. Fire units were on scene with six minutes.

"This is an unprecedented situation, with a major fire that has affected all floors of this 24 story building, from the second floor up," said Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton. "Based on the level of resource that were needed at this fire we declared it a major incident in the early hours of this morning.

"Crews wearing breathing apparatus have been working in extremely difficult conditions to rescue people and bring this major fire under control."

Cotton said that there were a number of dead but he could not say how many.

"I cannot confirm the number at this time and as you will appreciate with a fire of this size, affecting such a large building it would be unhelpful of me to speculate further," he said.

"The cause of the fire is not known at this stage, and clearly we will be here all day and will be in a providing further updates, working with the police and ambulance service."

Photo London Fire Brigade

The Assistant Director of Operations for the London Ambulance Service, Stuart Crichton, says they have transported more than 50 patients to five hospitals across the city.

"Over 100 of our medics are working hard to respond to this incident, including ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, advanced trauma teams from London's Air Ambulance, and those staff managing the incident in our special operations center," he said.

"In addition, our hazardous area response team are also on scene."

Many of the people evacuated - not just from the tower but from nearby buildings - were brought to a nearby church, St. Clement's.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan released a statement on his Facebook page.

"I'm truly devastated to see the horrific scenes of the major fire at Grenfell Tower in Kensington," he said. "I want to thank our incredible firefighters and emergency services for their immense courage, dedication and professionalism.

"My heart goes out to everyone affected."

While the building was recently refurbished, an activist group, the Grenfell Action Group, has been warning about safety problems at the tower.

"It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord," they wrote in a blog post last year.

On Wednesday, they wrote that "all our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time."

Main Photo: In this image made from video provided by Mischa Saag, onlookers watch a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Firefighters are battling a massive fire in an apartment high-rise in London. (Mischa Saag via AP)