Huge fire breaks out in London apartment building

A massive fire ripped through a 27-storey apartment block in west London before dawn on Wednesday, killing several people and injuring dozens more after residents were left trapped inside.

"It wasn't good", she told CNN. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale'.

A number of those inside said they'd been advised to stay in their apartments in the event of a fire and that their units were fire-proof for at least an hour.

Authorities reportedly said that almost all residents up to the 11 floor have been rescued by firefighters.

"It wasn't pleasant to hear and it's sad knowing you can't really do anything about it because you can't get up there to help". "By all accounts, it spread quickly".

A residents action group said its warnings about safety had fallen on "deaf ears".

In November 2016, the group posted, "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, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the risky living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders".

"By the time that we got downstairs, the fire had gone all the way up and it was just about reaching our windows on the 17th floor". London Mayor Sadiq Khan said more than 250 firefighters, over 100 medics and 100 police officers had attended the scene.

Pictures shared on social media showed the extent of the fire, with huge flames and plumes of smoke rising into the air. They also added they moved people with injuries from the tower block to the hospital. The building was to undergo specific improvements to fire safety and ventilation works.

One resident of the tower, Michael Paramasivan, said he was watching TV as his girlfriend and daughter slept, next to his sleeping girlfriend when he smelled burning plastic.

"Somebody did, a gentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby". We would not have heard anything.

Another local, identified as Jody, told the BBC he saw people "jumping out of windows" to escape the blaze.

"There was a lot of blue flames (in the fire) which made me think it was gas related and I think it was the plastic cladding that made it spread so fast".

Actor Mr Downie described: "It's horrendous".

"Literally within five minutes of seeing that, that side of the building became engulfed in flames".

Forty fire engines were called to the scene around 1 a.m. Wednesday local time (10 a.m. AEST).

"We could hear people screaming 'help me, help me" and flashing their phone lights to let people know they were there", a witness said.

"I went to my back bedroom, I thought if something was on fire I would see, and I was just speechless, the guy next door was screaming at people to get out of the building".

"The building is full of children, it's all families", one resident said.

"It was a complete nightmare".

The London Ambulance Service said 30 patients had been taken to hospital as a "major incident" was declared. Currently, there is no official report on the number of residents that are present in the tower.