蜜芽传媒

Good morning.

I grew up in West London, and whenever my parents were going to visit our relatives in the East End, we鈥檇 drive along the Westway. I remember being amazed by the sights along the way. The 蜜芽传媒 Television Centre, a Dairy Crest depot, countless industrial-looking buildings, and a cluster of tower blocks near the roadside. I鈥檇 try to imagine who would work or live in those places, and I鈥檇 think about the lives that they led, whether I would find them familiar or strange.

One of those blocks I would look at was Grenfell Tower, something I only discovered yesterday in the midst of the news coverage of the devastating fire. The image of the high rise block engulfed in flames is one which has now firmly lodged itself in our collective conscience.

Some of the people I鈥檇 be thinking about 30 years ago will still have been living there until just a few hours ago. Their lives have changed immeasurably, and the survivors now find themselves homeless and without anything to call their own.

Various stories have emerged from the tragedy over the last 24 hours. The desperation of residents jumping from the building in the hope that they鈥檇 survive the fall. The courage of firefighters risking their own lives to search for people trapped in the upper floors. The mother who threw her baby out of a 10th floor window to safety. Families running for their lives with nothing more than the clothes they鈥檇 gone to bed in. Each of those accounts are harrowing in themselves, but when brought together, they paint a grim picture of the human cost of the tragedy.

And yet there are also stories once again of selflessness from people of all faiths and none. St Clements Church, which opened its doors in the middle of the night to become a refuge for residents and which has since become the hub for public donations. Local Sikhs handing out water to survivors and the emergency services. The Muslims who travelled from across the capital to volunteer their help. People transcending the boundaries of faith and culture to help one another, treating each other as family, and more importantly, as fellow Londoners.

We can鈥檛 imagine the pain that people are going through at the moment, but the instinct that makes us wonder about one another鈥檚 lives is the very same instinct that shows that we care about each other when incidents like this happen. Those stories make the people familiar to us, and our response can be see in the outpouring of donations being given to the shelters which have been set up in the local area. They are our neighbours, and we give what we can.

Guru Nanak once said 鈥淥nly the good deeds which you have done shall remain with you, my soul. This opportunity shall not come again.鈥� I鈥檓 sure that those words will resonate with many of us.

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