FOLLOW US ON
Instagram
Follow @GQ for photos of celebrities, what to wear to work, and more.
Archives par mot-clé : video
How To Master A Viral Video Campaign
STEP ONE – Don’t try to make a viral video. That’s the first piece of feedback I got from Benton Crane, Co-Founder Managing Director of Harmone Brothers, a video marketing agency that’s doing things differently. You may not have heard of Harmone Brothers but you have most definitely seen their work. They are the genius behind Poo Pourri, Squatty Potty, and Purple. Their videos often garner upwards of 150M+ views, have provided one company a 13,000% increase in web traffic and have put new brands on the industry map in days. Crane, however, let’s clients know that Harmone is not in the business of creating viral videos and if anyone promises you that, you should be skeptical. « By nature virility is unpredictable. You may have captured lighting in a bottle, and that’s great, but it’s not formulaic, it’s not repeatable”.
The Harmone Brother’s were some of the early pioneers of YouTube marketing when they leveraged the platform for their company Orabrush back in 2009. ”Prior to them YouTube was limited to cat videos, no one had grown a business solely on YouTube but they did just that.” Says Crane.
Video consumption is growing by 100% every year, reports HubSpot and YouTube says its primetime audience is bigger then the top 10 TV shows combined. Additionally, from a customer adoption perspective, the HubSpot report shows that 64% of customers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video about it.
It’s become every entrepreneur’s dream to create that one video that drives awareness, conversions and growth. Here are a few takeaways from my chat with Benton that unwrap the mystery behind creating the ultimate video campaign.
Craft strong creative that’s ‘sharable’
Harmone is widely known for taking uncomfortable topics and making them comfortable by adding a dose of humour. Given that humour has played such a core role in several of their successes, I wanted to know, how important is humour to a campaigns success?
The answer, “Not necessary. Humour helps when you are trying to build a share-ability component” says Crane and shares are key for increased views and wide spread coverage.
Research by SocialBankers on Facebook ads shows that shares directly correlate with viral reach more than any other kind of interaction including likes and comments. “There are only a few things that are social acceptable to share” says Crane “inspiration can work too but by nature humour is more sharable than any other content type.” While humour is not a necessary predictor of success, for wide spread reach you should hone in on content that is easy and socially acceptable to share.
#Media Leadership: Weekly Challenge – video marketing distribution
Here is your first scenario:
Your organization is finally creating video content, yet your marketing budget has only increased three-four per cent year-over-year.
Your challenge is how you can gain ROI in a highly fragmented video ecosystem with so many channels.
First, you need to be very strategic. Figure out, at a granular level who is the best demographic to yield conversions.
Second, You need to create high-quality content.
Third, you must maximize your video asset value by collaborating everywhere that makes sense, without blowing your small budget.
Your distribution strategy might be very different than what you are used to. We all know the regulars. YouTube. Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.
By creating your best personas you have helped in making the right choices for efficiency and investment of dollars and time.
As an example, did you consider Viber, a Voice Over IP and instant messaging app for mobile devices. Why Viber? Well, considering where your potential clients are snacking it allows for the exchange of audio, video and images between users with 600 million registered.
Or perhaps StumbleUpon is a choice that should be in your marketing mix. It’s a discovery engine that finds and recommends content for its 25 million users. Wouldn’t it be nice to also have recommendations without paying to be everywhere.
So, identify your audience. Then do your research to find out where they are consuming content.
Choose your platforms carefully. Be agile, Test and Prove ROI by investing moderately until you understand the medium. As McLuhan said, The medium is the message.
Related Download 
Sponsor: Cogeco Peer 1
CanadianCIO Census 2016 Mapping Out the Innovation Agenda
The CanadianCIO 2016 census will help you answer those questions and more. Based on detailed survey results from more than 100 senior technology leaders, the new report offers insights on issues ranging from stature and spend to challenges and the opportunities ahead.
Register Now
London fire: Crews work through night at tower block
Firefighters have worked through the night to dampen the deadly fire at a west London block of flats that killed 12 people and left many more missing.
Flames could still be seen inside the tower block as crews used lights to search the building floor by floor.
Sixty-five people were rescued after fire ripped through Grenfell Tower in north Kensington on Wednesday morning.
Police have warned the number of deaths is expected to rise, while PM Theresa May has promised a full investigation.
Thirty-four people remain in hospital – 18 of whom are in a critical condition.
- Latest updates: Death toll expected to rise
- What we know so far
- Baby caught after being ‘dropped to safety from tower’
Firefighters were called to the residential tower at 00:54 BST on Wednesday, at a time when « several hundred » people were thought to have been inside.
Image copyright
Rex Features
Dozens of people spent the night in makeshift rescue centres
The tower had around 120 flats. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
Dozens of people left homeless by the fire have spent the night in makeshift rescue centres, while well-wishers have been signing a wall of condolence near the site.
Photographs have been left alongside messages for loved ones.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council said it had placed 44 households so far in emergency accommodation.
Cladding fires
Through the night, people have been donating food, clothes and blankets for those left without homes.
Bhupinder Singh, one volunteer handling donations, said: « It is times like this that the best of our community comes out. This is where you find out how good it is to live in England and how good it is to be a Londoner. »
Image copyright
Reuters
People have been signing a wall of condolence, close to the tower
Questions have been raised about why the fire appeared to spread so quickly and engulf the entire building.
BBC Newsnight’s Chris Cook says the type of cladding on the outside of Grenfell Tower, installed in 2015, had a polyethylene – or plastic – core, instead of a more fireproof alternative with a mineral core.
Similar cladding was used in high-rise buildings hit by fires in France, the UAE and Australia, he said.
The missing
Image copyright
Ana Ospina
Jessica Urbano Ramirez, 12, is believed to have become separated from her family
Appeals are being made on social media for news of friends and family who are still unaccounted for.
Among them is 12-year-old Jessica Urbano Ramirez, 66-year-old retired lorry driver Tony Disson and security guard Mo Tuccu, who was visiting friends in the tower to break the Ramadan fast.
An emergency number – 0800 0961 233 – has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or family.
By Wednesday evening, almost all of the building had been searched but crews were still trying to put out « pockets of fire » in hard to reach places, London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Steve Apter said
Checks confirmed the building was not in danger of collapsing, London Fire Brigade added.
‘Baby thrown from window’
Survivors of the fire told how they defied official advice to stay put, and ran with their families down dark, smoke-filled corridors to get out of the building.
Michael Paramasivan, who lives on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, said: « If we had stayed in that flat, we would’ve perished. »
Others were concerned that the smoke alarms did not go off.
Zoe, from the fourth floor, said: « The way the fire spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary. »
People in the street below described watching as a baby was thrown from a window, people jumped and climbed down the side of the burning tower using ropes made from bed sheets.
Jody Martin said: « I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window… hearing screams.
« I was yelling at everyone to get down and they were saying ‘We can’t leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors’. »
- Labour demands answers over Grenfell Tower fire tragedy
- ‘I saw people jumping out of windows’
- Evening Standard photographer describes ‘war zone’ conditions
Image copyright
Reuters
Volunteers helped unload food deliveries near the tower block
Safety fears
Image copyright
EPA
It is understood that ‘several hundred’ people would have been in the block when the fire broke out
Grenfell Tower underwent an £8.6m refurbishment as part of a wider transformation of the estate, that was completed in May last year.
Work included new exterior cladding and a communal heating system.
-
127 flats
-
24 storeys
-
20 residential levels
-
4 mixed levels of community areas and residential flats
-
2016 refurbishment completed
The 24-storey tower is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation on behalf of the council.
Before and during the refurbishment, the local Grenfell Action Group claimed that the block constituted a fire risk and residents warned that site access for emergency vehicles was « severely restricted ».
Policing and fire minister Nick Hurd said checks were now planned on tower blocks that have gone through similar refurbishment.
He said authorities discussed « a process whereby we seek to identify towers that might be in a similar process of refurbishment (and) run a system of checks and inspections ».
Image copyright
Guilhem Baker/LNP
More than 250 firefighters helped rescue people and put the fire out
Construction firm Rydon, which carried out the refurbishment, said it was « shocked to hear of the devastating fire ».
It originally stated that the work « met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards ».
It later issued a new statement, removing the previous mention of the building meeting fire regulation standards, instead saying the project met « all required building regulations ».
In a statement, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, said it was « too early to speculate what caused the fire and contributed to its spread ».
Council leader Nick Paget-Brown said the buildings were regularly inspected, but a « thorough investigation » was needed.
Politicians call for answers
The prime minister has promised a « proper investigation » into the fire.
But Labour politicians are calling for answers from the government. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: « We need to know what reports were available, what information was given and what actions were taken. »
A review of building regulations covering fire safety was promised by Prime Minister Theresa May’s chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, last year, when he was a government minister, but has not been published.
Responding to earlier reports, the Department for Communities and Local Government said it was « simply not true » that a report has been « sat on ».
Following the Lakanal House fire in south London in 2009, in which six people died, the coroner recommended the guidance relating to fire safety within the Building Regulations was simplified.
The government said this work was « ongoing ».
The government also wrote to councils encouraging them to consider retro-fitting sprinklers, as recommended by the coroner, a statement said.
Southwark Council was fined £270,000 for breaching fire safety regulations after the Lakanal House blaze.
Refurbishment work completed in 2016 included more residential areas in the four lower ‘podium’ levels
Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning
Mueller Seeks to Talk to Intelligence Officials, Hinting at Inquiry of Trump
We’re sorry, we are not able to log you in
In order to access our website, your browser must accept cookies from NYTimes.com.
More information on cookie settings »
Lawmaker Steve Scalise is critically injured in GOP baseball shooting; gunman James T. Hodgkinson is killed by police
Several congressmen at the Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria praised the officers who engaged Hodgkinson, including two Capitol Police officers who were injured. One lawmaker said the baseball team members would have been sitting ducks had the gunman been able to make it onto the field.
“It would have been a bloodbath,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.).
Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), a retired Army general, said, the shooter was kept off the field by a chain-link fence, which was locked. “If he had been able to gain entrance to the field, it would have been a whole different story.”
As of Wednesday evening, Scalise (La.) remained in critical condition after undergoing surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. A lobbyist, a congressional aide and a Capitol Police officer also were shot, while a second officer was struck by shrapnel. Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.) injured his ankle while helping others take cover.
[Gunman repeatedly criticized Republican lawmakers for favoring ‘super rich’]
In a televised statement from the White House, Trump called for people to come together and commended the injured officers.
“Many lives would have been lost if not for the heroic actions of the two Capitol Police officers who took down the gunman despite sustaining gunshot wounds during a very, very brutal assault,” he said.
What happened at the GOP baseball shooting, in maps and photos
Trump said he spoke with Scalise’s wife and offered his full support to the congressman’s family, calling Scalise a friend, patriot and fighter. He also thanked the first responders.
“We may have our differences, but we do well in times like these to remember that everyone who serves in our nation’s capital is here because, above all, they love our country,” Trump said.
Lawmakers and bystanders described a horrific attack that began shortly after 7 a.m., when the shooter began firing more than 50 rounds from a military-style rifle and a handgun, taking aim through the chain-link fence.
Scalise was felled by a bullet to the hip as he fielded grounders at second base, witnesses said. Then the aide and the lobbyist were struck as the gunman moved methodically around the fence and toward the home-plate backstop. As Scalise crawled across the field, leaving a trail of blood, the gunman advanced toward a dugout, where several people were hiding.
Congressmen said the Capitol Police officers emerged from the dugout, moving toward the gunfire. A woman walking her dog said she heard a female officer scream, “Drop your weapon,” before the gunman “shot her and she fell to the ground.” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the officers “went out into the fire to draw the fire. The shooter was moving toward the dugout where the members were, and they were able to take him down.”
Authorities said five people were taken to hospitals, including Hodgkinson. Matt Mika, a lobbyist for Tyson Foods, was in critical condition at George Washington University Hospital, a spokeswoman said. Zach Barth, a legislative correspondent for Williams, was shot in the leg and released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
The House speaker’s office identified the injured Capitol Police officers as Special Agents David Bailey, who was treated and released from a hospital, and Crystal Griner, who was struck in the ankle and hospitalized in good condition. Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa said both are expected to recover fully. Police identified a third officer who participated as Special Agent Henry Cabrera. They did not say which officers fired their weapons.
Alexandria Police Chief Michael Brown said two city officers who arrived at the scene opened fire, joining Capitol Police officers who already were in a gun battle with Hodgkinson.
Scalise’s office said in a statement that the congressman was in good spirits and speaking to his wife, Jennifer, by phone before he went in for surgery. Wednesday night, the hospital said Scalise was shot in the left hip and that the bullet fractured bones and struck internal organs. They said Scalise had lost a lot of blood and would need additional surgeries.
He has been in Congress since 2008 and represents a district that includes some New Orleans suburbs and bayou parishes. He and his wife have two children.
[Rep. Steve Scalise and the long, awful history of gunned-down lawmakers]
Verderosa said it “will take a while to sort through all the details” during the investigation, which is now being led by the FBI. Tim Slater, the special agent in charge, said it is “too early to tell whether anyone was targeted. . . . It’s really raw now.”
But focus immediately turned to political statements Hodgkinson had made on social media, interactions he had had with lawmakers, and run-ins he had had with law enforcement officials near his home in Belleville, Ill., a suburb of St. Louis.
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) told reporters that, just before the shooting, he spoke briefly with a man he believes was Hodgkinson and that the man “asked me if the team practicing was a Democrat or Republican team.” Duncan added, “I told him they were Republicans. He said, ‘Okay, thanks,’ and turned around.
“I’m shaken up. My colleagues were targeted today.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Hodgkinson volunteered on his 2016 Democratic presidential campaign, although an aide said that he had no formal role and that no one could remember him. Sanders denounced the shooting, saying on the Senate floor that he was “sickened by this despicable act.”
Hodgkinson had sent letters to his local newspaper in Illinois decrying income inequality, encouraging the government to tax the rich and supporting President Barack Obama, according to the Belleville News-Democrat. “A strong middle class is what a country needs to prosper,” he wrote in one of his letters to the editor. “The only thing that has trickled down in the last 30 years came from Mitt Romney’s dog.”
Police in Belleville reported responding in March to a complaint that Hodgkinson was shooting at the end of his street, firing 50 rounds “in the pine trees.” Police said that he had a valid license for the weapon, and that he agreed to stop when they told him to.
Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.), who represents the district where Hodgkinson lived, said that Hodgkinson had contacted his office 14 times via email or by telephone and that although he never made threats, “he was always angry.”
Stephen Brennwald, a lawyer who lives in Alexandria, said he realized after seeing Hodgkinson’s photo on the news that he was the same man who had been hanging out for at least the past several weeks in the lobby of a YMCA adjacent to Simpson field. Brennwald said Hodgkinson would regularly show up first thing in the morning — about the same time the shooting took place — and look at his laptop or stare out the window.
“He never worked out. He never talked to anybody. He never did anything,” Brennwald said.
Authorities said Hodgkinson used a rifle and a handgun in the attack. They are investigating whether they were obtained legally.
The shooting started at 7:09 a.m. at the popular park on East Monroe Avenue in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, near Old Town Alexandria and the Potomac Yard shopping complex on Route 1. The Republican lawmakers were holding their final practice before Thursday night’s game, a traditional event designed to bolster goodwill between two sides of the partisan aisle.
Scalise, who plays second base, was accompanied by members of the Capitol Police’s executive protection unit because as majority whip, he is the third-highest-ranking member of the House. His security detail was positioned behind the first base dugout; witnesses said the shooter started on the other side of the diamond.
About 20 people were on the field at the time, many catching fly balls from batting practice, and when the gunfire started, players and onlookers took cover in dugouts, under a sport-utility vehicle or in the open on the ground. Barton, the team manager, said the gunman, dressed in blue jeans and a blue shirt, shot at Scalise at second base and fired toward the third baseman, Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.).
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) saw the shooter and described the scene as “bedlam.” Brooks had just stepped up to home plate with a bat in his hand when he heard the first two or three shots.
He heard Scalise scream and then go down.
Brooks said he ran behind the batting cage and watched Scalise drag himself toward the outfield. Brooks lay down in the dirt with two or three others, but then realized that if the shooter moved, “he’d have a clear shot.” So he ran to the first base dugout. There, he found Barth, who had been shot in the leg. Brooks said he used his belt as a tourniquet.
He said two officers emerged from the dugout and advanced toward the oncoming bullets.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), still wearing a red and white baseball shirt with “Republicans” on it, said he recalled seeing the rifle and then hearing shots. He said the gunman was firing “at anybody he could hit. I don’t know if anybody was targeted, but I just remember seeing some of the gravel bounce up as gunfire hit.”
Katie Fillus of Alexandria had just gotten out of her car to walk her dogs in the park when she said she heard “very, very loud popping sounds.” She said, “Everybody started screaming, ‘Hit the ground! Hit the ground!’ ”
Fillus said she lay flat in the field as the gunshots grew louder — “like he was walking across the field toward all of us.”
She said she watched an officer yell at the gunman and then get shot.
“She fell on the ground in front of us,” Fillus said. “And I belly crawled, dragging through the mud. I got to the car and I ducked under the car.”
Bullet holes were left in windows of the YMCA, and bullets were in the swimming pool. On Wednesday evening, about 100 people gathered at a church in Del Ray for a community prayer service. Trump, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, visited the hospital where Scalise and Griner were being treated. Aides carried in flowers.
[The Congressional Baseball Game has been ‘a great bipartisan tradition’ for 100 years]
Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and Barton — managers of the respective teams — said they will still take to the field Thursday night.
“We’re united not as Republicans and Democrats but as United States representatives,” Barton said. “It will be ‘play ball’ tomorrow night, 7:05.”
Everything You Need To Know About Video Marketing For Your …
Video marketing was the big success story of 2016, and so far in 2017 there are no signs it’s losing its shine.
The statistics tell a powerful tale. Research reveals video viewers are between 64% and 85% more likely to buy a product after seeing a video for it, and 71% of marketers report higher conversion rates for video than for any other form of marketing.
Using video in emails can substantially increase click-through rates, and users are far more likely to share video with their friends (therefore promoting your company for free) than any other form of advertising.
And if the primary benefits weren’t enough, rich media is seen in a favorable light by search engine algorithms—so the presence of video on your website could also provide a handy SEO boost.
© DigiClack – Fotolia.com
An incredible 92% of mobile users watch and, most important, share videos.
Is video right for you?
In short, yes, it probably is. Online access in developed markets is near-universal; 84% of American adults are internet users, and among the under-50s the figure is closer to 95%.
That’s good news for all online marketing, but video in particular benefits from the rise in our use of mobile technology to access the web. An incredible 92% of mobile users watch and, most important, share videos.
Text rarely works well on smaller screens, but video is perfect for mobile.
However big your business is and whatever you’re selling, it’s a near certainty that your target demographic will be out there waiting on the web, ready and willing to engage with and, if they like it, spread your message around.
RELATED: 3 Ways to Use Online Video to Improve Your Content Marketing
Getting creative vs. calling in the pros
Video marketing is a lot trickier to put together than static images or text-based advertisements, and this can present problems, especially if you’re doing it alone or as part of a small, non-specialized team.
Whether or not you can produce useful video marketing in house largely depends on the skills and equipment available, and what your goals are. A quick, six-second video could easily be shot using a smartphone camera, and a $400 camera on a tripod is more than capable of producing professional-looking video.
Jeff Sessions Denies Collusion, Deploring ‘Detestable Lie’ in Senate Testimony
We’re sorry, we are not able to log you in
In order to access our website, your browser must accept cookies from NYTimes.com.
More information on cookie settings »
London high-rise fire like ‘horror movie,’ leaving many dead and dozens injured
LONDON — At least six people were killed, more than 70 injured and many others missing on Wednesday as a fire ripped through a high-rise apartment building in west London where residents had long warned of the potential risk of a catastrophic blaze.
A thick plume of smoke could be seen for miles around, while witnesses reported people jumping from parts of the 24-story building after being trapped by the advancing flames.
Children banged on closed windows as they were enveloped by the dark smoke. A woman dropped her baby from at least a dozen stories up, desperately hoping someone would catch it in the streets below.
Hundreds of other residents, many who had been asleep when the blaze broke out shortly before 1 a.m., were forced to flee down dark and smoky stairwells. Grenfell Tower, which is public housing for poor and disabled residents of one of London’s poshest neighborhoods, was engulfed within minutes, said locals.
“It was like a horror movie, smoke was coming from everywhere,” said building resident Adeeb, who hobbled down nine flights of stairs on crutches with his wife and three daughters.
Adeeb, who declined to give his last name, said there had been no alarms, and that he only learned of the fire when his daughter woke him.
“She said ‘I can see fire’ and I opened the door and could see smoke,” added Adeeb, who is originally from Syria but has lived in Britain for 16 years. One of his daughters was hospitalized.
The fire raised immediate questions about how a recently renovated high-rise apartment building in the center of one of the world’s wealthiest cities could so quickly become a 24-story inferno, with no alarms or sprinklers to help save those trapped within. Residents had complained in recent months that the management company was flouting fire safety rules, including by providing inadequate escape routes.
Officials said the cause of the fire was still being investigated. Terrorism was not suspected.
A witness interviewed by the BBC said his fourth-floor neighbor had awakened him around 1 a.m. to tell him that his “fridge had exploded.” Another witness told the broadcaster that the concrete building’s exterior cladding, which was just added last year, had “burned like paper” as the fire leapt from one floor to the next.
“It appears that the external cladding has significantly contributed to the spread of fire at Grenfell Tower,” said Angus Law, an expert with the Building Research Establishment Center for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh.
Law said that British regulations are intended to halt the spread of fire between units and floors in high-rise buildings, but that when that fails “the consequences are often catastrophic.”
London police said six people were confirmed dead, but expected the toll to rise. Emergency services said at least 74 people were being treated at five area hospitals, with at least 10 in critical condition. The building is home to about 500 people.
At least 40 fire engines responded to the scene, with 200 firefighters involved in a futile effort to contain the blaze. Many rushed into the building wearing breathing tanks, searching floor by floor for survivors even amid concerns that the structure could collapse.
London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said a structural engineer was monitoring the stability of the building, but that it was still safe for rescue crews to enter. She said firefighters had climbed as high as the 20th floor to rescue residents and carry them down the building’s stairwell, and that the searches continued.
The fire, which was believed to have begun on one of the lower floors of the 120-unit building, was still burning as of noon in London, some 11 hours after it began.
“This is an unprecedented incident,” Cotton said. “In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never ever seen anything of this scale.”
Speaking within sight of the burning high-rise — originally white and gray, but most of which had turned a charred black — Cotton said she would not speculate on the ultimate death toll because of the “size and complexity” of the building.
Throughout the morning, witnesses reported harrowing scenes as residents trapped in top floors leaned out windows, flashing their cellphone lights and calling frantically for help.
James Wood, a 32-year-old graphic designer who lives in an adjacent building, said he saw a woman at about the 13th floor holding a baby out a window until all hope of a rescue had passed.
“She dropped the baby,” he said. “I’m hoping it was into someone’s arms. But I don’t think the mother made it.”
He said he also saw children, about 5-years-old, banging on a closed window.
“And then it was black smoke. It was all up in flames,” he said. “I know they didn’t make it.”
Wood said he had been part of a campaign to force the borough council to enhance the fire safety in his own public-housing building, but he said the council had not acted.
“Anyone who earns below 10 million pounds a year is not human in this borough,” he said. “They don’t care about fire safety.”
Sajad Jamalvatan, a 22-year-old biomedical engineering student, was at a movie at the nearby Westfield shopping center with his sister when his mom called to say their building was on fire.
Minutes later, he was back in front of the high-rise and watched a horror scene unfold.
“As soon as I arrived, someone pointed and said ‘someone is jumping, someone is jumping.’ About 16th or 17th floor, we saw a body coming down.”
“Seeing people die in front of you . . .” he stared at the sidewalk as his voice trailed off.
He said the blaze had advanced quickly, and that the alarms did not appear to have been triggered. “There are plenty of alarms in the building, but no alarm went off,” he said. “When I arrived, there were 10 flats on fire. After that, the whole building was on fire.”
“It went like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.
As of midday Wednesday, many people continued to search for loved ones.
Ahmed Chellat, a retired 60-year-old, said he was searching for his brother-in-law and his wife, as well as their three children, the youngest of whom is 8.
He said he had spoken to the wife at 1:45 a.m. and that she was still in their apartment on the 21st floor.
“She wasn’t panicked,” he said. “I said, ‘Why don’t you come out?’ She said ‘They are telling us to stay in. They are asking us to cover doors with towels.’ ”
Half an hour later, he called her again. “The last thing she said was, ‘Smoke was coming heavily into the flat.’ ”
He has not heard from them since.
From an adjacent building, he said he could see Grenfell’s exterior cladding, which he said was made of plastic, hear the building’s exterior cladding catch alight.
“You could hear it cracking — hear it flying,” he said. “If it was brick it would not have caught fire as quickly.”
“I never imagined this could happen in London,” he said.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said there were “genuine questions that people across the country who live in tower blocks will have. They need to be answered.”
But he said for the time being, the focus is on search-and-rescue — and that it would soon shift to recovery of the dead.
By midmorning, an acrid smell permeated the area.
About 100 people — residents, worried family members and onlookers — stood outside the nearby Rugby Portobello community center. Some were still in their pajamas, having fled in a panic hours earlier.
Neighbors streamed into the center with food. One man pushed a baby stroller teetering with bottles of water, jugs of milk and cans of baked beans.
Grenfell Tower is surrounded by some of London’s most desired areas, home to celebrities, politicians and wealthy foreigners. It’s just a short walk from Kensington Palace. But the area also includes pockets of poverty, especially in a cluster of high-rise buildings that mark an unofficial western entry point to central London.
Residents of the building, which was constructed in 1974, had long warned of potential fire hazards even though it was completely renovated just last year.
“It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice!” a residents organization, the Grenfell Action Group, wrote in a blog post last year.
KCTMO, which stands for Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organization, is the group that runs public housing on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the west London area where the fire broke out.
On Wednesday morning, the Grenfell Action Group’s website was updated, with a post on the fire.
“All our warnings fell on deaf ears, and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time,” the post read.
Residents said they had been instructed by management before the blaze to stay in their apartments in the event of a fire and to wait for emergency services to arrive. They said they had been told that their units were fireproof for at least an hour.
Rydon, the company that handled last year’s $11 million renovation, issued a statement saying its work “met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards.” The firm said it would cooperate with investigators.
The management company had no immediate comment.
Nick Paget-Brown, who leads the borough council, told the BBC that there would be “a thorough investigation into “why the fire started and why it spread so quickly.”
He acknowledged that residents had expressed concerns before the fire, but did not specifically address them on Wednesday. “There are always concerns about fire safety in high-rise buildings,” he said.
Read more:
London’s burning, but this fire wasn’t so Great.
London’s first Muslim mayor stays calm amid terrorist attacks
The new theory about Oakland’s deadly Ghost Ship warehouse fire
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
House Majority Whip, several others, shot at congressional baseball practice
The gunman, a white man with dark hair, wearing a blue shirt, could be seen standing with a rifle as he began shooting, Flake said. « Fifty would be an understatement, » Flake said, referring to the number of shots.
Scalise, 51, was standing on second base, fielding balls during batting practice when the shooting began, Flake said.
« We climbed into the dugout » to shelter and treat the wounded, Flake said.
Police returned fire, and « when we heard the shooter was down, » he and others ran onto the field to help Scalise until medics arrived, Flake said.
Alexandria police chief Michael Brown said his officers arrived on the scene within two to three minutes and engaged the shooter.
Matthew Verderosa, chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, said police were interviewing multiple witnesses on the scene.
If police had not been at the scene, « it would have been a massacre, » Paul said. « As terrible as it is, it could have been a lot worse. »
The members of Congress were practicing for a charity ballgame. « We practice 20 or 30 times » over a period of several weeks before the game, Paul said.
Paul said he heard perhaps 50 to 60 shots, which he said sounded like they were coming from an AR-15 or similar rifle.
Capitol Police officers were present because Scalise, a member of the congressional leadership was there.
« We were really lucky that they were there, » he said.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tweeted that President Trump was aware of the shooting.