London tower fire: Muslims awake for Ramzan helped save lives

NEW DELHI:

Muslims

who were awake during the night because they were observing Ramzan helped save lives after noticing the blaze in London's

Grenfell Tower

.

The massive blaze, which engulfed the 24-storey residential tower housing over 100 families in

west London

, claimed the lives of at least 12 people and injured 74 others. But had it not been for the alarm raised by some Muslim youths, the toll may have been significantly higher, said a local woman outside the tower block.

"If it wasn't for all these young Muslims, young boys round here - coming from mosques, helping us... people would have [died]. A lot more people would have [died]," she said.

The woman added that the Muslim boys banged on doors and shouted warnings to alert the residents who were unaware or in bed.

"People want to talk about them when they do wrong - but when they're doing good... They were the first people with bags of water, giving to people and helping people - running and telling people," she said.



Some residents said they hadn't heard the fire alarms and it was only when fellow residents, Muslims among them, alerted them that they could quickly evacuate the burning building, The Independent reported.

The area around Grenfell Tower is home to a large number of Muslims, many of who were awake in the wee hours to eat suhur, the early morning meal before beginning the daily fast in the month of Ramzan.

The fire is believed to have broken out on the second floor of the tower block shortly after midnight on Wednesday, and had quickly swept through the entire building.

Meanwhile, mosques, gurdwaras and churches in west London have opened their doors to offer assistance to the survivors of the huge fire.