Grenfell Tower victims 'were spitting out black tar', nurse describes harrowing scenes

Simone Williams, a nurse at University College Hospital, described what she saw as a sprawling inferno engulfed the West London apartment block on Wednesday morning.

She said: “They were coming out shouting that it was too hot.

“I started treating patients outside the building.

“A lot of the injuries were smoke inhalation, people were spitting out black tar that had gone on their lungs.”

And according to a burns consultant, patients being treated for smoke inhalation may “get worse before they get better” over the next few days.

Baljit Dheansa explained victims may have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, cyanide poisoning or burns to the nose and mouth, all of which affect their ability to breathe.

He said: “In a big building fire, smoke inhalation is the first and most devastating injury people get, and it is life threatening.

“For the next few days, things may get worse before they get better.”

Mr Dheansa, head of the burns unit at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex, said particles within the smoke can also cause the lungs to become inflamed, affecting the function of the organs “that may not happen straight away, but it continues and gets worse over the ensuing couple of days”.

He added that the 18 patients currently in critical care would “have very significant smoke inhalation” and that if they were able to get out, “it is unlikely they would have been very close to the flames”.

Mr Dheansa continued: “They are likely to have lasting lung damage and could be in hospital for treatment and therapy for months.”

The consultant also said patients would have suffered burns and broken limbs as they tried to escape.

He said patients taken to hospital will have been checked over from “top to toe” and that staff would have made sure they were getting enough fluid, were warm and had their pain managed.

He added: “As soon as they are stable enough they will have surgery to remove that dead, burnt tissue, and then skin grafts.

“Swelling from burns on limbs might require surgeons to make cuts to allow circulation to get through to the hands and feet.”