AN ENGINEER has described the community spirit he witnessed after the tragic blaze in Grenfell Tower as amazing.

Luke Markey, of Stisted, travelled to London yesterday to donate about 80 bags of clothes and volunteer his time to help victims of the devastating flat fire.

Mr Markey, 31, put a post on Facebook to say he would be travelling to donate clothes and was overwhelmed with the amount of support he received from people.

He said: “I have never experienced community spirit like it – left wing, right wing, no matter what religion or language you spoke, it was incredible to be right in there helping everyone.

“It was very surreal, I was right near the church next to it and I spoke to locals and there were people crying and helping each other.

“It’s shocking, it looks like 9/11 or something. The building is right in front of you and it’s eerie. It’s shocking just to know that there are still 50 or 60 people, their bodies, in there.

“There was a young lad who was on the news that I spoke to. There was a lot of anger towards the Government, they are saying that it’s a firetrap and they made it look pretty for the posh people on the other side of the road. They all felt let down.”

Braintree and Witham Times:

Dozens of bags with clothes are loaded into vans for Grenfell Tower residents

Police have confirmed at least 30 people died as a result of the fire, which started at about 1am on Wednesday, but there are still up to 76 unaccounted for. In an effort to help, Mr Markey spent five hours at a centre in Westway, folding clothes and loading boxes into vans.

He said: “I drove down to the site and walked down because I heard they needed volunteers, I went to Westway and as soon as I turned up we got in grafting.

“A lot of people came and met me, my friend came and bought lots of nappies and baby food and bits like that.

“I thought I would take leftover bits to a charity shop because I heard they had enough, I struggled to find anywhere.

“I did manage to find a place to take the bags at a community centre. It was an emotional day, but I was glad I did it.”