Newsnight has learned a high ladder did not arrive for more than 30 minutes.

The London Fire Brigade says it has changed its procedures since the fire.

A high ladder will now automatically be sent to a fire in a tower.

An independent fire expert said having the high ladder, which is also known as an "aerial", available earlier would have given firefighters a better chance of stopping the fire when it jumped from a fourth floor flat in the tower block and began to race up the side of the building.

More than 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines were involved in battling the fire that engulfed the block in North Kensington, west London.

Varnado was driving a fully loaded water truck to the scene around 8:30 p.m. At the intersection of Mount Pisgah Road and Burch Road, the truck apparently ran off the road and tipped over, sliding several yards before striking an embankment, the Sheriff's Office said. The water tank apparently came loose and crashed into the truck cab, causing the death of Varnado, according to the release.

Five people in a government ambulance, including a pregnant woman, were injured when it was hit by a Philippine National Railways train near the PNR Blumentritt station in Manila on Friday afternoon.

Witnesses and responders said the ambulance, which belonged to Barangay 167, Caloocan City, got trapped in the train’s path after being slowed down by tricycles due to heavy traffic on the northbound lane of Rizal Avenue in Barangay 365, Sta. Cruz.

R.B. Lawrence, owner of R.B. Lawrence Ambulance in Canton, told the Watertown Daily Times they were his employees.

"We are such a small company that they are all family," Lawrence told the newspaper. "They are just great people. I am not sure how we replace them or how we go on, but we are still in shock on this and still trying to figure out all that happened."