Lives and deaths can be pieced together from the witness statements, transcripts and formal findings of this week’s inquiry into the fire at the tower
A firefighter searches the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London in July 2017 following the fire which killed 72 people. Photograph: Rick Findler/PA Wiredisaster, in which 72 people died in an inferno at a London block of flats in 2017, focused on the institutions that were to blame.The scale of loss and the intensity of the grief of victims’ families is laid out in harrowing detail in a mountain of documents on the inquiry’s website.
“My father was very happy that evening. He really enjoyed the food and ate two plates of rice. Usually he ate only one plate,” she said. He had diabetes and she worried about his diet. Nadia was afraid her father would not be able to walk down so they took the lift, which others were also using. However, the lift got temporarily stuck on the 10th floor, the doors opened and acrid smoke spilled in.
Rebecca knew all her neighbours. She was friends with one of the sons of the El Wahabi family, all five of whom perished in the fire. The mother used to cook Rebecca couscous Smoke entered the flat. “I just remember seeing it spread throughout the house,” said Rebecca. “This dark shadow that started to consume everything ... My dad said: ‘Now it’s time to go.’”
Kamru was a retired baker and tandoori chef, but was unwell after two strokes. Yet the family was happy because Husna was due to be married in July. She could see that the fire had engulfed the windows of her relatives’ flat. At 3am Hanif called and put the family on speakerphone: “We’re not going to make it.” Rohema could hear her aunt and uncle praying and Husna crying. Hanif apologised as he would not be able to repay his cousin a small loan. She told him she didn’t care about that and they said their goodbyes.
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