Daily Mail

Fireman: I heard children screaming

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A FIREMAN who battled the blaze has described listening to trapped children ‘screaming and screaming for help’ and watching families die before his eyes.

Damian Magee was one of more than 200 fire crew who battled the inferno to the point of exhaustion.

Speaking about the scene inside the tower, he said: ‘I could hear screaming, children screaming and other residents in the block. I can remember one kid’s voice sticking out that was a higher pitch than other voices.’

Mr Magee, who has served as a fireman for 20 years, said he was ‘heartbroke­n’ after a little boy who fled from the tower told him his brother was dead.

He told Sky News: ‘It was a little boy with his mother, who was in a very bad way. He was a lovely little fella about five years old. We asked him what flat he was in and if anyone else was in there.

‘He turned and looked at me and said: “It’s just my brother, but he’s dead now”.

‘It breaks your heart ... You feel useless and helpless. I knew that they were looking at us to save them.

‘But we were put in a situation where we can’t. Our ladders can’t go that high.’

Mr Magee said fireman were ‘in bits and completely exhausted’ as they sought to save residents. He added that, despite their heroics, ‘all the firefighte­rs who were there are going to be killing themselves wishing that we could do more because of the number of people we have lost’.

‘We watched families die. I watched people die,’ he said.

 ??  ?? Heroic: Damian Magee
Heroic: Damian Magee

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