BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE
FIREFIGHTERS desperately tried to go deeper into the Grenfell Tower inferno, risking their lives trying to save others.
Younger crew members had to be dragged away by more experienced colleagues as they tried to find people on the 18th floor, sources said.
As the official death toll moved to 30 yesterday, it is thought around 40 more victims perished in the smoke-filled stairway.
Firefighters put their lives on the line, going 10 floors above the water hoses in an effort to save trapped residents as the fire began to take hold.
An insider said: “It was extremely dangerous to go so far and the more experienced firefighters had to drag the younger ones away because they knew to go any higher would mean death.
“The first call came at 12.54am and by 1.30am, it was a 25-pump fire. That is unprecedented.”
While 65 people were rescued, some in the block took the gamble to jump.
London’s fire chief Dany Cotton promised all firefighters would be getting counselling. She said: “I spoke to one of my officers who was very near when someone came out of the window and he was in tears.
“We like to think of ourselves as rufty-tufty and heroes – they are heroes, but they have feelings and people were absolutely devastated by the events.”
Artist Khadija Saye, 24, was named as the second official victim yesterday.
Khadija’s mum Mary Mendy, who was with her in the 20th-floor flat when the fire broke out, also died, according to family friend and Labour MP David Lammy.
He paid a tearful tribute to Khadija: “She was a young black woman making her way in this country. She’d done amazing things – gone to university – but she’s died, with her mother.
“It breaks my heart, that it’s happening in Britain in 2017.”
A BBC2 documentary about Khadija’s art work that was due to screen tonight has been pulled.
Desperate families were still checking hospitals and refuge centres yesterday for the missing.
Ana Ospina said of her 12-year-old niece Jessica Urbano: “I know there are people who say they already found her, but the reality is that there has been no news.”
Noha Baghdady put out a picture of her brother Hesham Rahman, 57, who lived on the 20th floor.
She said: “I’m feeling so helpless. All we can do is pray he is safe and well.”
A friend of missing Mohammed Neda posted on Facebook that “his family are severely injured in hospital and desperate to find out where he is”. ● Omega Mwaikambo, 43, who posted pictures on Facebook of a victim’s body has been jailed for three months.
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