GRENFELL VICTIM’S PLEAS ON FACEBOOK

TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to two young people in the Highlands and Islands who died following car crashes, days before their birthdays.

Stromness in Orkney was in mourning over the tragic loss of 22-year-old Emma Barton.

She died on Sunday, five days after being involved in a single vehicle road crash on the A965 Kirkwall to Finstown road at Rennibister.

Emma was airlifted from Orkney’s Balfour Hospital to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. A man, who was in the car, was also taken to Balfour Hospital.

Tributes were paid to Emma, the eldest of three daughters to Andrew Barton and Lynn Drever.

She worked as an administrative assistant with Orkney Islands Council and part-time as a waitress at the Royal Hotel in Stromness. She was set to celebrate BY CHARLIE GALL her 23rd birthday on Friday. A close friend said: “Emma was a very hardworking and fun-loving person. She was always keen to help and was never without a smile.”

Meanwhile, a nuclear plant worker was killed on the eve of his 20th birthday.

Connor Cook, 19, died when his Ford Fiesta veered off a road near Thurso, Caithness, on Saturday night. No other vehicles were involved in the Z-bend crash on the Hill of Forss road, half a mile from the A836.

Connor, from Bettyhill, had attended North Highland College UHI. He started at Dounreay as a trainee decommissioning worker during the summer.

Sandra Munro, chair of the local community douncil, said: “Connor’s family are shattered by his loss.” A GRENFELL Tower fire victim begged friends on social media to pray for her as she was trapped in the burning high-rise, a public inquiry heard yestrday.

Khadija Saye posted on Facebook: “There’s a fire in my council block, can’t leave the flat. Please pray for me and my mum.”

The artist was on the 20th floor of the west London tower with her mother, Mary Mendy. In response, friends urged her not to panic and shared advice they had been given by emergency services.

Khadija, 24, then posted: “F***. I’m scared to leave.”

Screenshots of the Facebook conversations were shown to the inquiry into the blaze. In later messages, Khadija wrote she had tried to escape twice but the smoke was “too strong” and it was “impossible”.

Khadija died in the hallway on the ninth floor as a result of inhalation of fire fumes and burns.

Her mother, Mary, died on the 13th floor.