‘This is for the Grenfell family’
A CHANGE, A JOURNEY AND IMPORTANT CONVERSATIONS
AN INCREDIBLY brave survivor of the Grenfell Tower tragedy plans to visit the head office of the firm who made the faulty cladding on the tower, as part of a campaign to spread the lessons learnt from the fire.
Nicholas Burton’s wife Pily spent seven months in hospital and was the last person to die because of the fire and Mr Burton has been regularly attending the public inquiry into her death, and the deaths of 71 of their neighbours in the horrific blaze.
But now, understandably, he is taking a break as the first stage of the inquiry has ended, and is trying to put his personal heartache behind him in a mammoth overseas trip.
It will see him visit firefighters, residents and even the headquarters of Arconic, the firm which made the cladding used on Grenfell , during a stop off in the United States.
“I need just to find my own self,” he said as he prepared to head off on the 10-month trip overseas which will take him to America, the Caribbean, Peru, Chile, Australia, New Zealand and a host of other countries. Along the way he is meeting firefighters and people living in social housing.
He has some gifts from firefighters in the UK he plans to pass onto their counterparts overseas.
“I will be going to fire stations as well and see what they’ve encountered, including things like mental health,” he said.
When his visits the New York headquarters of Arconic he is planning to do so quietly and with dignity. He said he is not the man to chain himself to railings.
For him it’s all about dignity in fact.
After he finished his evidence at the inquiry last November, he was asked if there was anything else he wanted to say.
He replied: “This is so important that it has to stop here. We’ve seen failings and failings – I’ve been failed many times – you know, failings and failings and failings with other fires and other lessons not learnt.
“So Grenfell has to stand for something, and it’s to stop here about how people are treated and how the system needs to be closed, you know.
“We as the survivors and everything, we’re dealing with multi-billion pound corporations.
“We’re fighting against a system that is broken, and they know it’s broken, but you know, they usually put a sticking plaster over it and move on.”
He told a recent gathering at the Playground Theatre near Grenfell that “some of these big corporations, I’m going to be knocking on their doors.”
Speaking as he prepared for his trip, he recalled that moment at the inquiry: “I just said what I feel from the heart,” he said.
He added: “The word that stuck in my mind is dignity.”
From the monthly Silent Walks to the meetings with officials – including Prime Minister Theresa May – it was crucial to maintain dignity throughout the months and years ahead, he said.
Hospital catering manage Mr Burton lived on the 19th floor of Grenfell Tower with his wife Maria del Pilar Burton, who was known to her family and friends as Pily, and their dog Simba who also died in the fire.
Pily was the 72nd victim of the fire and died in January 2018 after spending seven months in hospital.
A month before Pily died aged 74, Mr Burton underwent emergency open heart surgery.
His mother Maureen has also passed away.
The Burtons had lived in the tower for years. Pily was one of the first residents to move in when it was built in the 1970s and the couple bought their leasehold in 1994.
It’s clear that Mr Burton has many friends in the community and is still proud to come from the area, despite Grenfell .
He grew up in the area enjoying Saturday morning cinema and bus rides across the city, along with playing football with Les Ferdinand: “he knocked me out”, and Dennis Wise.
Whilst the Grenfell Inquiry is on a break until 2020, many people affected by the disaster are also taking some time for themselves and Mr Burton is one of them.
Since the fire he has joined other Grenfell survivors visiting communities in tower blocks throughout the country to discuss their concerns and met Baroness Lawrence, whose son Stephen was murdered in a racist attack in 1993, as well as the Hillsborough families.
He also served on the Grenfell United committee and has “lost count” of the visits he’s made to Parliament.
His story is also one of those told in the film My Grenfell Year shot by local film-makers Wyn Baptiste and Dom Asbridge for Community Film CIC.
Mr Burton said he was determined not to “go down that dark road” after the disaster.
He said support such as Time to Talk psychological therapies offered by the Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service and the centre for bereaved and survivors are useful resources.
“I want to stay in the light,” he said. He added: “I accept the fire, the fire happened. I can’t go back and change it. I can’t bring these people back. I can stand up and fight for them.”
He told the LDR service he is considering going to Arconic’s offices in New York.
“It could be a photo outside or I could go inside,” he said.
“They won’t see me, they will not have a conversation with a Grenfell survivor and I understand that.”
“It’s really photographs and it’s about my trip. It’s not for the world’s media really. I am doing this for the Grenfell family. I don’t want to go on a crusade. That’s not my plan at all. My plan is to discover this learning and to keep the Grenfell family involved in everything.”
He stressed he was acting on his own and added: “I have got no agenda to go and make waves, it’s only an opportunity to have a conversation and engage with people about their injustices and what has happened to them.”
He isn’t sure what reception he will get on his travels. “Maybe people will tell me to go away. I am not looking to talk about me. I am asking them to talk about themselves.
“There’s many communities in the world who are going through struggles.”
He said he believed “Grenfell had to happen here in one of the richest boroughs” and hopes it will bring about change.
He added: “We are going to be here five, 10, 15 years down the line. At this moment in time we have an opportunity to make history. We have the opportunity to do the right thing.
“It is not about me, it is about Grenfell. It’s about all injustices.”
You can follow Nicholas’s trip on Instagram.