‘Anybody who listened died ... anybody who didn’t survived’

FARSHID KAFICHERAGHI believes he was the second Grenfell Tower resident to make it out alive.

He lived in a flat on the 12th floor, the intensity of the fire there demonstrated as Farshid produces a small plastic bag containing everything of his that remains from the disaster. There is a belt buckle; five coins too damaged to indicate their currency; a nail clipper; and the metal tip of a statue, caked in a layer of ash and dust.

Farshid, 46, who lived in flat 91 and ran a juice bar, heard the sirens and immediately went outside to check on a car he had borrowed. There he bumped into the resident in whose flat on the fourth floor the fire had started after a fridge-freezer caught alight.

“It was just before 1am,” he recalled, “I could see smoke coming from the fourth floor. There was no fire. I was standing outside smoking a cigarette and I noticed a man running up and down without any shoes. He was on his own so I asked him if the fire was in his flat. He said that ‘yes’, he’d been asleep with his wife and he heard an explosion sound and he’d called the fire brigade.

“It looked like he’d panicked and ran out of the house. I was thinking to myself, ‘Where’s his wife?’ Then his wife came out with a huge packed suitcase.”

Farshid believes that was about 15 or even 20 minutes after he had left the building. “There were four big fire engines there by this time but they were all standing around and looking like they were waiting for orders,” he said. “It must have been about 1.20am, maybe 1.30am when you could actually see the flames.”

Farshid said: “The fire brigade didn’t do their job at the beginning. Their [residents’] friends and families were calling and telling them to get out and they were saying ‘no’ – we have been told by the fire department to stay inside. Anybody who listened died; anybody who didn’t survived. Everybody would have survived if the fire brigade had evacuated the building immediately when I left the building.

“I saw everything. The police have taken statements from me. Everything I said has been backed up by CCTV footage. I have spoken to the police four times. They have taken 10 hours

‘We watched people burn in front of our eyes. Our friends and neighbours. People lost family members’

of interviews. You have to ask … why did you not evacuate the building? It is always on my mind. They were screaming in their flats.

“I am worried the inquiries will not properly investigate the fire brigade. I am not saying the construction of the building or the role of the council is not important but … questions need to be put to the fire brigade.

“We watched people burn in front of our eyes. Our friends and neighbours. People lost their family members. All our homes burned and we have nothing left, we’re ill and have terrible trauma and are sick.

“Everything from my life is gone. They gave me this small plastic ziplock bag. That’s all I have left. So I have nothing left to lose and I will speak the truth.

“The whole entire team who were in charge that night should be sacked.”