‘There are a lot of us with these questions’

SEPIDEH MOGHADDAM, a single mother who walks with the aid of a crutch, watched the horror unfold having escaped the tower by 1am. She lived on the first floor, three floors below where the fire started.

“I woke up to the smell of smoke,” she said. “I just thought some toast was burning and I went back to bed. But the smell got stronger and I thought this is something serious.

“I went to the window and I could see the sky and I thought maybe the building next door was on fire.

“I went to the landing outside and saw my neighbours running. I went back in and grabbed my son and wrapped him in a blanket.”

She sat with her young boy on a grass verge, and even took a video at 1.30am of flames licking up the building. She recalled: “People were shouting, ‘Why aren’t you doing anything?’”

She claims to have seen larger fire engines with longer ladders unable to get close to the tower, their path blocked by smaller engines that had got there first. There was only one road into Grenfell, a previous access road blocked off by building developments to improve the area. “They couldn’t get the little ones [engines] out of the way to let the big ones through,” she said.

“I heard someone ask [fire crews], ‘Why are you telling them to stay? Just tell them to go out’. [But] most people were still in the building. They were crying and shouting and they told the fire brigade, ‘Why do you tell people to stay? Why don’t you tell them to go out’. The firemen were shocked, too. Of course, it’s not just the fire brigade’s fault. There’s the council, the TMO [Tenant Management Organisation], but the fire brigade is very important. They could have saved more lives.

“Even the people who died on the side where the fire started and was spreading fastest could have been taken out,” she claimed. “It makes me feel quite sick and quite upset that the fire brigade [is] receiving awards.

“There is a lot of us who have these questions. Many of us are afraid to even speak about it.”

She fears a backlash and claims to have been shunned by others for voicing her concerns.

“Even now as I am talking to you I do feel afraid saying these things. I do feel scared. I am very grateful that my son is alive, but when I think about those poor children who died, some younger than my son, that is what makes me stand up and say these things.”