‘No-one will be brought to book over blaze’ – dad of tragic fire-heroine Sophie
AWELSH father who lost his daughter in a burning building has warned the families of those killed in Grenfell Tower that they may never get justice.
Sophie Rosser died as she tried to save her boyfriend, Oscar Silva, when she saw flames and smoke coming from their fifth-floor flat.
Mr Silva and the couple’s flatmate were rescued by firefighters.
But Sophie, 23, died after being overwhelmed by smoke and collapsing on the fourth floor.
Now her father, Julian Rosser, from Cardiff, has told of his horror at the Grenfell Tower blaze.
“It’s a very similar situation, isn’t it, but on a much larger scale,” Mr Rosser said.
“I think that the great sadness for those people involved is that they will go through the same process we did, where they find no-one will be brought to book because they will all blame each other. That is what happened to us. There are so many parties involved in these things – leaseholders, freeholders, management companies, etc.
“Nothing has ever happened as a result of Sophie’s death.”
The blaze that killed Sophie broke out in the upmarket Meridian Point block, in Canary Wharf, London, in August 2012.
“London Fire Brigade were hopeful they would be able to bring prosecutions to bear but they were frustrated,” father-of-two Mr Rosser said.
“The coroner, Mary Hassell, said she had huge sympathy but she did not know who to blame. All these people who are terribly upset and anxious and want action, they are inferno not going to get it because it cannot quickly engulfed the building. It be done this quickly.” housed some 600 people. Questions Speaking in 2014 he warned have been asked over flammable “this could happen all over again”. plastic cladding used on the “It will take ages to establish the building.
cause of the fire and whose responsibility Mr Rosser said the cladding on it is,” Mr Rosser, a management Grenfell tower “certainly seems to consultant, said. be a contributory factor”.
“They have not even talked “If you look at those pictures of about aspects like fire doors, which the flames racing up the outside of are bound to be a huge aspect. The the building, it does seem to indicate problem in Sophie’s case was that that they helped spread the there was a problem with the fire flames,” he said.
door in the flat where the fire started.” “But they cannot be sure. If you think how many blocks of flats This week service dogs were sent there are in the UK, billions and to the top floors of blackened billions will be required to put Grenfell Tower to join the search basic things like alarm and sprinkler for the dead. systems in.
“It brings it all back for us,” Mr “There is a reluctance to introduce Rosser, from Cardiff, said. new laws, and the reason is “The same circumstances apply the uproar from landlords there – no sprinklers because they are would be over retrofitting things not a legal requirement, no proper like sprinklers.”
alarm systems monitored by a central Mr Rosser added: “Life is never source, just fire alarms in each the same once you have lost a flat. child. What we had hoped was that “If you take a look at the legal as a result of Sophie’s death something requirements they are defective in would change.
themselves. And people are “There comes a point where you famous for not even adhering to have to put it aside because if you those lazy standards.” keep pursuing it you will never The Grenfell Tower come to terms with it.”