35 died as Grenfell firemen told them: You have to go up
Chilling claim by survivors of tower inferno
DESPERATE families trapped inside Grenfell Tower were told to go up to the top floor and wait for a helicopter rescue, survivors claimed yesterday.
The only surviving residents from the 23rd floor said 35 to 40 people crammed into flats on the top storey of the doomed building and claimed that fire crews told them: ‘You have to go up.’
The survivors’ account of dozens of people being trapped at the top of the building raises further questions about advice given by the London Fire Brigade, which has been strongly criticised for telling residents to ‘stay put’ and wait for rescue.
At least 80 people were killed in the inferno, Britain’s worst disaster since Hillsborough in 1989. A public inquiry is set to begin today.
Survivor Flora Neda, 55, said she was inside her 23rd-floor flat with her husband and their son when they realised the building was on fire.
They were told to stay inside and wait for rescue, but said panicked families from lower floors climbed to the top floor and told them a helicopter rescue was planned.
Mrs Neda told Channel 4 News: ‘Thirtyfive or forty people came up and they said, “The fire brigade told us you have to go up, and we send for you helicopter rescue”.’
She said four women took refuge inside her family’s flat but it became clear the flames were consuming the entire building, and that they were trapped.
Mrs Neda and her son Farhad, 24, were the only residents from the top floor to make it down alive. They spoke of their ordeal for the first time last night.
The mother and son did not speak to firemen themselves and Farhad said he did not believe that fire crews had said a helicopter rescue was planned.
London Fire Brigade said it did not use helicopters for high-rise tower block rescues.
Farhad, an engineering graduate, said he was forced to act when the fire reached their flat’s windows and his mother threatened to jump to avoid being burned alive, telling him: ‘I don’t want to burn. I don’t want to go through the pain of burning alive. I’m going to jump out the window.’
He grabbed his mother, who suffers from a muscular condition, and carried her on his shoulders through choking smoke down 23 flights of stairs. He said he had to step over bodies in the pitch-black stairwell.
‘We were stepping over people and she was asking me, “What are we stepping on?”’ he Farhad said.
‘I didn’t want to scare her so I said, “It’s just the fire brigade’s hoses that we’re stepping on”.’
Mrs Neda said her husband Saber, a taxi driver, had said he would follow them out but did not make it.
The 57-year-old’s body was found outside the building, suggesting he had attempted to jump, and he died from injuries consistent with a fall.
Inquests have so far been opened for 58 of the dead, of which 19 were found on the 23rd floor. At least 12 of those 19 were not residents of that floor, supporting Mrs Neda’s account of householders from the lower floors seeking refuge further upstairs. She said the four women who sheltered inside her flat were all among the dead and she questioned what had happened to the dozens of others who reached the 23rd floor.
Her account will renew questions about the number of people who died in the council-owned tower on June 14, following claims that the true death toll has not yet been revealed.
London Fire Brigade said in a statement: ‘The Grenfell fire was an unprecedented fire and due to the ongoing investigation we cannot go into details of what happened on the night.
‘That said, we can confirm that we do not use helicopters to conduct rescues from high-rise tower fires.’
‘I’m going to jump out of the window’