Survivor collapses as blaze footage is shown
A GRENFELL survivor collapsed yesterday after watching harrowing images of terrified residents waving from the burning tower minutes before they died.
Overcome with emotion, the woman was given medical treatment outside the conference room where the inquiry is being held.
Others rushed out of the room in tears as shocking mobile phone footage of the inferno was played.
The film was part of a commemoration to six members of the Choucair family who died in the blaze, which killed 72.
Officials had promised to warn those attending the inquiry before distressing footage was shown but there was no warning. Haunting images of two Grenfell residents desperately waving from a window at the top of the burning tower came to epitomise the unimaginable horror that victims were forced to endure.
They are believed to be Nadia Choucair, 33, and her husband Bassem, 40, who died along with their children Fatima, three, Zainab, 11, and Mierna, 13, in their flat on the 22nd floor. Nadia’s mother Sirra, 60, who came to the UK from Lebanon when she was a teenager, also died.
Bernard Richmond, QC, counsel to the inquiry, said: ‘I’m sorry that the warning that should have been put out didn’t get put out.’
Moments earlier Hisam Choucair, 40, Nadia’s brother, said: ‘We had to stand there helpless, watching them all burn to death.’
‘In one night I have lost half of my family. I feel like a stranger now. I feel like part of me has been taken away.
‘When I go past and look at the tower I have flashbacks. I know they are just pictures in my head but I can actually see people in the windows, dying, trying to get out.
His sister Sawsan, 42, lived with their mother in the tower, but survived because she was visiting a friend on the night of the fire.
The inquiry heard an impassioned plea for justice from Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle Hesham Rahman was among those killed.
Survivors and the bereaved stood and applauded as he told the judge: ‘We are here because of failure, we are here because the system failed.
‘The system was allowed to kill Hesham Rahman, and 71 other souls. It failed because it allowed individuals to assure themselves they had done enough... to hide behind rules and regulations and forget human lives were at stake.’
Mr Mussilhy said cladding and insulation panels blamed for the
‘Part of me has been taken away’
spread of the fire at Grenfell were still in place on other tower blocks and called for those responsible to be held to account, adding: ‘We will not let you forget.’
The inquiry was also shown poignant text messages sent by a grieving woman to her younger sister Rania Ibrahim, months after she was killed in the fire.
Rasha Ibrahim said she and her sister Rania were in daily contact before her death and she continued to write to her afterwards, and texted her when she learned she was pregnant in December, six months after the fire.
She wrote: ‘Rania, I’m pregnant. I’m so happy that this might be a reason for me to be close to you.’
Rania Ibrahim, 31, live-streamed her final moments from the top of the burning building, where she was trapped with her young daughters Fethia, four, and Hania, three. All three were killed.
Rasha, from southern Egypt, described her distress over delays that prevented her relatives were buried. ‘There were then months of uncertainty before they were identified,’ she said.
The inquiry heard tributes to Maria del Pilar Burton who died in January after months in hospital. Mrs Burton, 74, suffered from dementia and husband Nick said she never recovered from the trauma of being trapped in the building, or the devastation of learning friends and neighbours died.
The hearing continues.