‘Please pray for me and my mum’: the victims of the inferno
Twelve confirmed dead but number is certain to rise as friends and families wait for their loved ones
A BRILLIANT young artist posted a final message on Facebook: “Please pray for me and my mum” as smoke engulfed their flat.
Khadija Saye and her mother, Mary Mendy, were among those feared to have perished in the Grenfell Tower blaze. Last night police confirmed 12 people had died but said that figure would rise significantly.
The tower block was home to about 600 residents, who came from all corners of the globe. Those missing, feared killed, included a two-year-old boy and an 82-year-old grandfather.
Miss Saye, 24, whose art is currently showing at the Venice Biennale, was trapped in her 20th floor home with her mother, who is in her fifties.
David Lammy, the Labour MP, whose wife had mentored Miss Saye, wrote on Twitter: “If you have any information about Khadija Saye please contact me.
“She is our dear friend, a beautiful soul and emerging artist.”
A 12-year-old girl was also missing. Jessica Urbano was last seen trying to escape from the 20th floor. Her family has checked all the hospitals but to no avail. Her sister Melanie said: “They [the hospitals] don’t know anything. They don’t have lists.”
Her aunt Sandra Ruiz said: “She will be very, very, very scared. We’re just desperate to find her. Somebody gave her a phone and she rang her mum at 1.29am and at 1.39am. She was with a group of people in the fire escape … That’s the last they’ve heard of her.”
Zainab Dean and her two-year-old son Jeremiah were in their flat on the 14th floor. Her brother Francis Dean said: “I told her to leave by the stairs but she said she had been told to stay inside her flat. I fear the worst. I’m so upset.”
Hesham Reman, 57, had also been told to stay put in his 19th-floor flat. His nephew Karim Musilly spoke to him by phone at 1.30am. “He had phoned the police who said stay in your flat and put a wet towel under the door,” said Mr Musilly, “Then the phone went dead.”
Ali Yawar Jafari, 82, was with his wife and daughter in the lift travelling down when, overcome by smoke, he decided to get out at the 10th floor. His son, Hamid Ali Jafari, said he had not been seen since.
Saber Neda, 57, a father-of-three, had not been seen since telling his wife, Shakila, 45, and son, Farhad, 24, to flee the building while he stayed behind.
He was last heard from at 2.20am when he made a frantic call to say there was “no help” coming.
Nura Jamal and her two sons, aged six and 11, are still missing. Her daughter is understood to have been treated in hospital. Mrs Jamal called a friend at around 2am and said: “Forgive me, the fire is here, I’m dying.”
Nadia Choucair, a teaching assistant at Avondale Park Primary School, is understood to have lived on one of the top floors of the tower with her husband, her three daughters and her motherin-law. One neighbour said Mrs Chouchair had called a friend saying she thought she was going to die. Mrs Chouchair had not been heard from since.
Another mother, Ranya Ibrahim, 30, sent pleas for help from her Snapchat account at 3am. Her friend Maseen, who lives nearby, said: “I received a Snapchat video from Ranya at 3am just after the fire started and I haven’t heard from her since.”
Mariem Elgwahry last spoke to her mother at 2.30am and is also reported missing. Fras Ibrahim, in his late thirties, is thought to have been trapped on the top floor of Grenfell Tower while visiting his mother, Fathia Ahmed, who is in her late seventies, and his sister Esra Ibrahim, in her thirties.
A young Italian couple, Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi, from the Veneto region in the north of the country, were also feared dead.
Student Rebecca Ross, wrote on social media that she feared her father may be among the victims. The 22-yearold said she was “distraught” after being unable to contact 63-year-old Steve Power.