My son would be alive if I ignored fire brigade, says Grenfell father
Paulos Tekle tells of his guilt after heeding official advice to stay put in the inferno that killed his boy
A FATHER has blamed London Fire Brigade for the death of his five-yearold son in Grenfell Tower, as he told how he lives “every single day” with the guilt of obeying the “stay put” advice.
Paulos Tekle said he trusted the authorities and kept his family in their 18th floor flat despite panicked friends and neighbours telling him to get out as the flames spread and engulfed the building last year.
Describing Isaac Paulos, his “little man”, as a “joy to love”, Mr Tekle fought through tears as he told the public inquiry into the fire that at one point a fireman even knocked on their door. They thought they were to be rescued, but he told them to stay inside.
By the time that the advice changed, almost two hours after the first emergency call, Grenfell’s single stairwell was filled with dense smoke in which Isaac got lost as they tried to make their escape.
Mr Tekle said yesterday that because of the decision to stay put he cannot look at himself in the mirror and asks himself every day “What if?”
“My son was beautiful; a little boy with so much potential,” he said. “I will never forget Isaac’s big beautiful eyes, his calm-looking wait for his Dad to save them all. But I didn’t, because I listened to the authorities.
“That makes me angry,” he added. “Are we not human? I have to live with the guilt of not protecting my son every day. I am broken and now the only thing that can make me whole again is to fight for truth and justice in Isaac’s name, and for my living son and their mother.”
He added: “I want answers. Why we were kept inside so long? Who was responsible for that decision? If I had not listened to the fire brigade my son would likely be alive today.”
Mr Tekle told the inquiry that when he was first aware of the fire, he called the emergency services and then phoned friends in the building, waking them up.
“They left their flats and they’re alive today. I’m happy I saved their lives,” he said. “But every day I ask myself the same question, what if I had not listened and we had left right then and there? My Isaac would be here today.”
He continued: “That night, as the minutes ticked by, I called the fire brigade again and again. The same response: they told me to stay put, that was it.”
Around 2am there was a knock at the door and he thought they were about to be saved. Instead the fireman told them to stay, put a blanket in front of the door and keep it shut.
Isaac was holding the hand of a neighbour, it has been reported, but his hand slipped from their grasp on the stairs. His body was found on the 13th floor.
The advice for people to stay was abandoned at 2.47am, almost two hours after the first emergency call was made at 12.54am.
Mr Tekle’s criticism echoes that of other survivors, who have said that if the fire brigade’s advice had been changed sooner, when it was clear that the fire was engulfing the tower block, then 72 lives may not have been lost.
Shiva Aghlani, whose mother Sakineh Afrasiabi and aunt Fatemeh died while awaiting rescue on the top floor, told the inquiry: “I want to know why they didn’t rescue them. Every- one thinks that I do not understand anything. I understand this much – there was a terrible fire and no one came for them. They were left to burn to ashes.”
Nedal Alhajali, whose 23-year-old son Mohamed had fled their Syrian homeland before losing his life in Grenfell, told the hearing: “The criminal thing is how people were told to stay for two hours.”
Meanwhile, Ahmed Elgwahry, 35, told the inquiry how he heard his sister’s final breath in a heartbreaking last phone call to the 22nd floor from outside the tower.
He described how Mariem, 27, lost consciousness as their mother Eslah, 64, said to him “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe” before her voice gave way to the crackle of flames.
The hearing continues.
‘I will never forget Isaac’s big beautiful eyes; his calmlooking wait for his Dad to save them all’