‘My children could have died in the blaze’
A BEREAVED son, brother and uncle who lost six family members in the Grenfell Tower fire told of how his children could also have died in the blaze.
Hisam Choucair paid tribute to his mother, 60-year-old Sirria, his sister Nadia, her husband Bassem and their three children Mierna, Fatima and Zainab.
They were all found together on the 22nd floor where they lived in two flats. The cause of death for the whole family was “consistent with the effects of the fire”.
Mr Choucair said his young children, seven and five, had been staying in the tower with his mother while his wife went to hospital for an operation in the days before the June 14 blaze.
He came to bring them home on June 12.
He said: “If my wife hadn’t been due out of hospital, my children would be dead too.”
Mr Choucair told the room he had been broken by losing six members of his family.
He said: “This inferno has split up families, and smashed up their lives.
“None of the counselling I receive can ever repair what has already been done. I have to live with my family ripped apart for the rest of my life.”
He added: “How can you sum up six lives in such a short space of time so close to them passing?
“They were ordinary but they were also extraordinary. They were my family and they should still be here.”