Sea of green tributes for victims of Grenfell fire
The widower of the final Grenfell Tower fire victim claims she died because of failings of the system. Jack Hardy reports...
GRENFELL Tower survivors and bereaved families were joined by hundreds of mourners including pop stars Adele and Stormzy to pay silent respect to the dead one year on.
Those touched by the tragedy which claimed 72 lives gathered near the foot of the block in west London for a moving ceremony that was closed to the public.
Many arrived dressed in green, the colour that has come to symbolise the terrible events of June 14, 2017.
The 72 seconds of silence which fell over North Kensington shortly before noon led a minute’s commemoration observed across the country, including at government buildings, the Palace of Westminster and by the Queen and the Duchess of Sussex in Chester.
The Mayor of London was among those who laid a wreath at the fence still separating the tower’s charred skeleton from the rest of London.
Nicholas Burton, a former 19thfloor resident whose wife, Maria del Pilar Burton, died in January, was the first of the bereaved to lay flowers.
He told the Press Association: “It was emotional, of course, but it felt good because everyone around is your community, they’re friends that you know so it didn’t feel uncomfortable or strange, everyone just wanted to hug or say hello.
“I was just thinking about my wife during the minute’s silence, to tell you the truth, hoping she’s OK and I got a bit emotional.
“Then you remember everyone else who died in that tower and I know that I’m lucky to have had a bit of time with my wife.”
Singers Adele, Stormzy and Marcus Mumford all attended the event, having been vocal supporters of the families affected since the fire.
Mr Burton continued: “It was quite weird, I went into the sports centre and I hear ‘Hi Nick’, and it’s Adele calling me over, who introduced me to her new husband, and then Marcus comes over and we had a hug, then Stormzy comes over, they have all been unbelievable.
“I was thanking them for all they’ve done behind the scenes that no-one knows about.
“It was just nice and normal, they may travel the world and are known to millions but down on the ground they are normal people with big hearts wanting to give, this is their community as well, they feel part of it.
“That persona of being famous is out of the window and now they are part of the Grenfell community.”
Just after 2pm grieving families from a separate church service led a hushed crowd along Silchester Road to the tower.
Many held huge green hearts emblazoned with words such as “humanity”, “love”, “unity” and “grace”.
A mourner collapsed to the ground in anguish, weeping as the march reached the base of the site.
Earlier, the day’s first service saw a community mosaic unveiled and a gospel choir perform songs including Bridge Over Troubled Water.
The names of all the dead, including stillborn baby Logan Gomes and Mrs Burton, were read out by different members of the community.
After each took their turn, they said: “Forever in our hearts.”
Silence then fell over the gathered crowd, all still except for the rustle of leaves in the trees.
As the mourners stood quietly, a chill wind passed through the area, stark in contrast to the sweltering conditions on the day of the fire.
By the time all the wreaths had been laid, however, the sun had broken overhead, bathing the streets in warm light.
Members of the public were able to watch the ceremony on a giant screen erected outside nearby Kensington Aldridge Academy.
NHS support workers had also been dotted along the road in case any residents became distressed.
Parallel commemorations took place nearby, including an 11am service of remembrance at St Helen’s Church.
Among those in attendance was Tottenham MP David Lammy, who was friends with victim Khadija Saye.
He said: “I don’t think a year ago we could have envisaged how little support the community would be given by the local authority and the government, and that’s in their own words.
“That has not been the best of our country.
“We need a redoubling of effort in the year ahead, it needs to be much, much better, we need to get those people housed, and we need to continue to support those in the north Kensington area that are deeply traumatised.”
A silent march was to take place around the neighbourhood yesterday evening, attended by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
AGRENFELL Tower survivor whose wife is considered the 72nd victim of the fire has claimed authorities missed vital warning signs about her deteriorating health.
Nicholas Burton, 50, mourned the loss of his wife of more than 30 years, Maria del Pilar Burton, seven months after they were rescued from their 19th-floor flat in the west London block.
The former catering manager, who was a leaseholder in the building, said the displacement caused his 74-year-old partner, a dementia sufferer known as Pily, great distress and confusion.
She suffered a stroke at a care home in the first few days of 2018 and never recovered, dying on January 29.
In his first detailed interview since her death, Mr Burton claimed his wife “passed because of the failing of the system”, adding: “She didn’t pass because it was her time.”
He described Pily as Grenfell’s 72nd victim because the couple were “never reunited” after they escaped the inferno.
Mr Burton said: “It’s now five months since my wife passed on and I’m still waiting for answers from the people I’ve asked these questions of, nothing has come from that.”
The widower stressed Pily’s death was not the “fault” of the care home, instead expressing frustration with the doctors and mental health services who assessed her.
He continued: “With all the problems I was highlighting to them, they, the powers-that-be, didn’t act on it.
“I could see exactly what was happening but their protocol was ‘we know best’, even though I had seen that every day she was falling over, every day she was having a different problem, every day she was distraught, every day she was having a different breakdown, every day she doesn’t know where she is on the street and every night I’m having to deal with my wife. But no action. I sit down with them – ‘we know best, don’t worry’.”
He declined to give precise details about the failings in the care of his wife.
The path to Pily becoming known as the 72nd victim of the Grenfell Tower fire, a title now acknowledged by the inquiry into the blaze, progressed gradually following her death.
Last month Mr Burton read a moving tribute to her at the probe’s commemoration hearings, along with relatives of dozens of other victims.
“I said she was like 71-plus-one, because it is hard to encroach on the bereaved families and add somebody on,” he said.
“The bereaved families took it upon themselves to support me, saying ‘Nick, you’re one of us,’ and the inquiry understood that, Pily is part of the Grenfell tragedy.
“My wife never came out and we were never reunited from the day she went into hospital.
“She never came out and into my care or anything else, she went from one hospital to another hospital to a care home.
“She didn’t have her own life and because of the failings of the system again, that was why she passed.
“She didn’t pass because it was her time. She passed because of the failing of the system, their inaction to support and look after and make a plan.”
Despite her age and her fragile state of mind, the fire played a crucial part in Pily’s decline, her widower continued.
He said: “Mental health maybe would have gone in time as a progressive thing, but she didn’t have the trauma of the loss of our neighbours, our dog, her home since the mid-70s, the loss of her parents again, we had their ashes in the wardrobe.”
Spanish-born Pily went into intensive care following the stroke on January 4 and was moved to a palliative care unit, where her husband slept at her side on a mattress for nearly two weeks.
Reflecting on the fortnight he spent with her, Mr Burton said: “It was stressful. Stressful seeing the person that you love in this life to go. It was difficult trying to do stuff. I couldn’t focus on anything.”
Like many other families bereaved or made homeless by the inferno on June 14 last year, Mr Burton has since returned to see the wreckage of his flat.
All of the walls in their flat had been destroyed by the fire.
He was joined by Pily’s son for a brief moment of “reflection”, before laying roses in neighbouring flats. Eight people who lived on or were visiting the 19th floor died that night.
One year on from the moment he lost everything, Mr Burton now lives in a new home – a ground-floor flat with two bedrooms in Notting Dale. “Loss is massive,” he said.
“It is not an easy thing to be married for 33-34 years and suddenly be alone.
“I’ve just got to come to a realisation about what has happened to me, but I’m not in that space yet to accept what happened, that’s why I’m keeping busy.”
Mr Burton is an active member of the main group for survivors and bereaved families, Grenfell United.
He has also met Prime Minister Theresa May on numerous occasions.
Reflecting on his time with Pily, he said: “We laughed, we had the same sense of humour. We had a pact between us, it was us against the world. Everywhere we would go we would always hold hands.
“Most people don’t last that long, I have been truly blessed to know someone like my wife.”