Grenfell was a beautiful place to live. It was like we were a big house. My father-in-law had dementia. he would leave the building and my neighbors would bring him back. They would call me and say: “Do not worry, we have found him! We gave him a cup of tea. ” I knocked on their doors and asked for an onion. Who does this in London? People would tell you to go to Tesco. My best friend, Rania Ibrahim, moved a year and a half before the fire. He was from Egypt and I’m from Uganda. He was a handsome man. I remember the first time he came to my house, he brought me soup and chicken. He went on vacation to Egypt and came back with a suitcase full of gifts for me. I had never met anyone so generous. Every Friday, let it rain or shine, he would make a basbousa cake for the mosque. The night of the fire, after I got out, I was the last one to talk to her on the phone. The emergency services told her to stay put because help was coming. Before she died, she uploaded a video on Facebook, saying a prayer and acknowledging her death. In terms of faith, Rania was hard-core. I forced myself to listen to the video three months later. Once and never again. I thought we would be at the hotel for a few weeks. This took 19 months The neighbors were so amazing. I left the apartment with nothing and until we arrived at the hotel in the evening after we had baby food, diapers, clothes and blankets. (I have three children, aged 10, six and one.) I thought we would be at the hotel for a few weeks. This took 19 months. The children and I were on the ground floor and my husband and father-in-law were on the first floor. We could not wash and there were no cooking facilities. But my parents instilled in me to be grateful for what I have. I was grateful I survived. I was grateful to have a roof over my head. We moved into a house in Kensington in February 2019. We are trying to make it home. For a while, my daughter kept asking to go back to the hotel. After having my third child in February 2021, I collapsed. I was in the hospital for five days. The doctors did not find anything wrong with me. One asked, “Are you suffering from anxiety?” I said, “What if I told you I survived Grenfell?” I told everyone that I was fine, but my body could not take it anymore and it started to close. In 2018, I contributed to Together, a cookbook written by those affected by the fire. Cooking was a great getaway for me. Rania and I wanted to take over the kitchen in the mosque. Cooking and feeding people was our dream. Now I have this double responsibility. To do it not only for me, but also for her. “When I went out and saw the building burning, I cried out in my soul”… Ed Daffarn. Composite: Karen Robinson / Guardian Design
Ed Dafarn, 59
Social Worker. He lived on the 16th floor I moved to Grenfell in 2001. At first, I was busy studying for a degree in social work, then I was working, but in 2009 my mom became ill and I became her caregiver. I had more time on my hands and tried to clean my windows because they were dirty. It took me about a year to write letters before I got anywhere. This is what initially alerted me to the fact that there may be a problem with my landlord. I have always described TMO [tenant management organisation] as a mini mafia. It was very much an organization that did not work. They were created to provide services to tenants, but that was not what they were interested in. It was very abusive. We started the Grenfell Action Group in 2010 and started blogging in 2012. I always thought that, after 50 years, when there are no working class people in London, people might want to understand why this happened – and our blog will could be a way to look at and see how communities were treated. At about 1 a.m. on the night of the fire, I heard my neighbor smoke alarm. When I opened my front door, the hallway was full of black smoke. I felt this feeling of fear in the pit of my stomach. My phone rang and a neighbor called me to leave the building. There was something so powerful about the way he spoke to me. I wet a towel, grabbed my phone, keys and bank cards and walked down the hall. There is a perverted celebrity that comes from being in the tower. Now, I live in Notting Hill, where no one knows who I am I could not see beyond my nose. The emergency door was only a few feet away, but I could not find it. I panicked and started breathing in the smoke. I thought: damn, that’s it. At that moment, a firefighter went through the door and pulled me into the emergency room. He was there because my neighbor’s son had begged him to come and save his dad. The firefighter took my place. His father never left the building. I ran for my life down the stairs. I ran from people with disabilities. I’m very ashamed of myself for doing this. But I was not thinking it right. When I went out and saw the building on fire, I cried out from within my soul. I spent about a year living in hotels and then another year in serviced apartments. Living in a hotel is really depressing. I had to eat every meal outside. Sometimes, you just want to boil an egg. Fortunately, there were some other Grenfell families at the same hotel, so we ate breakfast together. Then I got an apartment, but it did not work out. It was very close to the tower. That was my mistake. There is a perverted celebrity that comes from being in the tower. The people of the community, all well meaning, want to talk to you. Now, I live in Notting Hill, where no one knows who I am. For me, it would be fair for people to be held criminally responsible for what happened. People have to go to jail. The carousel of the pass we witnessed during the investigation must stop. And people need to go to bed safely at night in their homes. No more investment in buildings. People in social housing should be treated with respect. We are a million miles from what is happening right now. I always say that Grenfell was a tragedy in three acts: the way we were treated before the fire. what happened the night of the fire? and abandonment afterwards.
Official answer
In a statement, the former Kensington & Chelsea Tenants Management Agency (KCTMO) said: “Investigations are ongoing and the investigation has not yet reached any conclusions on these issues. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for KCTMO to respond to any further allegations made and this could potentially undermine the investigation. “The Grenfell Tower fire was a terrible human tragedy and all those associated with KCTMO continue to express their deepest condolences and condolences to the victims, survivors and families.”
