In the early hours of 14 June 2017, a fire tore through Grenfell Tower in West London. 72 lost their lives, including 18 children. Many others faced a harrowing escape.
Here, flat by flat, we tell you their stories.
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Floor 23
Flat 206
Fathia Ahmed![]()
Abufars Ibrahim is believed to have come to Grenfell Tower on the night of the fire to visit his mother Fathia, 71, and his sister Isra, 35, who lived together on the top floor.
As the smoke and flames spread through the building, the two women sought refuge in their neighbour Rania Ibrahim’s flat, according to the BBC and the Guardian.
An unnamed friend told the BBC: “Fathia was friends with Rania, so they must have gone to her flat to be with them when the fire started - maybe they were scared and wanted to be together.”
All three are confirmed to have died in the blaze.
The remains of Fathia were discovered on the 23rd floor. Abufars, 39, died of multiple injuries, an inquest heard.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Flat 205
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Only two people made it out alive from the top floor. Farhad Neda, 24, carried his mother Flora, 55, down the smoke-filled stairways. Farhad’s father, Saber, 57, said he would follow them down, but never did.
Flora and Farhad only survived thanks to the “miracle” discovery of an air pocket on one of the floors. This is their story.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Flora, Saber’s wife, met her husband in their native Afghanistan. They later fled the country and were recognised as refugees in the UK.
She says it was love at first sight.
Saber’s son, Farhad, said during his commemoration that he and his father were a “great team.”
Saber travelled the country, and the world, supporting Farhad in taekwondo competitions.
Sadly all the photos, memories and medals from their time travelling together were destroyed in the fire.
Last updated: 31 May 2018
Flat 204
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As the fire swept up the building, Hesham Rahman, 57, was on the phone to his mother, who lived opposite the tower. Before the phone went dead, he told her: “I’ll be ok.”
His nephew, Karim Mussilhy, describes Hesham’s final hours.
Hesham was later found on the 23rd floor.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 4 Jun 2018
Flat 203
Rania Ibrahim![]()
Trapped in her top floor flat with her two young daughters, Fethia, 5, and Hania, 3, Rania Ibrahim broadcast the harrowing situation she faced on Facebook Live.
The footage shows Rania in her flat with several neighbours.
At one point in the video Rania hears banging outside, but the group are worried that opening the door will let in the thick smoke. Rania risks it and out of the darkness another neighbour appears.
Rania, 30, then calls out the window: “We're stuck on the 23rd floor.” She explains the impossibility of escape: “The police are saying, 'Get out.' How can we?”
In the hours after the fire, a close friend of Rania Ibrahim breaks down in tears as she waits for news.
Rania’s husband Hassan Hassan, who is originally from Sudan, was away in Egypt visiting his sick brother. He told the BBC that Rania phoned him at 1:31am, telling him about the fire and that there was no way down.
Hassan got on the first flight back to the UK. The BBC reported that he later received a video of his five-year-old daughter as she was trapped in the tower.
“I want my dad,” she is heard saying. “I don’t want to see this fire, it makes me cry.”
Rania was found dead on the 23rd floor, alongside her two young daughters.
Their remains were identified by “anthropology and secondary supporting evidence”, and their cause of death was “consistent with the effects of fire”.
Neighbours who gathered in Rania’s flat included Fathia Ahmed and her two adult children Abufars and Isra according to a report by the BBC. The report quoted an unnamed friend who said: “Fathia was friends with Rania, so they must have gone to her flat to be with them when the fire started - maybe they were scared and wanted to be together.”
The BBC also reported that a man she is seen letting into the flat is thought to be Hesham Rahman, who also lived on the top floor.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 7 Jun 2018
Flat 202
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Young architects Gloria Trevisan, 26, and Marco Gottardi, 27, made a series of agonising phone calls to their parents as flames spread through the building.
In an interview with Channel 4 News, Gloria’s parents Emanuela Disaro and Loris Trevisan recall the heartbreaking last phone call she made from the tower.
Gloria first called her parents to say a fire had broken out on a lower floor, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Initially both she and her parents were confident it would be put out. But at around 2am, as her parents watched live footage of the fire from their home near Padua, Gloria told them: “We can’t get out, we are blocked”.
The phone conversations were recorded by her family, and described as “terrible, agonizing calls” by their lawyer Maria Cristina Sandri.
Gloria’s last call came at 3.07am, as smoke poured into the flat.
According to the Repubblica, she said: “I am so sorry I can never hug you again. I had my whole life ahead of me. It’s not fair. I don’t want to die. I wanted to help you, to thank you for all you did for me.”
She said she realised she was dying, reported Il Corriere del Veneto, and added as a final farewell: “I am about to go to heaven, I will help you from there.”
Her boyfriend Marco also called his family.
His father Giannino Gottardi described the call, reported in La Repubblica: “In the first call, Marco told us not to worry, that everything was under control, that basically we must not worry.
“But in the second call - and I can’t get this out of my head - he said there was smoke, that so much smoke was rising.”
According to Il Corriere del Veneto, Giannino said: “We were on the phone until the last moment… At 4.07am [Italian time] he told us their apartment was flooded with smoke and that the situation had become an emergency.
“The communications broke down and from that moment on we no longer had any contact.”
The bodies of both were found on the 23rd floor.
The couple had moved to London last March after Gloria graduated in architecture, but could not find a job in Italy that paid more than 300-400 euros a month, La Repubblica reported.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 7 Jun 2018
Flat 201
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Raymond Bernard, 63, known as Moses to his friends, was found dead in his flat on the 23rd floor.
He often stayed with his partner Karen, who is thought to have lived on a different floor, the Press Association reported.
But on the night of the fire Moses was in his own flat, along with a King Charles spaniel the couple shared, called Marley.
Moses reportedly walked with a stick and suffered a number of health issues, and friends fear this may have made it harder for him to get down the smoke-filled stairwell.
It is also thought he may not have wanted to leave his beloved dog.
His friend of 40 years Trish told the Press Association: “There’s no way he would have left the dog. The dog was like their child.”
An inquest heard that his body was found in the flat along with those of several other residents, including 12-year-old Biruk Haftom, who had lived on the 18th floor, the Guardian reported.
Last updated: 9 Oct 2017
Floor 22
Flat 196
Mariem Elgwahry![]()
Mariem Elgwahry lived on the 22nd floor with her mother Eslah, 64.
Shortly after 2.30am on the night of the fire, Mariem is reported to have spoken to another resident in the tower who managed to escape, according to the Independent.
But Mariem and Eslah did not make it out.
An inquest heard their bodies were found on the tower’s top floor, lying together, side-by-side.
Mariem had allegedly raised concerns about fire safety at Grenfell Tower, according to reports by the Mirror newspaper.
The 27-year-old marketing manager teamed up with her near neighbour Nadia Choucair, 33, to call for building improvements within the tower to help keep residents safe.
They were helped by the Radical Housing Network, arranging protests, a petition, and a barbecue to encourage more residents to get involved.
But they reportedly received letters from the tenant management organisation ordering them to stop.
The Radical Housing Network’s Pilgrim Tucker said: “They both just wanted to do their best for their neighbours and keep everyone safe.
“Things had got so bad they knew a disaster like this was inevitable, but if there was a chance of stopping it they were up for the fight.. now this community is devastated.”
In the days following the fire, missing posters of Mariem smiling in front of a sunflower were put up around the burned out shell of the tower, along with those of other residents.
One was later graffitied with the poignant words: “She didn’t deserve this.”
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 7 Jun 2018
Flat 195
Naomi and husband Lee lived on the 22nd floor. Naomi’s cousin, Lydia, was staying over the night of the fire, while Lee was away in Asia on business.
It was the morning in Kuala Lumpur when Lee received a call from his terrified wife that the building was on fire, The Sunday Times reported.
He watched the horror unfold via social media, knowing his wife and her cousin were trapped inside the burning tower block and trying to escape.
Naomi’s neighbours were coming out of their flats onto the landing. Fire had reached a neighbour’s kitchen, but a family on the 22nd floor still had clean air in their flat. Naomi and Lydia joined other residents huddling in there.
By 2.30am, there was no sign of rescue. At 3.06am, an emergency operator told Naomi and Lydia to leave.
The family they had sought refuge with are understood to have remained in the flat, according to the Sunday Times.
Soon after Naomi called Lee to tell him they were going to go down the stairs but didn’t know if they’d make it.
“We are going down, but I don’t know if we will make it or not,” she reportedly said. “I love you.”
According to The Sunday Times, Naomi and Lydia groped through the darkness with a wet towel and cardigan over their faces. They tried not to think about the dead bodies in the stairwell so they would not be overcome by terror:
Naomi said: “I kept telling [Lydia] and myself that they weren’t bodies and were someone’s clothes. That was probably the saddest experience in our lives. I was just determined we would get out.
“Every breath felt like someone was trying to choke me. We moved fast, but the stairwell never seemed to end.”
Naomi thinks she and Lydia were some of the last people to come out by foot that night: “Thirty seconds or a minute later and I don’t think we would have made it.”
Naomi and Lydia are the only known survivors from the 22nd floor.
Last updated: 2 Oct 2017
Flat 194
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Tony Disson, 65, a great-grandfather and retired scrap metal dealer, was trapped in his flat on the 22nd floor.
He made several phone calls to friends and relatives as the fire spread throughout the tower block.
Tony’s oldest son Lee, 47, told The Mirror: "People called my Dad and said, 'Put a blanket over your head and get out.' He said he couldn't as he was in the bathroom and the floor was too hot.
“A friend then called him at 4am and one of the last things he said was, 'Tell my sons that I love them'. Nobody was able to contact him after that."
His body was found on the 22nd floor.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry below.
Last updated: 5 Jun 2018
Flat 193
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Five members of the Choucair family died on the night of the fire - Nadia, her husband Bassem, their three children Mierna, 13, and Fatima, 11, and Zainab, 3, along with Nadia’s mother Sirria, who lived in flat 191 on the same floor.
Sawsan Choucair spoke to her sister Nadia on the phone as the fire spread. Here she recounts their final call and her desperation at seeing the tower on fire.
Nadia’s brother, Nabil Choucair, watched from the foot of the burning tower as the fire claimed the lives of six of his relatives. Here he speaks about the night, and his struggle to cope with the grief.
Nadia’s brother Nabil Choucair says the police helicopter deployed on the night of the fire created a “cruel and tortuous hope” for the six relatives he lost.
He has listened to the harrowing 999 calls they made as the flames spread, and claims they were left with the impression they might be rescued from the air.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 4 Jun 2018
Flat 192
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Hashim Kedir, his wife Nura Jemal, and their three young children Yahya, 13, Firdaws, 12, and Yaqub, 6, were all in their 22nd floor flat together on the night of the fire. All five are confirmed to have died.
Four months after the Grenfell Tower disaster, all five members of the family – both parents and three children – were laid to rest following funeral prayers at East London Mosque.
Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow reports on the funeral.
Grief-stricken relatives have paid tribute to the loving and talented family, and video clips show the children singing, performing and dancing.
In a charity video, Firdaws sings a solo on stage at her school to the cheers of her audience.
Firdaws was also a talented debater. Just weeks before the disaster she won a debating competition in which Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow was a judge.
In this year’s MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, he tearfully described how there was no doubt in his mind that she was a deserving winner.
In an emotional interview with the BBC, Assema Kedir, the children’s aunt, reads a letter to them. Choking back tears she said: “Firdaws, you were the most intelligent, wise and eloquent girl I ever knew. You were so talented but still so kind and humble.
“Yahya, my most kind, handsome, pure-hearted, sweet nephew, you would have been a pride to Islam and humanity.”
Yaqub was the last to be formally identified. The family released a statement in which they said: “I hope and pray you were asleep and having a sweet dream in that horrible night and you haven’t seen a second of those terrorizing moments.
“I hope and pray you left us happy and joyous as you always have been.”
According to the Guardian, relatives described the children’s father, Hashim Kedir, as “intelligent, smart, hardworking, hilarious, and caring”.
They said their mum Nura was a “grateful” person, who “appreciated even the smallest things in life”.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Flat 191
Grandmother Sirria Choucair, 60, lived on the same floor as her daughter Nadia’s family, but in a separate flat down the hallway.
Both Sirria and her daughter’s entire family are all confirmed to have died.
An inquest heard Sirria’s remains were found on the 22nd floor.
You can see our video reports with members of the Choucair family by scrolling to flat 193.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 4 Jun 2018
Floor 21
Flat 186
Lulya Benyam![]()
Helen Gebremeskel and her 12-year-old daughter Lulya fled from their 21st floor flat after their kitchen and bedrooms caught fire.
They took refuge with their neighbours, the Gomes family in flat 183, before the group fled together down the stairs just before 4am.
Lulya told BBC’s Newsnight how she was forced to climb over people collapsed on the stairwell.
She said: “We took the stairs, and while I was going down all the smoke was really thick.
“I remember there was this one man, the man I tripped over on the stairs. He was alive but he was old because i could tell from his voice. He was telling me, ‘Get off me, get off me’.
“I felt really bad, I was saying, ‘Sorry, sorry’, and I tried getting off him.
“I was trying to tell him to get up and get down, but he couldn’t get up.”.
Her mum Helen told Newsnight: “We were just going, because if we don’t go then we’re going to die.
“So we were just trying to run, just going.”
The group became separated in the chaos and darkness as they made their escape.
Lulya had tried to carry her dog down the smoke-filled stairwell, but struggled to breathe.
She said: “It's thick air going into you, it's really strong, I can hear everyone trying to find air.
“I rolled down the stairs with my dog. I rolled down another ten sets of stairs.”
Lulya eventually collapsed, letting go of her dog which ran back up to the 21st floor where it died beside another dog.
She was put into an induced coma for 10 days as she underwent treatment for cyanide poisoning.
Last updated: 4 Oct 2017
Flat 185
Lee Stewart and Julian Ng were away on the night of the fire, staying in a hotel to mark Lee’s birthday.
They had moved into the tower just 11 days earlier, renting the flat from a private owner.
In an interview with BBC Newsnight they told how they received a call from their landlord shortly after 3.30am, to tell them that the entire block was in flames.
Lee told the programme: “It took until the next day really for me to think... that people will have died in this. At first you think that people were going to get out.
“There were so many families, so many children living there , and I just wish I knew if they were OK. I know that not all of them will be.”
Last updated: 4 Oct 2017
Flat 184
Mustafa-Sirag Abdu, a civil engineer from Eritrea, told BBC Newsnight that he received a call about the fire shortly after it started, and was able to escape.
He had lived in the one-bedroom flat for 27 years.
Last updated: 4 Oct 2017
Flat 183
Marcio Gomes and his pregnant wife Andreia escaped the burning tower with their two young daughters Luana, 12, and Megan, 10.
But following the fire Andreia was placed into an induced coma and the son, Logan, who she had carried for seven months was delivered stillborn by caesarian.
He has been recorded by police as the tragedy’s youngest victim.
In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight, Marcio, 38, told how the family had no choice but to attempt to climb down the stairs as flames entered the flat.
The programme said they had made up to five 999 calls and been advised that firefighters would rescue them, but decided to flee just before 4am.
Marcio, an IT manager, said: “My room was on fire, just like that. All my curtains were on fire. My moses basket was on fire. All that side of the window was all on fire.
“Literally I grabbed the door, because it’s a fire door. I shut the door, and then I looked at them and I said, ‘We have to go now. There’s no turning back, we have to try. It’s now or never.’”
Marcio and his family, along with neighbours Helen Gebremeskel and her daughter Lulya who had taken refuge in their flat, prepared to leave, wrapped in wet tea towels and sheets.
He told Newsnight that acrid smoke made it difficult to breathe.
He said: “The smoke was certainly so intense that as soon as you took a mouthful of air, in this case smoke, you were gagging. You were constantly gagging all the way down.
“I was, and I can’t even imagine what my daughters were going through.”
He described how the family were forced to step on the bodies of people collapsed on the stairs.
He told the BBC: “What I didn’t counter for was the amount of bodies we had to trip over or step on. We were stepping on people’s arms or legs.”
He said: “I kept shouting to the girls, ‘Keep going, keep going. Keep going down the stairs’. Trying to give them as much encouragement as I could.
“But at one point my daughter replied back to me and said, ‘I can’t’.
“It was coming from behind, so that’s when I realised that she must have let go of the rail.”
Marcio tried to reach his eldest daughter, Luana, but she had stopped talking. Then, luckily, he saw the light of a firefighter coming up the stairs.
In the chaos he had become separated from his wife and their youngest daughter Megan, but later found out that they had also escaped, along with their neighbours.
Andreia, a clothes shop supervisor, was placed into an induced coma along with her two daughters.
Marcio told Newsnight that doctors told him in these scenarios they treat the mother as a priority, and later broke the news that Logan had passed away.
While not certain, it is suspected that the baby’s heart could not cope with the lack of oxygen, he said.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
In his emotional commemoration during the inquiry, Marcio spoke of how hard he worked to prepare a nursery for his unborn son. The caption “Twinkle twinkle little star, do you know how loved you are?” was painted on the wall.
The family had a lighthearted disagreement over which football team Logan would support - settling on both Benfica and Liverpool.
Had the tragedy not happened, the family planned to visit Disneyland together.
Last updated: 31 May 2018
Flat 182
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Abdulaziz el-Wahabi, 52, his wife Faouzia, 41, and their three children Yasin, 20, Nur Huda, 15, and Medhi, aged 8, all died in the fire. They had been told to stay in their 21st floor flat by firefighters.
At one stage relatives believe they made it down the stairs but were sent back up the tower.
Abdulaziz’s sister Hanan and her family lived on the 9th floor, but were able to escape.
Three months after the fire they were part of a group invited to take a week’s holiday in Cornwall by charity Cornwall Hugs Grenfell.
Here Hanan and her daughter Sara, 9, talk to Jackie Long about the family they lost, and how they are coping with the tragedy.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Flat 181
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Ligaya Moore lived alone on the 21st floor of Grenfell Tower, following the death of her husband Jim several years ago.
The retired 78-year-old grandmother moved to London from the Philippines, and had worked as a nanny and a waitress.
BBC Newsnight reported that no-one from the 21st floor appears to have seen her after the fire began.
Her best friend Nenita Bunggay had spent the day with her, before the pair said goodbye at 10.30pm, three hours before the fire began.
Nenita told the BBC she hopes Ligaya may have been tired following their day together, and died in a “deep sleep”.
In a statement, Ligaya’s family said: “The jolly, bubbly person, the lady who loves to dance and who laughed her heart out, succumbed to a fire which turned her laughter into silence.”
Her friend Nenita added: “Ligaya was a jolly and energetic person, she was like my mother and was my best friend. We always spent our time together and she will be greatly missed.”
An inquest heard Ligaya’s remains were recovered from the 21st floor, the Guardian reported.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Floor 20
Flat 176
Jessica Urbano Ramirez![]()
Twelve-year-old Jessica Urbano Ramirez called her family from inside Grenfell Tower, and pleaded to them: “Come and get me, come and get me.”
In the hours after the Grenfell fire, her father waited for news of his daughter and told how he wasn’t able to get back into the burning building.
Schoolgirl Jessica had been briefly alone in her mother’s 21st floor flat on the night of the fire.
Her sister Melanie, 20, was out with her boyfriend, and it is understood that Jessica’s father returned to a separate flat on the tower’s third floor shortly after midnight, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Her mother, Adriana, a cleaner, was working on an overnight shift just half a mile away.
She was told there was a fire in the tower by her boss, and started to run home.
As she hurried back, she received a call from Jessica on an unfamiliar phone number.
Adriana, 38, told the Mail on Sunday: "Jessica told me she was on the stairs. She was shouting, ‘Mummy come and get me’. I told her to get out of there as quickly as she could. I said, 'Run as fast as you can', but then the line cut out."
Jessica also managed to call her father, Ramiro Urbano, who was reported as separated from Jessica's mother and was in a flat on the third floor.
He tried to get up the building to reach his daughter.
He told Channel 4 News: “She phoned us at 1.20am, and she was already two floors down the building, and she said, ‘Come and get me, come and get me’.
“But we couldn’t get in there. When I tried to, the firefighters were already in there, and they wouldn’t allow me to go up.”
Her Aunt Ana Ospina told the Press Association: "She last spoke to her mum when she borrowed a phone and told her she was on the stairs with other people."
According to the Telegraph, it was residents from the 18th floor, Berkti Haftom, 29, and her son Biruk, 12, who lent her the mobile phone she used to call her parents.
Jessica’s body was found on the 23rd floor.
On 4 July her family and friends celebrated what would have been the schoolgirl's 13th birthday at a gathering in Avondale Park in West London.
In a statement released to the Metropolitan Police her family said: “Nothing will ever bring our little girl back, and we are angry that this should ever have happened to our little angel.
“We will not rest until we get justice for her and for the many other lives lost as a result of this crime.”
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Flat 175
A six-year-old girl has been left an orphan following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, after both her parents and her two sisters all died in the fire.
Farah Hamdan, 31, her husband Omar Belkadi, 32, and their three young daughters, Malak, 7, Leena, aged six months, and the six-year-old girl lived on the 20th floor.
Farah was found dead in a stairwell between the 19th and 20th floors, with her six-month old baby in her arms. Her husband Omar, 32, also died in the fire.
Malak and her six-year-old sister were found alive by firefighters and taken to hospital.
However, Malak later died from smoke inhalation.
This left the six-year-old girl as the only survivor.
Adel Chaoui, one of Farah’s cousins, said he had learned that the girls’ desperate mother had called one of her sisters in the early hours as the fire spread.
“She was begging her, saying, ‘What should I do, what should I do?’. And eventually when her sister saw that people were being told to, ‘Get out, get out now’, she told her to do that. “As I understand it, she was blocked from doing so. If that’s blocked by smoke, by fire, or officials, or neighbours, I don’t know.”
Last updated: 10 Oct 2017
Flat 174
Little is known about the couple who lived in this flat. However, messages posted on Facebook after the tragedy suggest the pair, who are believed be married, lived on the 19th floor and were inside Grenfell Tower on the night of the fire.
The social media posts suggest they were able to escape down the stairwell to safety.
Last updated: 7 Nov 2017
Flat 173
Khadija Saye and Mary Mendy![]()
Khadija Saye, 24, was an up-and-coming artist who lived with her mother, Mary Mendy, 52, on the 20th floor. Both died in the fire.
Two days after the tragedy, Labour MP David Lammy - a friend of Khadija’s - spoke emotionally about her death.
On the night of the fire, Khadija did not have access to a working phone, the Guardian reported.
Khadija’s mentor, the artist Nicola Green and wife of David Lammy, spoke to her via Facebook that night.
Nicola told the Guardian: “She was on Facebook saying she was unable to get out of the flat, that the smoke was so thick.
“She was saying she just can’t get out and, ‘Please pray for me. There’s a fire in my council block. I can’t leave the flat. Please pray for me and my mum’.
“At one point she said she’d just tried to leave again and said it was impossible.
“She said she felt like she was going to faint. Someone asked, ‘Did you try going down low with towels?’ She said, ‘Yes, it’s in my room.’ I’m assuming she meant the smoke.”
Khadija’s body was found in a hallway on the ninth floor, 11 floors below her 20th floor home.
The opening of her inquest was told her preliminary cause of death was "inhalation of fire fumes and burns".
Her mother’s body was found on the 13th floor, with her preliminary cause of death given as “fire fumes, pending further investigation”.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 4 Jun 2018
Flat 172
Victoria King![]()
Mother and daughter Victoria King, 71, and Alexandra Atala, 40, lived together on the 20th floor, and died at each other's side.
They were the last two victims to be formally identified, on 16 November 2017.
In a statement released through the Metropolitan Police, their family said: "We were devastated to hear of our sister, Vicky's, fate, and that of her daughter, Alexandra, in the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
"Some comfort can come from the knowledge that she and Alexandra were devoted to one another and spent so many mutually-supportive years together.
"They died at each other's side and now they can rest together in peace.
"We will remember them always."
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 5 Jun 2018
Flat 171
Emma O’Connor and her boyfriend lived on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower, but were out on the night of the fire.
Since then, Emma, 28, has spoken publicly of suffering from “survivor’s guilt” and “flashbacks”, as she considers actions she would have taken if she was there.
She told Channel 5 News: “Now we know that people on our floor especially were still inside, I feel guilty that I didn’t raise the alarm to them.
“I would have tried to at least help them, or get them out or bang on their doors.
“I keep having flashbacks, like me and my partner because we were out, the flashbacks contain us actually being in there while it was happening.
“I can see the fire raging through it, we’re standing at the windows trying to get their attention but they just don’t get to us in time.”
Emma also told LBC of her frustration at not being offered suitable accommodation since the fire.
Last updated: 11 Oct 2017
Floor 19
Flat 165
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Nicholas Burton and his wife Maria Del Pilar Burton - known as Pily - were rescued from the inferno by firefighters, and believe they were some of the last to escape alive.
Sadly Pily suffered a brain haemorrhage in early January 2018. She died on January 29th.
Nicholas told the Evening Standard that he was asleep on the night of the fire until he was woken shortly after 1am by three loud bangs on his door.
Finding thick black smoke pouring into his home, he wedged a wet towel under his door, and then woke his wife who suffers from a debilitating long-term illness.
His friend who lived near the tower repeatedly called him, urging him to escape, but Nicholas feared his wife would be too frail, and he couldn’t carry her down the tower.
He prepared to stay put, following the advice of the fire brigade.
Nicholas told the Evening Standard how he dressed his wife, and put three wet towels in the bath, two for him and his wife, and a third for his beagle Lewis.
He said: “We shut ourselves in the bathroom with Lewis and waited for the fire brigade to save us.”
The couple waited for more than an hour, until at about 3.30am he heard the shouts of firefighters who told him they were coming to rescue them. He had no choice but leave his dog behind.
Describing his harrowing escape down the smoke-filled stairs he said: “I grabbed my wife by the waist as we ran but I lost her and started screaming, ‘Where’s my wife?’ Someone yelled, ‘We’ve got her’.“
An officer had my arm in a tight grip and as we got into the stairwell he was shouting, ‘Let’s go, let’s go!’. My eyes were open but I couldn’t see a thing.
“I was stepping on things which I later realised were probably bodies. He kept shouting, ‘You can do it, nearly there, you can make it’, over and over.
“Down and down we went, running at pace.
“I desperately needed air, but every time I tried to breathe my lungs filled with smoke. My throat was burning. I stuffed the wet towel in my mouth and tried to breathe through it.
“I was holding the banister for balance but as we descended it got hotter and hotter until I had to let go.”
When Nicholas reached the ground floor, Pily was not with him. He saw firefighters carrying her out and for a moment feared she had died.
The pair were given oxygen outside the tower block but lost each other again when they were taken to separate hospitals, eventually reuniting 12 hours later.
Nicholas has heard that the firefighters never got beyond the 20th floor, and he and his wife were almost the last ones out of the tower.
Watch the commemorations below.
Last updated: 4 Jun 2018
Flat 164
Fadumo Ahmed was pulled unconscious from the inferno in a dramatic rescue by firefighters, after a heartbreaking call to her mother where she said: “I can’t get down… Goodbye.”
The 32-year-old cleaner had tried to escape the building for an hour, the Evening Standard reported, initially climbing higher up the tower to escape the heat and smoke.
But at 2am her family, who had been speaking to her by phone, lost contact.
Her mother, who asked not to be named, told the Evening Standard: “In her last call to us she said, ‘I can’t come down any more. I can’t get down. I’m in God’s hands now. Pray for me. Goodbye’.
“We all cried.”
But two hours later, as the family waited at the base of the tower, one of Ms Ahmed’s sisters saw her being put into an ambulance - a sight described as “incredible”.
The Evening Standard reported that in hospital Ms Ahmed told how she had collapsed due to the choking smoke on the fire escape on the 18th floor.
A fireman had found her unconscious and carried her down.
Her mother added: “He is a hero. He saved her life, it’s that simple.”
Flat 163
A telephone call shortly after the fire began saved the lives of Meron Mekonnen and her two young children, the Telegraph reported.
Meron, 36, was woken up by the call from her aunt Hiwot Dagnachew, who lived on the 5th floor of the tower, warning her about the fire and urging her to get out.
She told the Telegraph: “My aunt was trying to be calm but she was clearly panicking. She said there were flames outside her window and that we should get out.”
Meron grabbed her two young daughters to get them downstairs to safety, grasping the hand of Yohana, 6, while holding Liya, 4, under one arm.
She said: “It was hard to breathe - we were coughing and the kids were screaming.”
Meron told the Telegraph that, as they battled their way out of the tower, ten other residents turned back unable to get out. It is feared many may not have survived.
She said: “People were getting really, really scared and started running back up the stairs.
“I was tempted to go back, but I just couldn’t see myself being locked in the flat on the 19th floor with that fire, so I carried on. The girls were so heavy.”
Ms Mekonnen’s partner, Yohannes, a biomedical scientist, was working a night shift at the nearby Chelsea and Westminster hospital and raced to the scene.
He told the newspaper of his children’s confusion: “The little one said, ‘Baba, why are they burning my house?’”
His six-year-old daughter Yohana later drew a pencil drawing of the blaze, showing the tower engulfed with red crayon flames and residents at the windows.
Last updated: 12 Oct 2017
Flat 162
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Marjorie Vital, 68, was a long term resident in Grenfell Tower. The former textile worker had moved to London from Dominica as a young girl, the Telegraph reported.
On the night of the fire, her son Ernie, 50, was staying with her, according to relative Mimi Delson.
An inquest heard Marjorie’s remains were recovered from the tower’s top floor.
Ernie, who worked in the catering industry, also died on the 23rd floor. His preliminary cause of death was recorded as "consistent with the effects of fire", Sky News reported.
In a statement released to the Metropolitan Police, his family said: “He was a creative individual who pursued a creative life. He was a proud, humble, mature and independent man.
"He will be remembered as a kind, sensitive and caring person with a warm hearted smile.”
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 5 Jun 2018
Flat 161
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Deborah Lamprell, known as Debbie, was last heard from at around 11.30pm, just a few hours before the fire started.
She sent her mother a text message after returning home from work, as she would do every night, the Guardian reported.
The 45-year-old worked front of house at Opera Holland Park, a west London opera company, and was also the fire officer.
Her close friend Selina James told the Guardian: “Debbie and I used to walk home together every night. For some reason that night we didn’t.
“I remember saying, ‘See you tomorrow’ when she left the theatre.”
Deborah’s body was found on the 23rd floor. The provisional cause of death was given as “consistent with the effects of fire”.
Her family described her as “a wonderful, precious daughter, always smiling and helping others”.
Gary Maunders has been reported as her friend who was believed to be with her on the night of the fire.
His body was also found on the tower’s 23rd floor.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Deborah, known as Debbie was born in 1971, and was an only child. She was very close to her parents Miriam and Reg.
Debbie's mum would often go and stay with her at Grenfell Tower.
But according to Miriam, it was unpleasant when she was in the tower alone after Debbie had gone to work, because the problems with the lifts made it tricky to get down, escpecially as Miriam got older.
A tribute to Debbie has been made at the theatre where she worked in Holland Park.
The night she died, the text she sent her mother read, "I've got in mum, all's well, good night, God bless."
Last updated: 5 Jun 2018
Elsewhere on this floor
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Gary Maunders was visiting his friend Deborah Lamprell in Flat 161 on the night of the fire.
His body was found on the tower’s 23rd floor.
His relatives Kenita and Channel Spence said: “Our uncle Gary Maunders was a kind, caring, loving person.
“We loved him like an older brother, as we had that kind of bond because we were raised in the same household with him.
“He was very charming, had that old fashioned nature about him. Always went out of his way to help those if they needed it, especially the older generation.
“He'd say, ‘Good morning darling’, and would help them with their shopping bags or trolley.
“You couldn't find another like him, rare and unique within his own right. To call him a chatterbox would be an understatement, he would talk your ears off for hours but was extremely funny, wise and knowledgeable too.
“He loved his mum and kids, he loved them dearly. He'd always check in on them daily, to see if they were alright and to say that he loved them. They were his world.
“He wanted the best for everyone, always told the younger kids of the family to behave and do well in school. Heart of gold our uncle had.
“We truly miss him. It's as if a massive chunk of our hearts has been ripped out of us.
“Sometimes there are no words to describe such feelings.
“He will always be remembered and carried on in memory. We hope he is at peace and continuing on up in heaven doing what he does best. Forever loved. Justice4Grenfell.”
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 5 Jun 2018
Mohamednur Tuccu, his wife Amal, and their three-year-old daughter Amaya are believed to have been visiting Grenfell Tower on the night the fire broke out. None of them survived.
In the hours after the fire, those who knew them searched for news.
Sky News reported that Mohamednur, known as ‘Mo’, finished work at 10pm, before heading to the block with his family to break Ramadan fast.
The 44-year-old’s body was recovered from close to the nearby leisure centre, where he was found to have suffered multiple injuries.
His wife Amal Ahmedin’s remains were found in the lobby of the tower’s 23rd floor, near to the couple’s three-year-old daughter Amaya.
Sky News reported that the family was believed to be visiting a relative on the 19th floor, while the Guardian reported they were thought to be visiting Amna Mahmud Idris.
The remains of 27-year-old Amna were also found on the 23rd floor.
A statement released by the Metropolitan Police on behalf of the families of Amal , Amaya and Amna, said: “This has been a very distressing time for us as a family, but we are relieved that Amal, Amaya and Amna have been identified following the tragic fire.
“They will now be laid to rest.”
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Floor 18
Flat 155
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Berkti Haftom and her 12-year-old son Biruk died after becoming trapped at the top of Grenfell Tower.
They had lived on the 18th floor, but an inquest heard that the child was discovered in the flat of 63-year-old Raymond ‘Moses’ Bernard on the tower’s top floor.
Biruk’s mother Berkti, 29, was found nearby.
Their preliminary cause of death was recorded as "consistent with the effects of fire".
On the night of the fire, it is believed the mother and son helped 12-year-old Jessica Urbano, who was also trapped in the building as the fire spread.
They lent her the phone which she used to call her mother, the Telegraph reported.
In a statement released by the Metropolitan Police Berkti and Biruk’s family said: “Biruk was a loving, pure hearted boy, wise beyond his years and known for his politeness, kind heart and his love for his family and friends.
“Berkti and Biruk left an everlasting legacy full of lovely memories and their contagious laughter and charisma will live in our hearts forever.
“We are deeply hurt and heartbroken our angels were taken from us so cruelly, so young.”
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 18 Jun 2018
Flat 154
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Hamid Kani, 61, lived alone in his flat on the 18th floor and had no relatives in the UK, the Press Association reported.
His niece Maryam Shahvarani said all Hamid’s family lived in Iran, and that he struggled with hearing problems and wore hearing aids.
An inquest heard his body was found on the 23rd floor, five floors above where he lived.
He died of injuries “consistent with the effects of fire”.
A statement released by the Metropolitan Police from Hamid’s family said: "Hamid will always be remembered for his wit, compassion and devotion to his family and friends.
"No words can express our sorrow for his loss and the way he left us. He will always be part of our lives and his memory will live on."
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 7 Jun 2018
Flat 153
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Five-year-old Isaac Paulos became separated from his family as they tried to escape the inferno, and died after a neighbour said they lost hold of him and he vanished in the thick black smoke.
His mother Genet Shawo, 38, told the Evening Standard the day after the fire how the family-of-four attempted to flee the blaze along with several of their neighbours.
Isaac was holding on to a neighbour’s hand, but reportedly became lost.
Genet told the Evening Standard: “We opened the door and there was thick smoke which came into our home. You couldn’t see anything it was so dark. The fire was so hot.
“I was helping my neighbour to put towels on his children, and started helping them down. I had put a wet towel already on Isaac.
“My neighbour said he had lost hold of him inside and couldn’t find him. It was so dark, you couldn’t see anything in the smoke.”
She added: “He told us during the fire that he didn’t want us to die.”
Isaac’s body was recovered from the 13th floor.
Genet, her taxi driver husband Paulos Petakle, and Luca, 3, all survived.
In a statement released by the Metropolitan Police, his family said: "Isaac our beloved son was taken from us when he was only five years old.
"We will all miss our kind, energetic, generous little boy.
"He was such a good boy who was loved by his friends and family.
"We will miss him forever, but we know God is looking after him now and that he is safe in heaven."
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 18 Jun 2018
Elsewhere on this floor
Sakina Afrasehabi![]()
Sisters Sakina Afrasehabi and Fatima Afrasehabi fled up the tower as the fire spread, moving from the 18th floor to the 23rd floor, the Guardian reported.
Sakina’s son Shahrokh Aghlani, 48, a taxi driver, spoke to his aunt Fatima as they fled the inferno, and told how she pleaded with him to get help.
“She asked what happened, ‘Why aren’t they sending helicopters to rescue us?’
“I tried to stay in touch with my aunt and then in the last minutes she was quiet, her breaths could be numbered, and the phone disconnected.”
Sakina’s daughter Nazanin Aklani told the Guardian her mother, who had arthritis and diabetes and could only move with a walking frame, had previously been denied a ground floor flat.
Nazanin said: “She was forced to live there because she had no other option. On a good day she couldn’t come down 18 floors - but in the fire and smoke?”
An inquest heard both sisters were identified by dental records. They had moved to Britain in 1997.
In an emotional interview with BBC Newsnight, Nazanin said she believed the authorities had allowed the fire to burn for too long, depriving her family of their loved ones’ remains.
She said: “What’s more horrendous than getting burned alive? You know, you ask yourself is there anything worse, and I’m afraid there is. Having no remains.
“They failed to put the fire out when they should have. They have been so burned that the coroner defines them as calcified. There is no organic matter in the bones for them to be DNA tested.
“I don’t know why somebody who is responsible for that fire decided it’s OK to stop fighting it and just let everything else burn, because that decision has cost us the remains of our family.”
Floor 17
Flat 146
Virgilio Castro![]()
Virgilio Castro, known as Larry, was sleeping next to his girlfriend Elisa Rabaya when she was woken by their flat’s smoke alarm, the Mirror reported.
The couple fled down the building’s stairwell as quickly as they could but recalled how they saw a number of residents moving higher up the building.
The 60-year-old barman, who had lived in the tower for 26 years, told the Mirror: “I was asleep with my girlfriend when the smoke alarm started ringing.
“I woke up when she started shouting, ‘Fire, fire, fire’.
“When I stood up and looked in the kitchen the fire was already coming inside.
“As we got out into the corridor, I could see the flames were around the edges of the ceiling.”
As he raced down the stairs without even putting on shoes, he saw people coming from below, but he remained determined to get out of the building as quickly as he could.
Larry, who is originally from the Philippines, told the Mirror: “I kept telling them to carry on, but they must have thought the fire department would kill the fire and get to them.
“When I looked at my watch once we were outside I realised it had only taken four minutes to get down and we hadn’t breathed in too much smoke.
“But I was standing there, crying because of the shock.”
According to a JustGiving post raising money for the family, and a social media post by a Filipino women’s group, Larry’s daughter Christabel was out on the night of the fire.
Last updated: 13 Oct 2017
Flat 145
Corinne Jones![]()
A nine-year-old boy saved his family from the Grenfell inferno by waking them up just minutes before the stairwell filled with smoke, the Times reported. Amiel Miller alerted his mother Corinne Jones, 31, and brother Danel, 7, to the blaze just after 1am.
Three weeks after the Grenfell Tower fire, Channel 4 News reported on the rehoming of residents, and spoke to survivor Corinne Jones about her family’s struggle to be placed in suitable accommodation.
Schoolboy Amiel told the Times: “I just woke up, I looked out of the window and saw flame particles blowing past and I heard screaming.
“So I went to my mum’s room and said, ‘Mummy, I think there’s a fire’, and then she said, ‘As quick as you can go and get your stuff on’, and I went to wake up Danel.”
His mother Corinne, a paediatric medical secretary at Kensington and Chelsea Hospital, told the newspaper: “He’s our hero. If he hadn’t woken us up, it would have been too late.
“Every second counted. It’s so surreal. I was asleep. The next minute I was running from a burning building with my kids.
“I only realised much later just how close we came to death. It was such a close call.”
She added: “Had it been five minutes later we wouldn’t have been able to get down the stairs because they would have been full of smoke.
Corinne had lived in the tower with her sons and partner Jason Miller, 37, an IT specialist, since July 2016, the Times reported, and lost many friends and neighbours in the tragedy.
Last updated: 16 Oct 2017
Flat 144
Vincent Chiejina’s body was recovered from the 17th floor and identified by DNA, his inquest heard. His provisional cause of death was given as "consistent with the effects of fire".
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Flat 143
Khadija Khalloufi![]()
Retired lecturer Sabah Abdullah became separated from his wife in the chaos as residents tried to flee the fire through the smoke-filled stairwell, the MailOnline reported.
Sabah, 72, and his wife Khadija Khalloufi, 52, had lived together on the tower’s 17th floor.
On the night of the fire they both fled the flat in their pyjamas and dressing gown, but faced a stampede of residents all trying to escape.
Sabah told the MailOnline: ‘I said to my wife, ‘Put a part of your robe over your nose so you can at least filter it’, and I pulled her from the flat.
“It was a stampede, with killer smoke. I could see only half a metre in front of me.
“The noise was indescribable. Not only were people screaming, you could feel that every one of them was very nervous and afraid, scared, wondering what’s going on. Nobody was expecting this.
“We were all coughing terribly in the black smoke. There was a mixture of people, mainly adults but some children.
“I thought, OK, my wife is behind me. All I need to do is keep my hand in her hand and the other hand over my nose. But how could I keep my balance? They kept pushing me left and right, how could I balance?
“I found myself letting go of her hand and putting my hand on the rail.
“I thought she was safe behind me”
When he got down to the 15th floor, Sabah realised his wife was missing, but thought she must have been making her own way out of the building.
However when he got out of the building he could not see his wife. He was told later that she died outside the tower in an area of greenery and flowers.
He told the MailOnline: “They told me she died just 50 feet from me.”
The couple had first met when Khadija attended one of his lectures in Business Studies at Kensington and Chelsea College.
Sabah told Sky News that his wife was “very lively” and “always laughing”.
He said: “We spent 30 years together and I feel like I’ve lost part of my body.”
An inquest heard that Khadija died from inhalation of fumes.
Her husband was granted an emergency passport to attend her funeral in Morocco after his identification was lost in the fire and the BBC appealed to the Home Office on his behalf.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Flat 141
Mesrob Kassemdjian![]()
Mesrob Kassemdjian fled from the 17th floor with his aunt Rita Tankarian, 67, and his girlfriend, according to reports.
In the hours after the fire, he spoke to Channel 4 News about the moment he realised the building was on fire and how they managed to escape.
Last updated: 3 Nov 2017
Elsewhere on this floor
From left: Mohammed Hanif, Mohammed Hamid, Husna Begum, Kamru Miah and Rabeya Begum![]()
Five members of the same family died in the Grenfell fire as two brothers and a sister refused to abandon their elderly parents, the Times reported. Mohammed Hamid, 27, Mohammed Hanif, 26, and Husna Begum, 22, reportedly told relatives they would not leave their father Kamru Miah, 79, and mother Rabeya Begum, 64.
As the flames spread the family were reportedly heard praying together.
Their cousin Samir Ahmed, 18, told the Times: “Their dad could barely walk anyway. What were they going to do? Abandon him?”
Samir described how the family spoke to relatives at 3.10am.
He said: “My auntie spoke to Hanif. He was very calm. He said his time had come, and not to mourn for them, but be happy for them because they would be in a better place.”
A third brother, Mohammed Hakim, who had moved out of the family home, reportedly visited the family on the night of the fire to break the Ramadan fast, but left at 10.30pm, before the fire began.
The family had also been looking forward to Husna’s upcoming marriage later in the summer.
Rohema Khanom told the BBC how she heard the family praying in a series of harrowing phone calls while they were trapped in the tower.
She said: “They were reciting duas from the Koran, and it was just heartbreaking. Then it just cut out.
“And then I rang Husna. She was like, ‘We’re not going to make it, we can’t make it, we can see flames under the door, we can see flames under the door’.
“I kept saying, ‘Try and put things under the door to stop the smoke coming and get as low as you can and open the windows, someone’s going to come, call the fire brigade, do something’.
“And then she stopped talking. And all I could hear was this crackling noise in the background because the phone was still on but she wasn’t saying anything.”
Surviving brother Mohammed Hakim told the BBC: “Not losing one member of my family but losing all five. The whole entire family. I don’t have my parents any more.
“And you only get one set of parents in this world. And I had three siblings. They’re all gone.”
An inquest heard Kamru and his wife Rabeya were discovered on the 17th floor. Their two sons were found on the same floor and identified by DNA checks.
Husna was found in the lobby near the lifts on the same floor.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Floor 16
Flat 136
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To a backdrop of the still-smouldering fire, Hamid Wahbi, a local fishmonger, recalls the moment he saw smoke and flames filling his flat.
He escaped from the 16th floor after disobeying the fire brigade’s order to stay indoors. Here he talks to Jon Snow.
Last updated: 8 Nov 2017
Flat 135
The family of Joseph Daniels - known as Joe - told how the 69-year-old had suffered from dementia and, despite attempts to persuade him to escape the fire, he refused to leave.
Writing in the Irish Times, his relative Patrick Smyth told how Joe’s son Sam tried to persuade his father to leave their 16th floor flat as the smoke spread through the building.
Patrick wrote: “But Joe, who has suffered from dementia, was confused and would not be moved.
“Sam was forced to leave him as the acrid smoke began to make him feel faint.
“He appealed to firemen coming up the stairs to rescue his father, but when they retreated 15 minutes later, also driven out by smoke, there was no sign of Joe.”
An inquest heard that Joe’s remains were found on the 16th floor, and identified by his DNA. He died from injuries “consistent with the effects of fire”, the hearing was told.
His son Sam managed to escape.
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
His son, Sam, said his father “never stood a chance of getting out. It should never have happened.”
Last updated: 31 May 2018
Flat 134
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Edward Daffarn narrowly escaped from his 16th floor flat when he was helped to find a fire exit by a firefighter, BuzzFeed News reported.
Almost five months after the fire, Channel 4 News spoke to him as he joined other Kensington residents in fighting to save a local college.
The 55-year-old only learned the tower was on fire after he heard a neighbour’s smoke alarm and then someone shouting ‘Fire! Fire!’ from the hallway.
He told BuzzFeed News: "I opened my front door and a huge lot of smoke came in, and I realised what was happening. We'd been advised that I need to stay in my flat so I shut the door and went back in.
"About 10 seconds later my friend rang me and said, 'You need to get out of the flat.'
“He was so urgent I decided I had to leave.”
He tied a damp towel around his face and went across the landing towards the fire exit, but the smoke was so thick he could not see.
He told BuzzFeed News: “Where I thought the door was it wasn't. I had a matter of seconds or I was going to die. This fireman came, he was lying on the ground and opened the fire exit.
“He touched my leg and that was enough. That enabled me to get out."
Edward is a campaigner with the Grenfell Action Group which published a series of posts online warning of fire safety concerns in the building.
The posts raised concerns by residents with the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) which managed the block.
One post in November 2016 claimed: “It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders.”
Last updated: 12 Nov 2017
Flat 132
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Great grandmother Sheila Smith, 84, had lived in Grenfell Tower for three decades and is thought to be one of the oldest victim of the fire.
Her family - who want her to be remembered simply as ‘Sheila’ - describe her as an artist and a poet, who remained physically active up to her 80s.
An inquest heard that she died on the 16th floor, with injuries “consistent with the effects of fire”.
Her family, said: "Sheila was a resident of Grenfell Tower for 34 years who absolutely adored her family and gave her many friends much love and inspiration.
"A very active and well-respected member of the local community, Sheila was cycling around London, performing yoga daily and swimming regularly in the Kensington Leisure Centre until she was 80 years old.
"Sheila leaves two sons, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
“As a family we are heartbroken as to this senseless tragedy that took her far too early, and will do all we can to honour her name."
Last updated: 20 Oct 2017
Floor 15
Flat 122
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Father-of-five Steve Power died in the Grenfell fire.
An inquest heard that the body of the 63-year-old was found on the 15th floor, with a provisional cause of death as “consistent with the effects of fire”.
Steve’s sister Christine Elcock, 62, told the Sun: “He lived there 35 years and was a retired lorry driver."
Steve’s daughter, Rebecca Ross, 22, survived the fire, after writing on social media site Twitter about her terror from inside the burning building.
MailOnline reported that she wrote: ‘I’m stuck in this block!!! Can’t leave my house because I’ll die from the smoke.’
She added: ‘Guys I don’t know what to do. Panicking because people are jumping out the window and I can’t leave my house at all. The whole landing is covered in smoke. I won’t make it.’
However, two hours later she posted that she was safe.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 6 Jun 2018
Floor 14
Flat 115
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Zainab Deen, 32, was found dead at the side of her two-year-old son, after they reportedly followed advice to stay in their 14th floor flat and wait to be rescued.
As he waited for news in the hours after the fire, Zainab’s brother Francis told how he spoke to his sister as the fire spread, and desperately urged her to try to escape.
An inquest heard that Zainab was found next to her son on the 14th floor.
The two-year-old was identified by his DNA and his provisional cause of death was given as “consistent with the effects of fire”.
Zainab, who was originally from Sierra Leone, was described as a "beautiful, loving lady" by a group of friends who gathered near Grenfell Tower to pay tribute to her.
A statement from the family issued by the Metropolitan Police said: “You spent a moment in our arms, but you will last a lifetime in our hearts"
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 5 Jun 2018
Flat 113
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Oluwaseun Talabi initially tied bed sheets together in an attempt to flee the fire, before tying his four-year-old daughter to his back and running down the stairs with his girlfriend.
In an interview with 5 News hours after the fire he describes his family’s escape.
Last updated: 12 Nov 2017
Flat 112
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Omar Alhajali escaped from the tower. His younger brother Mohammad did not. Here Omar speaks to Jackie Long and tells how the fire brigade repeatedly told them to stay inside the flat - an instruction he believes could have cost Mohammad his life.
Here, Omar and Mohammad's other brother, Hashem, talks about the tragedy.
Last updated: 26 Oct 2017
Flat 111
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Denis Murphy, 56, called relatives as the fire spread through the building, telling them he was stuck on the 14th floor and being told not to leave his flat.
His sister, Anne-Marie Murphy, said at 2.32am on the night of the fire she spoke to Denis on the phone “and reassured him that we were on our way to him, also never imagining that we wouldn't ever get to see or speak to him again.”
Denis reportedly lived in the block for three decades on a number of different floors, before his most recent home in flat 111 on the 14th floor.
His mother Anne had moved to the UK from Limerick in the late 1950s.
An inquest heard his remains were found on the 14th floor and identified by dental records. The preliminary cause of death was "consistent with the effects of fire".
A statement from the family released by the Metropolitan Police said: “The pain, loss and sorrow we feel is indescribable and we have been left devastated with a gaping hole in our hearts that can never be filled.”
Watch commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Denis’ mother said “he was born with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face - and he kept this trademark throughout his life.”
His sister, Anne-Marie Murphy, said during her commemoration at the Grenfell Inquiry that Denis fulfilled the role of a father figure when they were growing up, in the absence of their dad.
Denis was a keen sportsman, having football trials for Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace in his youth.
He also volunteered to help adults with learning disabilities.
Last updated: 31 May 2018
Floor 13
Flat 105
Fatima, Tiago and Ines Alvez![]()
Miguel Alvez, 49, arrived back home from a late dinner with his wife and a relative, and saw smoke beginning to spread through the tower as he took the lift up to the 13th floor. He rescued his children, Tiago, 20, and Ines, 16, from the flat, before alerting neighbours.
Here Miguel’s wife, Fatima, university student Tiago, and Ines talk about their escape.
Ines was due to sit her first GCSE exam in chemistry on the day of the fire. She turned up to the exam at 9am, still wearing the clothes she escaped in.
She went on to achieve the highest possible grade, a 9, equivalent to an A* under the former system.
Last updated: 12 Nov 2017
Floor 11
Flat 86
Maria and Ali Jafari![]()
After the fire began, Maria Jafari, 38, and her mother Fatima, 78, went down the tower to investigate, while her father Ali, 82, and her sister Nadia, 27, remained in the flat. Her father would not survive.
In the days after the fire, while her father was still declared as missing, Maria told what happened.
Seeing the flames spreading, Maria tried to call her younger sister and get back into the tower to help her father, but was stopped by firefighters, she told the Telegraph.
Upstairs, her sister and father were struggling to escape.
They tried to take the lift because Ali was terrified of exposed gas pipes in the stairwell, the Telegraph reported. However, they became separated. Nadia made it out, but her father Ali did not.
An inquest heard he was pulled from Grenfell Tower by firefighters but pronounced dead at the scene due to inhalation of fire fumes.
Watch the commemorations from the Grenfell Inquiry here.
Last updated: 5 Jun 2018
Flat 81
Abdeslam Sebbar, 77, lived on the 11th floor of Grenfell Tower, where he was discovered. He died from an inhalation of fire fumes and was identified by DNA, an inquest heard.
Last updated: 30 Oct 2017
Floor 10
Flat 72
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Antonio Roncolato was asleep in his tenth floor flat when the fire broke out, but was able to safely get out of the building.
He talked to Channel 4 News about the loss of his home of 27 years, and his sadness at knowing many of the children he knew from the tower had died in the blaze.
Last updated: 12 Nov 2017
Floor 9
Flat 66
Hanan Wahabi and Sara Chebiouni![]()
Hanan Wahabi, her husband Salah, and their two children made it out of the burning tower block. But her brother Abdulaziz and his family, who lived higher up the building, did not.
Three months after the fire Hanan and her family were part of a group invited to take a week’s holiday in Cornwall by charity Cornwall Hugs Grenfell.
Here they talk to Jackie Long about their loss, and how they are coping.
Last updated: 12 Nov 2017
Floor 6
Flat 33
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Paul Menacer, 23, survived the fire after escaping from a flat on the sixth floor, but has suffered nightmares and flashbacks following his ordeal.
On the day the Duke of Cambridge visited Kensington to offer support to those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire, he spoke to Channel 4 News.
Last updated: 12 Nov 2017
About this interactive report
Our aim is to tell the story of each flat in Grenfell Tower, and what happened on the night of the fire to the individuals, couples and families who lived there. We hope this will be both a comprehensive record of the tragedy, and a memorial to all those who lost their lives.
We started by building the most detailed picture possible of who lived in the 24-storey tower. For this we used a series of lists and databases, including the current unedited electoral roll, a list of the building’s tenants, commercially available registers and crowd-sourced community lists, along with Channel 4 News’ own sources.
We then sought to find out what happened in each flat. In many cases we have spoken directly to friends or relatives of the victims, or survivors. In others, we’ve drawn from the most reliable public accounts we could find, attributing other news sources. In all cases we’ve taken great care to ensure the details are as accurate as possible.
The most sensitive information of those who lost their lives comes from the authorities, either the police or inquests. For other details we’ve used the most direct accounts we can, and taken great care to identify and remove errors. All those listed as losing their lives died as a result of the fire. And all ages given are the ages on the date of the fire.
The interactive graphic represents the appearance of Grenfell Tower in the days after the fire. It has been created by applying a photomontage of images taken at the scene to a scale 3D model.
So far we have included the flats and stories already covered publicly. However, if you lived in the tower and would like your story told, please get in touch. Equally, while we have taken every care to avoid mistakes, if there are any inaccuracies, please contact us. You can email guy.basnett@itn.co.uk.
- Reporting
- Guy Basnett, Stephanie Stafford and Martin Williams
- Interactive graphic
- Felix Renicks
- Additional reporting
- Ziad Al-Hasso, Patrick Worrall, Delara Shakib, David Weisbloom and Daire Collins.
