![]() ![]() The fire must have been so intense in that area. The only thing that remained was the metal frames of the beds,” says Marcio. Detectives showed them a 360-degree view of the flat. “We were just going, just going and going, because if we don’t keep going, we’re going to die,” says Helen. They found themselves treading on the dead and the dying - other Grenfell residents who, like them, had tried to get out of the building before passing out on the stairs. They began the descent in the pitch black, gagging as they attempted to get down 21 floors of smoke-filled stairs. Marcio tied wet tea towels around everyone's faces, wrapped wet sheets around them and gave specific instructions about the order in which they should leave. “I looked at them and I said, ‘We have to go now. All that side of the window is on fire,” says Marcio. So the Gomes family and the Gebremeskels waited.Īt about 03:30, Marcio and Andreia’s bedroom caught fire. And they said, ‘No, stay in, do not come out. And then we call again and we asked them. So we've been waiting and waiting and waiting. “That's what they say to us from two to three o'clock. “At one point I think I asked one of my friends, ‘Can we speak to the fire people or the police you know?’ And she let me talk to them and we asked them, ‘What shall we do?’ And they say to us, ‘Someone is going to come and take you out,’” says Helen. “I’m very religious and I kneeled down and I begged our lady of Fatima to protect them, to protect everybody in the building, but especially them because they are Portuguese and we knew them," says Fatima Alves. Tension grew as the fire spread and people became trapped by dense smoke, especially those residents on the top floors of the tower. Once the Alves family had escaped from the building, they began to call Marcio to tell him he must get his family out. They’re also from Portugal and Miguel and Marcio play football together every week. They had friends outside the tower who were watching the building burn and were calling them to say they must get out, including Miguel and Fatima Alves who lived on the 13th floor. With all the windows open, the two families stayed low to the ground to try to keep beneath the smoke.Īll of the adults had conversations with the emergency services and were told to stay put, that firefighters would come to rescue them. ![]() Marcio filled the bath with water and ran the shower. These two families - the Gomes family of four with Helen, her daughter, Lulya, and two dogs - spent the next two terrifying hours waiting as smoke started to fill the flat. ![]() It was already thick, black smoke,” says Marcio. Helen and Lulya had already tried to get out of the building and had met the El Wahabis from flat 182 on the way.īy the time they knocked on the Gomeses' door, it was between 01:30 and 02:00. On the night of the fire, the Gomes family had been out for dinner, but had been asleep for several hours when they were woken up by Helen Gebremeskel and her daughter Lulya, 12, who lived across the corridor in Flat 186. It’s been portrayed as a poor tower, a broken tower. The tower itself was a community, it was very family orientated. You’d go up in the lift with lots of different people, you’d talk, the kids would play. “The diversity was great, you’d meet all sorts of different people – Irish, English, Arabic, Muslim, Portuguese, Spanish, Italians. His daughters shared a big bedroom and were making plans to welcome their new brother. They believe that, since the fire, Grenfell has too often been portrayed in a one-dimensional way, as a place full of poor people, living on benefits, but they point out the majority were working.īefore the fire, Marcio had done some renovations in preparation for Logan’s arrival, transforming a recessed storage area into a snug nursery. Seven months pregnant at the time of the fire, she was about to go on maternity leave. ![]() He works in IT and Andreia is a supervisor in a clothes shop. We’ve seen a lot of those kids grow up and become young women and men, and move on and get a job.” The corridor space in between the flats, even though it was very small, they would play tag, or ride their scooters or play football. “There were kids on every floor, of all different ages. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |