Jessica Ramirez

The desperate efforts to rescue 12-year-old Jessica Urbano Ramirez from her home in Grenfell Tower became emblematic of the bravery but ultimate failure of the London fire brigade on that night.

Ramirez lived with her family on the 20th floor of the building. A firefighter, David Badillo, met her sister leaving the building. She told him Jessica was still in their flat and he promised he would go and get her.

Badillo took the fire lift intending to rescue the young girl but it stopped at the 15th floor and when the door opened, the stairwell was filled with black smoke. He was not wearing breathing apparatus and was forced to descend.

A firefighting team equipped with breathing apparatus then tried to reach her. At 1.48am, firefighters including Badillo made it to flat 176 on the 20th floor where Jessica was thought to be. They searched the flat but found no one and left, assuming she had already escaped. In fact, she had fled to the top floor to escape the flames.

Call records showed she rang the emergency fire control room at 1.29am. The conversation with the control room officer (CRO), Sarah Russell, ended at 2.24am.

Jessica repeatedly asked Russell: “Please can you hurry up?” A transcript of the phone call, running to about 70 pages, shows that Russell told Jessica: “They are hurrying up. Is there another room you can go into?”

Jessica replied: “No, can you hurry up please? I’m begging you.” Russell replied: “They are, they’re right below you. But you need to keep yourself safe.”

Jessica was with a group of 10 people on the 23rd floor as the flames rose up the building. They ended up in in a single bedroom in flat 201.

Throughout the call Jessica repeatedly said she was having trouble breathing. She told Russell there was smoke in the bedroom. She said others had tried to leave but there was too much smoke.

“CRO Russell could hear the sound of breathing for some time after that and ended the call only when the line went silent. That was the last known contact with Jessica Ramirez,” the inquiry report says. Her body was eventually discovered in a flat on the 23rd floor.

Choucair family

A composite image shown during the Grenfell inquiry of six members of the Choucair family. Photograph: PA

The Choucair family lived in two flats on the 22nd floor of Grenfell Tower. Sirria Choucair, 60, who was born in Lebanon, lived in flat 191. Her daughter Nadia, 33, son-in-law Bassem Choukair, 40, and their three children, Mierna, 13, Fatima, 11, and Zainab, three, lived in flat 193.

All six were trapped and died in flat 193. The last phone call from the flat was at 3.24am. Another resident, Hashim Kedir, rang the emergency services. The report says they were “repeatedly advised that their only chance of survival was to cover their faces with wet cloths and make for the stairs. The option of a helicopter was not possible.”

Kedir told the emergency services they had tried to leave but had been unable to do so because of the smoke. “With the fire approaching, it was difficult to breathe or see anything. He said they could not reach the door, let alone the staircase,” the report says.

“Towards the end of the call, [a] control room officer tried to persuade [Kedir] to leave and was again told it was impossible. The caller then called out ‘I love you’ to others in the room, probably his children.”

The call ended at at 3.37am. That was the last known contact with the Choucair family and those who had taken refuge in their flat. Eleven bodies were later found there and identified.

Biruk Haftom

Biruk Haftom and his mother, Berkti. Photograph: PA

Biruk Haftom, 12, lived with his mother, Bertki, 29, in flat 155 on the 18th floor. As the flames penetrated higher into the building, they are believed to have fled upstairs.

The report records that at 1.32am a control room officer answered a call from a child believed to be Biruk. He said he was on the top floor with others and that “my actual door number is 155 but I’m at someone else’s house”.

By then he was in flat 201 on the 23rd floor with other desperate residents. “We can’t come out,” he told CRO Christine Howson. “There’s a lot of smoke in the flat and in the building.”

Biruk explained that the fire was not in the flat but added: “I can see it and the window’s already burning up.” He then handed the phone to an adult who first said that the “fire is coming through” and then that “the smoke’s coming through the window”. Howson advised them to try to stop the smoke coming into the flat.

Biruk’s body was found beside his mother’s and identified by dental records. A statement released later by their 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. We will not rest until justice is served.”