Stories from survivors and victims’ families about night of the fire and life since may help prevent similar tragedies, inquiry told

The voices of the Grenfell Tower survivors must be heard, the public inquiry has been told by those who fear they will be silenced when witnesses begin giving evidence next year.

Lawyers representing those who escaped the fire, as well as the bereaved families, told the inquiry chair, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, on Monday that hearing their stories from the night of the disaster, as well as from the aftermath as they try to put their lives back together, could help prevent similar tragedies in future.

Here are some of their stories:

Marion Telfer

Telfer brought her three-month-old son, nestling in a sling on her chest, to the inquiry hearing in Holborn, central London.

On the night of the fire, six months’ pregnant, she had raced up to London by train from her home in Kent in the hope of finding her aunt Mary Mendy and cousin Khadija Saye. They lived on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower.

“My aunt raised me,” Telfer said, “and I lived in the tower for several years. I went to visit her a couple of weeks before the fire. I still see it through flashbacks. Every time it’s on the news, I get a flashback.

“I had run all the way [to get on the train and from the station] to look for my aunt and cousin. I see the image of the tower in flames and standing below it. My kids get nightmares. I keep getting flashbacks. On the night, my aunt was messaging me on Facebook saying ‘please help us’.”

Nabil Choucair

Choucair doesn’t sleep well at night. “I never wake up OK,” he said with a shrug. “I see them every day. It’s like it was yesterday.”

Six months on from the fire, in which he lost six members of his close family, the 43-year-old appeared tired, with puffy eyes. “I haven’t been coping since then,” he said.

He hopes the Grenfell inquiry will eventually reveal not just who was responsible but “the exact truth” to show everything “that has been withheld”.

Choucair lost his mother, sister, brother-in-law and their children in the blaze. “They were won’t be forgotten,” he said.

He has travelled with their bodies to Lebanon so they could be buried where the family came from.

He hopes the inquiry will investigate the “stay put” advice given to so many residents. “They were all in the tower that night and were told to stay put,” Choucair said.



“I used to live in Grenfell Tower and I visited visited my family regularly. I’m sceptical about the inquiry [getting to the truth]. We will see.”



Natasha Elcock

Elcock, who escaped from her 11th-floor flat with her boyfriend and six-year-old daughter, is still living in temporary accommodation but she hopes to move to somewhere permanent near her old flat at the beginning of next year. She knows she is in a better position than most survivors.

“For me it has been OK, but I made sure that my voice was heard from the beginning. I pushed and pushed and got myself where I need to be. I am conscious that a lot of people are not in such a good situation,” she said.

“Four out of five are awaiting permanent homes. There were a lot of promises and extensions to dates and times given in the early days. It needs to speed up. I know that it will take a while to secure homes, but I understand why some people are reluctant to trust the council. They let us down before the fire, during the fire and after the fire.”