Grenfell (2018) - full transcript

This programme contains scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting.

Do not let me ramble.

August 1975,
I got the letter to say,

"Go and view 13 Grenfell Tower."

Well, when I looked at it,

I thought it was a palace
compared to what I was coming from.

Over the years, we built it up
and it became home.

I'm Mona Qabbani.

Um, I lived in Grenfell Tower
Flat 85 on the 11th floor.

I am Turufat Yilma.

I used to live at
Grenfell Tower since 1996.



My wife and I, we lived there
for 34 years.

I moved into Grenfell Tower in 2001.

I've been in Grenfell Tower since
birth, which was in 1981.

Good fun for me growing up,

especially on Lancaster West Estate
where the tower sits.

A multitude of friends,
just hanging out.

Because we had a base, this was our
base, this was a fortress,

it was a concrete castle.

We all got to know each other very
well because we used to spend

an inordinate amount of time waiting
in the lobby

for the lifts that
never worked.

I got married while
I was in the tower,

I had both my kids
while I was in the tower.

You know, I was very proud to live
there and it's just a tragedy



that we're not able to show
people...

..er, you know, what we were
actually like any more.

My wallet, paperwork

and just toiletries.

I lost everything in the fire.
I lost everything.

So, what I've got is whatever
I've got from people,

like clothes, clothes, clothes what
was given to me,

clothes what was given to me
by different organisations.

And this phone.

This little A to B phone.

That's it.

That's disgusting.

I'm still biting them!

When I close my eyes, I can see,

like now, I can see the stairway,

I can see the lift,
I can see my front door.

Certain things, flashes.

That feeling of running down
the stairs...

..that's the killer for me.

That's the killer for me.

That's the killer,
that's the killer.

I have been filming every other day
for the last nine months.

I know I'm not supposed
to fly the drone...

..but I film different angles

to try and show any other image
than what it normally looks like.

Although they do not condone it,
my psychologists believe

that it's some way that I've been
self-medicating to get over

what I witnessed.

It's something we never speak about,
we never speak about at home.

It seems easier to push it...at
the back of your mind.

You find yourself holding
a lot of feelings within.

They're kind of hard to get your
head around.

It becomes a common factor for
friends and family

within the community that,
the night of the 13th

tends to be a sleepless night.

HE BREATHES DEEPLY

SMOKE ALARM BEEPS IN DISTANCE

I was lying in bed.

I heard my neighbour's smoke alarm,

so, no central fire alarm,

just my neighbour's fire alarm.

Going, "Ping, ping, ping."

Went to my front door.

I opened it a fraction...

SMOKE ALARM BLARES, BANGING

HE CLOSES DOOR

Smoke, thick, acrid smoke just came
billowing through the gap.

Oi, oi, oi, oi, oi.
Something crazy is happening.

Can you believe this, bro?

My wife and I started getting
telephone calls from my friend,

Simon, saying, "Nick, there's
a fire in the tower."

I just didn't take notice.
I was quite blase about it.

"OK, don't worry.

"Just stay put, in your flat,

"it's concrete,
it's not going to go anywhere.

"The fire brigade will have
enough time to put it out."

SIREN BLARES
Jesus Christ, mate.

That's not a real block with
people in it?

That's a real block. Oh, shit.

It's Towering Inferno, isn't it?

I had fallen asleep on the sofa.

And I got woken up by fire engines.

Took absolutely no notice.

It's absolutely usual.

Regular occurrence.
Fire engines come,

someone's stuck in the lift.
Could be anything.

SIRENS BLARE

We went outside.

A man ran by me

and he was obviously shaken up.

I stopped him,
I said, "Where are you going?"

And he said,
"My building's on fire."

So I was like,
"Your building's on fire?"

So I was just like,
"OK, I'm coming."

How is that possible?! Jumped up
all the way along the flats, look.

I called 999.

They said,
"Yes, we are aware of the situation.

"Just stay inside."

I made another phone call
to the fire brigade.

They just said,
"Look, we know you're there."

In the end, after I closed all the
doors and everything in the flat...

..in the end we just...

..just trapped in our bathroom.

This is crazy, man.
This is a building in London.

Ladbroke Grove, West London,
Latimer.

Grenfell Tower. Grenfell Tower.

Grenfell Tower!

The firemen are just going in now
as well, man.

I went to the bathroom, I got
a towel, I wetted the towel,

I wrapped the towel around my face
and then I left my property.

To negotiate my way from my flat
to where

the emergency exit was
was probably about...

..probably about 20 foot.

I couldn't see a thing.

Oh, my days, man. Oh, my days.

Oh, my days.

We just walked towards the tower.

There was massive bits of debris
falling off the building,

still on fire.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Watch out! Heads up!

Oh, shit. Oh, shit! Days! Whoa!

The heat alone was really
unbearable.

And we was a good 20 metres away
from the building.

Everyone on this Facebook live, pray
for those people in there right now.

There's people... Get out!

Get out! Fire!

Get right back! Get right back now!

I was just going on the instinct
of where I thought the door was.

I had my towel held around my...

..round the back of my head.

I was pawing at the wall with
this hand and then I started

panicking, and I let go of the towel
and started pawing

at the wall with my other hand.

And then I sort of thought,

"I'm not going to get out of this,"
and started inhaling the smoke.

And, then, at that moment,

a fireman came and I felt
that he touched my leg

and, in touching my leg, I looked
down and, then, in looking down,

I was able to see
that it appeared...

..I was right next to where the door
was, but I wasn't at the door.

And I was able to see the light
that led to the door.

So, I just ran for my life,
basically, down the stairs.

And then I got outside
the front of the building,

the whole of the side
of the building was ablaze. And...

Yeah, I just started, like...

You can see the fire going
straight up.

It looked like one of...
a movie scene.

There's someone right at the top
as well, man.

Look at these people,
look at these people.

SIRENS BLARE
Police completely cordoned off
the roads.

Whoa, they're kicking us off.

They're kicking us off.

HELICOPTER WHIRS OVERHEAD

The front of the building
got so heated,

people were running to the back of
the building

into other people's rooms.

And we could see them.
Keep your window open!

They're coming up!
Keep your window open!

7th, the 11th, the 17th,
kids, women, old people.

Oh, no. She's trapped inside.

Get a blanket, wet it,
try and make your way down!

EXPLOSION
PEOPLE EXCLAIM: Whoa!

What floor are you on?

11th! 11!
She's stuck on the 11th floor.

Someone run through there and
tell them, 11th floor.

TRAPPED WOMAN: Is someone coming?

On the 11th floor, there was a woman
shouting, "Is anyone coming?"

We shouted out, you know,
"Who are you with?"

She goes, "I have a child."

They're in their floor,
they're just in the window,

but they can't see what we could see
is happening on the top of them.

And that building on top of them
is red-hot.

EXPLOSION
Oh, my God.

The fire... They've got a matter
of minutes

before it spreads to her floor,
basically.

What I loved about
the firefighters was that they

weren't denying the fact that they
needed us to communicate with them.

Because where they were,
they couldn't see what we could see.

PEOPLE SPEAK AT ONCE

They're trying to get in,
they're trying.

See that window below?
See that man there?

You have got to direct the water
above the floor. OK. All right.

Through that alleyway was
the firefighters on the ground.

It was like a chain. There we go.

Yes, yes, yes. Tell him to swing it
right, tell him to swing it...

There we go. Yes, man, there we go.

I can see the woman right now, fam.

Still so helpless.

My main concern was keeping
my daughter calm.

I needed her to know that we were
going to get out,

cos I told her we were
going to get out.

Windows were starting to crack.

A couple of them blew out.

Eventually, my sister called me,
she said, "I'm with a firefighter,

"they're on their way to get you."

I could hear the door being kicked
in and then I just...

..all I can remember is, I just saw
an arm come out,

and kind of grabbed my wife.

And then another arm come and
grabbed me, I didn't really see...

..see the people.

And, then, it was just out
into the darkness.

As we were going down and around and
around and around and around and

around, you know,
I'm stepping on things, you know...

I had my arm around my wife's waist,

but then she disappeared
into the darkness.

So I was just shouting, like,
"Where's my wife?

"Where's my wife?"

We eventually got into
some triage area.

And...

But then I looked over
and I just see somebody...

..having CPR.

And I thought my wife was dead.

And then...

Nick was out sitting on the floor
at triage point number three.

A lady came out,
I now know it to be his wife,

but at the time I didn't know.

And then somebody came over
and said, "Is this your wife?"

And I was like, "Oh, my God,
I thought..."

And then he looked up and he said,

"Oh, darling,
we've lost everything."

I'll never forget those words.

He said, "Oh, darling,
we've lost everything."

TV: In West London, the fire brigade
right now are dealing with

a serious fire in a tower block.

A 23-storey residential block of
flats in Kensington.

My name's Joe Walsh. I'm 58.

I was born in the area.

I've lived in the area all my life.

The Maxilla Club
is just opposite the tower.

We opened at two o'clock
that morning for tea and coffee.

My wife grabbed whatever
we had in the house and...

..brought it down.

I was texted by the caretaker,

telling me that we may need to open
our doors to...

..host some of those survivors.

Opening the church,
turning on the lights,

felt to me the most important thing
I had ever done as a priest.

By the time I got to the club
for about three o'clock,

people were already in the building.

People just literally came out in
their dressing gowns, nighties,

tracksuit bottoms.
Shirts on their backs.

That's all these people had at the
beginning.

I hope you're OK, man.

People needed somewhere safe to go.

A really private space that was
theirs and theirs alone.

We were just standing there and
the people came

from the Portobello Rugby Club and
led us in there.

It was sort of like a refugee camp
is the best way I can describe it.

We'd got people in every room,

sitting on the floor,
sitting on chairs.

Bereft, wearing little.

Some were more affected than others,
some were like,

"I had my wife with me,
I had my kids."

And some of them were still
in the fire.

There are still people inside
this building.

Look, look, look, there is someone
in the top, shining his light.

There is a family there,
there is a family, there's kids.

Hello!

We're stuck on the 23rd floor!

There's too many people
stuck upstairs.

The most painful thing
of this whole thing,

they wasn't coming out.

They were just inside.

There was long periods of nothing.

That's bad for me because
I just feel like, well,

they stayed inside because that's
what they were told to do.

As you can see, it's alight from top
to bottom,

the fire started
at the third or fourth floor.

SIRENS BLARE

I grew up about a 60-second walk
from Grenfell Tower.

Somewhere I loved to be.

I ended up actually at the
St Clement James Centre at about

four in the morning on June 14th.

It was a matter of comforting those
who had been evacuated from their

homes. I think the most vivid memory
was when the first firemen came in

for a cup of coffee, that look on
their face and the smell,

the odour that came from them,

that smell of smoke,
that smell of burning,

it wouldn't go anywhere.

You know, you can read people's
facial expressions and you can tend

to read people's emotions.

I could just see that they'd gone
through stuff that no man,

woman or child should have to go
through.

The fact that

the firemen had managed to even
attempt running into a building

ablaze like that was

crazy to get your head around.

We're not aware at this stage of

anybody being trapped
in this building,

which is owned
by the local authority.

There are certain terms that we use
in everyday life that I've never

really understood.

We use the term
"when your heart skips a beat",

and I've never had that feeling
until looking at the tower after,

and it happens to this day now,

every time my eyes focus
on the tower,

you, you miss a breath.

PEOPLE WAIL

I usually wake up for work at around
half past five.

And while I was in the shower, my
wife just started screaming.

I thought that she'd hurt herself
or she'd fell.

She just said to me,
"Karim, Grenfell Tower is on fire."

It's pretty clear the fire has taken
hold again with a vengeance.

There are big pieces falling off
the building itself.

# Happy birthday, dear Hesham. #

My uncle, Hesham Rahman, he wasn't
just my uncle.

My father lived in Egypt and never
came to the country.

Uncle Hesham was like my father.

Coming from a Muslim family,
we didn't celebrate Christmas,

but he would always turn up
on Christmas and I remember the

first-ever time I got a Christmas
present was because of him.

He came in and he had this big
present wrapped and it was

like a Tyrannosaurus
sort of Lego type of thing.

I was like, "Wow!"

He taught me how to read and write
Arabic, which was very hard.

He used to tell me to write,
"I am a donkey."

That was the first thing I learned
how to write in Arabic.

So he made me write swearing
at myself!

Someone will see something.

I was running around,

just at all costs avoided looking up
because I knew where his flat was.

Hi, guys.

He lived on the 23rd floor of the
tower.

I have my mother,

my sister...

..my brother-in-law...

..and the three children,
his three children,

my sister's three children,

all on the 22nd floor.

OK, this is the BBC News helicopter
going to Battersea for fuel.

We had searched all the shelters.

We started to visit
all the hospitals.

We were given so many hospitals -
that they could be at this hospital.

And we went through each hospital,

driving from this hospital
to that hospital,

phoning at the same time to check
to see if they had been checked in.

Just tell us,
what floor were they in?

They were on the 22nd floor at the
time of the fire.

We appealed via news
to see if anyone had seen them.

Maybe they had gone into someone's
house

or they didn't have a phone,
whatever, whatever.

My brother, he has the pictures of

my sister, her children.

Our prayers go to everybody.

10am in the morning.

There was just hundreds and hundreds
of people just out in the streets.

You know, you don't know what's
just happened, it's surreal.

What I loved is how quick
the community came together.

What's your name, bro? Jerel.

Jerel, yeah? Yeah. What's your name?
Hassan, Hassan. What's your name?

Mohammed. Mohammed, how old are you?

17. You're 17. How old are you?

17. So, guys, look, we've got all of
you from all across the community,

look. Bags and bags and bags,
bags and bags and bags of things.

They're just literally
unloading them.

So if you guys have got anything you
want to bring down,

just bring it down here.

When the fire happened,

everybody obviously was in shock and
felt helpless.

People were actually coming in then
to donate stuff.

They were bringing sheets, blankets,

slippers, anything down.

And within 12 hours...

..you couldn't see
any of our floor space.

HUBBUB

The donations started coming through
to the Harrow Club.

Everybody pitching in, grabbing
water, bringing jackets,

bringing bedding,

doing whatever they needed to do,
whatever they could contribute.

The poorest people giving us
shirts off their back,

giving a pack of beans, even.

I've done in relief work abroad
in India and Africa,

so then we just then treated it
like a disaster abroad.

The big need was to feed everybody.

People had been here
since the early hours,

and this is how we started off,

just by serving food, which was
curry and chapatis,

and curry and rice.

So we've come from Essex, Barking
and Dagenham, and Rainham.

This is all donations from people
from the local boroughs that have

donated. Where are you from, mate?

Northampton. You've got the whole
community pulling together,

working side by side.

Look, toiletries, kids' stuff.

Come on!

Muslim people, Sikh people, Hindu
people,

Afro-Caribbean, Greek people,

English people. And the only group
that I hadn't actually seen was the

Jewish community.

I actually jokingly said
to one of my friends,

"If the Jewish people turn up,
that's a full house.

"That's ten out of ten."
And then just as I'd said it,

about ten minutes later,

four, five cars rolled up

with some Ashkenazi, you know,
like, Orthodox Jews,

dressed in their sort of black coats
and stuff.

And they pulled up with supplies.

I mean, it was chaos.

We were very traumatised
and it was a chaotic scene.

My overriding memory of it is

the assistance that came
from the community.

Someone came up to me and said, you
know, "Do you want a cup of tea?"

Someone else came up to me and said,
you know, "What size shoes are you?

"We've got some people
who have donated."

And I looked, it was just like a row
of donations.

Just, like, clothes and shoes
and nappies,

deodorants and things,
just toiletries and all sorts.

And I just remember, that's when it
hit me, that I'm the recipient...

..of this charity from people.

Because I've lost everything,
I don't have anything.

Nothing with me, everything is gone.

You know, only a few years back,
a few winters back,

we were packing boxes to send
to Syria.

Oh, there are some nice trainers
there.

I don't like asking people
for something.

But then, on another note, what
would we have done without them?

Well, I've lived in Grenfell Tower,

I was the first tenant to move in
there.

Moved in there in 1975,

come from this area,
parents come from this area,

grandparents come from this area.

Notting Hill, as we call it.

Great-grandparents, going all the
way up, come from this area.

My two grandchildren were born
while I was in Grenfell.

Everything, my whole life was
in that flat.

Oh, it's an absolute,
it's a horror story.

I keep hoping that someone is going
to pinch me and I'm going to wake up

and it's all going to be
a bad dream.

But, unfortunately, it's not.

Everything's gone.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm right opposite,
in the tower blocks.

Come out my house, I always see it.

Don't be silly. You've got nothing
to be sorry about.

I saw it all, as well,

from quarter to one, one o'clock,
I saw it all.

I think me volunteering has
helped me

because I'm always doing something.

I'm born and bred in West London,
so I've always been a West Londoner.

Which is for this lady, size 62.

People are together.

CHANTING

The Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural
Heritage Centre,

we had an open-door policy
where anyone

who walks through the door - just to
be welcomed and to be assisted in

any way they wished.

There was an occasion, a young
English guy came to the centre.

They said, "I need a candle
and a lighter and a private space.

"That's all I need."

He stayed silently for a few minutes
and he said,

"That's all I wanted to do.

"Thank you so much,
I really like this place.

"I lost a brother in the tower,

"and I wanted to pray for him,
and that's it."

And I was really so touched by it.

At the time, I was still waiting for
him to tell us whether he needed any

"materials or anything
and he just said,

"That's all I needed."
And he left.

Our own volunteers lost people.

In the case of Hassan,
he lost a wife and two daughters.

On the night of the fire,

he was away and they were with him
on a video conference.

December 2016.

I go to Egypt.

My brother is not well.

He is getting worse and worse
and worse.

I didn't even put in my mind,

I'm going to be five or six months
there.

WOMAN: Hello? Come here!
Come here! Hello?!

ALARM BLARES

Hello?

OK, I'm not going, OK.

My wife, she called me four,
five times.

"What's happening?"
She said, "Fire."

I said, "Where is the fire?"
She tells me, "In the fourth floor."

I tell her,
"OK, take the kids and go out."

She tell me, "No, we're OK.

"The fire is down the stairs."

Then I hear a lot of voices.

I tell her, "Who is this?" She said,
"Oh, that's the neighbour."

From the voice of the guy,

I can feel there is
a lot of confuse...inside the flat.

The smoke is coming!
From the outside?

In the news, I see the building.

When I see the building,

I take my passport and
I go to the airport straightaway.

I go to the duty-free.

I try to buy chocolate
for my two daughters.

I talk with myself.

I cannot go to my two daughters
empty-handed after all this...

..long time.

Mum, I want to go up.

Push me, Mama, higher.

In Islamic tradition, the dead
must be buried immediately.

For people to know that they won't
be able to bury them for weeks and

weeks and weeks,
it was a very challenging situation.

PRAYERS

We were organising what we call
prayers in absence, for those who

are absent. It was very important
for us to help Hassan.

We let him lead that prayer himself.

Allahu Akbar.

INDISTINCT

A whole relief effort flourished
here, as in many other centres, and

we felt overwhelmed. We reached
a saturation point very quickly,

in fact, by about three o'clock
on the first day.

Nobody seemed to know what was
happening.

There was no evidence of any
coordination on the ground.

There's no-one from the councils
here.

We've just been left.
We've had nothing.

We've just literally been on social
media saying, "Help, help, help,"

and that's it.

Kensington and Chelsea is
a Central London council.

There are 11 Labour councillors
at the moment,

there are two Lib Dems, and the rest
of the council, which I think is 35,

are Conservative councillors.

I am the leader of the Labour group

and one of the councillors
for Notting Dale,

which includes Grenfell Tower.

Under the cabinet system,

you have a leader who appoints a
cabinet and those 10 or 11 people

take all the decisions.

On the day of the fire,

I circled the exclusion area,

looking for representatives
of the council.

I had to walk all the way round it
and I kept thinking,

"When I round the corner,

"there will be council officers with
clipboards putting their disasters

"policy into practice, and then
I can go along and assist."

But I looked in vain
and then a couple of hours later,

I did spot the leader of the council
being interviewed by television.

Kensington and Chelsea Borough
Council are responsible

for this area, and their leader
joins me now, Nick Paget-Brown.

The advertisement this gives for
Britain across the world,

an inferno that you might see in
downtown Dakar perhaps,

in a tragedy, or in the Philippines,

but here in a First World,
fifth-largest economy...

Yeah, no, I think everybody will be
utterly appalled and heartbroken by

the images they've seen all over the
media,

all over the world this morning.

The council shares that heartbreak.

We want to see what caused this fire
to start and to spread.

We've just refurbished this
building.

Now, I accept we will have to look
very carefully at why this

refurbishment appears to have
accelerated

or made the fire worse
than it might otherwise

have been. But in the 21st century,
this is a human disaster of

absolutely catastrophic proportions.

Well, I'm afraid that is correct.

SHE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

HE SPEAKS GERMAN

WOMAN REPORTER SPEAKS
IN OWN LANGUAGE

SHE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

We begin with what in a modern city
barely seemed possible.

London, England, 12 deaths confirmed
that tore through one of London's

poorest addresses in one
of its richest neighbourhoods.

It's accepted that sometimes
something unexpected will happen

and there is a structure
whereby other boroughs

help out in an emergency.

I took phone calls from the
leadership of Hammersmith Council

and I reported that to the leader of
the council to say,

Hammersmith and Fulham
and Westminster and Brent

and all the other boroughs
are offering their assistance.

I was told, "No, thank you,

"we're dealing with it confidently
and competently

"the way we always have done."

I went to sleep the first night,
June 14th going into June 15th.

I'd gone to sleep thinking,

"OK, we've done the best that we can
today.

"Tomorrow we'll wake up and we'll
have some help and some support."

So waking up at five in the
morning again and going straight
over to the church to see, again,

just the same faces that were there
the night before and the day before,

the same members of the community,

the same people searching
for loved ones.

Still doing all of the work,

still helping and no actual physical
presence of authority at the time.

It kind of became a realism that,
if no-one is coming to help us now,

they probably won't turn up
any time soon.

The authorities froze.

And left us to look after
ourselves.

At the moment here in London,
this is the focus of the heartbreak.

A makeshift centre where people who
have lost their homes

are being housed.

In the Rugby Portobello Club,

there's a big sports hall type
place, and that's where we were.

And the Rugby Portobello made the
club only for survivors.

It was very evident that no-one was
coming to help us,

so we'd have to help ourselves.

And we formed Grenfell United.

By creating Grenfell United,

we were able to start to talk
amongst ourselves

about coming together as
a united voice.

We looked after each other
and we did everything together.

There was no-one giving any
information

about what had happened to people
in the tower.

So on the wall
of the Rugby Portobello,

we all got some large paper

and wrote down the numbers
of the flats in Grenfell Tower

and then filled in
who we knew had come out...

..and who hadn't come out.

GREENWICH TIME SIGNAL PIPS

Many people are still missing a day
after the fire that engulfed

Grenfell Tower in West London.

The official number of dead
stands at 12.

A friend of mine has gone missing.

She lived on the 21st floor,
I think.

Social media has been great.

Everyone's been posting pictures
of her.

She was a very...

Sorry.

We are aware of entire families
that, at the moment,

are missing and unaccounted for.

Extended families
spanning three generations.

We drove from hospital to
hospital...

..and never wanted to give up
at all.

I wanted to always give them
that chance,

maybe we'd see them
or we'd find them.

NEWSREADER: Theresa May has ordered
a public inquiry

into a fire that devastated
a residential block of flats.

People are beginning
to realise what has happened,

the scale of this disaster,
the number of people...

At 3am in the morning, there is a
last tweet from my cousin, Khadija.

"My council block is on fire,
please help me, we can't get out!

"Please, pray for my mum and me!"

Lots of people saying, "I can't find
my mother, I can't find my brother,"

and tales of watching people
unable to leave their flats.

A man told me how he saw a gentleman
on fire,

jumping from the tenth window.

The council can't answer to all of
this, because nothing went off.

No fire alarms, no sprinklers.

There was literally a guy just
accepting where he was.

He was literally just accepting it.

He was looking out the window,
just looking, like,

"Oh, this is my fate now."
Like, this is where...

It was tragic to see.

NEWSREADER: ..a residential block
of flats in west London.

17 people and are known to have
died.

A senior police officer...

There is a tension, a shock,
an anger,

and a grief hanging over this
whole area,

because I think that people
just think, it is the 21st century.

Tell the truth.
People are not ignorant here.

No-one should have lived there.

It melted like a candle.

Like a candle,
it melted like a candle.

Some sort of, I don't know whether
it is some sort of plastic material.

I have no idea. But I felt...

You can see on the floor, like,
it breaks so easily.

It's absolutely... It's rubbish.

This is from the building itself.

This is what they used for the...

Like, this building is bricks,
on the outside they put this...

For winter, it's good,
because it keeps the heat in.

On Twitter, there are some people
who are suggesting external panels

that have been fitted in recent
years might have played a part.

These things are conjecture,

but the reason I am telling you this
is because once enough people begin

to say it, it still doesn't confirm
that any of that is the case,

but it's important to say, "This is
what people are talking about."

CROWD APPLAUDS
Our neighbours.

Our friends.

Our community.

Destroyed.

Where is all the help?

Everyone is bringing water,
everyone is bringing money,

everyone is bringing things.
Where is the transport?

People are having to carry it.

Where is the Government's help
to help...to help?

At every moment during,
from the beginning of this,

we are expecting...

..the emergency, the council people

to turn up,
the Red Cross to turn up,

Salvation Army to turn up,

because we just thought
we're here just to help out

and there would be
an A team arriving.

You know, a disaster relief team,

perhaps the Army is going to
turn up.

Extra police are going to turn up.

And nobody came.

No-one from the council, no-one.

I feel embarrassed.

Where is everybody?

If you want to get
one or two volunteers in each car.

Cos a lot of the survivors have gone
into hotels.

LIFT: Doors opening.

Room 127.

MOBILE PHONE RINGS

How is it now when the cyclones hit
the British Virgin Islands in the

Caribbean, we could send ships over
with Marines and supplies,

and yet we couldn't do it 2.5 miles
away from Buckingham Palace?

We must have got a phone call about
two weeks later, saying,

"Do we need any volunteers?"

from the local authority,
which we thought, you know,

we thought they were taking the piss
out of us.

We expected to see somebody on site
with a walkie-talkie and a

hi-vis jacket, reporting back
to a communication hub.

There wasn't one. There were some
council officers on-site, but they,

like the rest of us,
were fairly confused

about what they should be doing.

Chicken and potato.

Chicken and potato. Nick Paget-Brown
is the Conservative leader of

Kensington and Chelsea Council.

So, we know this from residents,

that they have been put in a local
hotel last night. They weren't told

until lunchtime today whether they
would be able to stay there.

They weren't told whether they would
be allowed to have food.

They were told the council would
come, the council didn't come.

The truth is, be honest,
you can't cope with this.

I am being honest, Kirsty,

and I think we have coped with it as
well as we can

after a tragedy of this dimension.

Nick Paget-Brown,
as the crisis developed,

became a rabbit in the headlights.

The highly paid official who had run
council communications for years,

resigned the day after the fire.

A couple of days later we found out

that Theresa May had been making
promises.

We are ensuring that within three
weeks, people will be rehoused,

so they have a home to go to.

So I called the leader of the
council and said,

"How on earth are you going to be
able to do that?"

And he said,
"I don't know, they didn't ask me."

Can we make a chain, please,
brothers?

Please make a...

Yes, brother.

Up the stairs, bruv, up the stairs.
Move up, move up, move up.

KIRSTY WARK: This has gone beyond
a local tragedy and become

an event that has touched people
across the whole country.

Along with that has come
intense scrutiny for politicians

at a national level.
Theresa May was pictured

meeting the leaders
of the London Fire Service.

But there was no meeting with
the residents.

SIRENS BLARE

They were on the phone, calling 999,
and everyone was telling them,

"Stay at home."
It doesn't make sense.

Why is there no alarms?
Why is there no sprinklers?

Does that make sense?

Does that make sense? And then
Theresa May didn't show her face,

Jeremy Corbyn showed his face,
the Queen came and showed her face.

And she didn't show her face
around the area.

She should have been
one of the first people here,

she's been elected.

You lose a lot of faith.

It just makes you think,
if something was to happen...

..you would have to rely
on yourself.

Effectively, what they
were doing was putting their hands

in their ears, saying,
"La-la-la-la-la.

"This is not happening,"
and hoping it would go away.

But it wasn't going to.
Why are you angry?

Why am I angry?

Because people in there died,

people in there died
and nobody is offering a solution.

We want to bury our own people,
missing people,

we can see posters every single day,
more and more faces.

Where are they? They're in there!

They only fixed it outside.

In Canada, it is banned.

In Germany, it is banned.

Everywhere it is banned. But...

It was just awful.

It was the most awful experience for
that first week, and no-one...

..no-one could say what the plan was
going to be.

We had some very ugly scenes
outside the building

on a number of occasions.

The number of people known to have
died has risen to at least 30.

But the BBC believes
that the total could be at least 70.

I think there was an atmosphere of
considerable anger.

To find out the truth, we have to
rally against lies.

There are so many lies right now.

My children live in this block.
People have got to go to school.

People have got to go to work.

We lived there, we watched
everything,

and you lot are here every day.

You don't give us no peace,
no quiet.

We want to grieve.

We want to grieve
in peace and quiet.

You lot are here.
Go to Kensal Road at the TMO

and do what you lot have got to do.
Give us peace and quiet.

Our kids have got to go to school.

Their friends are dead.

You lot have NO respect.

There's no school. Yes, it is!

Oxford Gardens. Oxford Gardens.

If we don't come here,

we won't get the public to hear
our voice.

And this is the only place the
people are coming

to see the building.

All right... All I'm saying is,

what I'm saying is I appreciate
that you lot are here, right?

But if you lot really, really want
to protest, go on Kensal Road.

Their offices are there.

They are the ones that said,
"Yes, we want this cladding up."

Everybody should go to the council,
down at the town hall.

That is where we should go.

The first couple of days of aid
was more about people's...

just need and want to help
the place that they love,

the home that they love,

the community that they love.

The anger definitely started by,
I think,

was the lack of response and the
lack of support that was offered.

Power concedes nothing without
demand.

Yes. So we ain't asking this
Government for nothing.

We ain't asking this council for
nothing.

We are demanding!

APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM THE CROWD

So the feeling did start to grow
and start to become quite tense.

SHOUTING

This is exactly what they wanted,
man.

This is what they want.

It is what they wanted, innit? Stop!

CROWD: We want justice!

We want justice!

We want justice!

Living in Ladbroke Grove at
Latimer Road,

we talk about a lot of the younger
kids.

These kids are living a very
difficult part of the city.

It is hard to, you know...

..live with families
who are depending on food banks,

but then 60 seconds down the road
you have multi-million pound homes,

staring at your face, and the
balance of having to understand

that as a kid growing up
in the area, is very difficult.

It looks like now the crowd's moving

towards the doors of the town hall,
actually.

If we just spin round and look...

..that is...

..the main entrance to the offices
of Kensington and Chelsea Borough.

It looks like people are actually
trying to get in.

CROWD: We want justice!

We want justice! We want justice!
We want justice!

We want justice! We want justice!
We want justice! We want justice!

CROWDS CONTINUE TO CHANT

In the first two or three days,

the atmosphere was disorientation
and shock.

By the time that Theresa May arrived
at the church on the Friday,

the atmosphere had turned
rather more...

..toxic.

Theresa May, St Clements...

St Clements Church.

Running down the road with the
reporters right now.

If you can make it, if you are
around - come now. Now, now!

Prime Minister,
why have you waited so long to come

and talk to the residents?
Are you scared?

Why have you waited so long,
Prime Minister?

See? Bully van, bully van. Yeah?

Don't try and push through us, mate.
No, no, no.

She'd selected Clement James

as the location to go and meet some
of the residents,

which was, of course, where I'd
been working for the last few days.

There was about 15 of us within
the church hall, sat in a circle,

speaking to each other.

Started by very basic introductions
who we were,

and what we've been doing.

What is £10 million for that block?

It was piss-all! And then you're
going to hide behind that red door.

AUDIO SWITCHES TO SECURITY COMMS

CROWD SHOUTS: Shame on you!
Shame on you!

Feelings were beginning
to run quite high.

We could hear people on the streets
outside,

there was growing unrest directly
outside.

By the time we could get to any
point of actually discussing help or

anything that needs to happen,

Theresa May was alerted that there
was a security issue outside.

CROWD SHOUTS: Shame on you!
Shame on you!

Shame on you!

I could hear people screaming,
"Shame on you!"

The only way it could have been
different is if the initial response

was a lot more heartfelt and
a lot more genuine.

CROWD: Shame on you! Shame on you!
Shame on you! Shame on you!

CROWD SHOUTS

Stand back! Stand back!

SHOUTING FROM CROWD

WOMAN SHOUTS AGITATEDLY

There was no hiding the fact that
if the people of this area

wanted to go absolutely crazy and
cause pandemonium and despair,

it could have been done.

But we've got a culture,
a deep culture here

in North Kensington, that, you know,
kind of allows us to use our heads

as well as our physical selves.

As much as I might sound angry and
as much as you guys might feel

that anger as well right now,
we have to remain peaceful,

because this is a beautiful
community and we are not just

representing our community now,
this has gone big,

this is the rest of London who are
watching our community.

The rest of London need to see that
we don't need to act in violence,

we don't need to act in anger, yeah?

VOICEOVER: I wanted them to think,
or look at me and see a similarity.

"He looks like me," or
"He may have grown up like me,

"he may have been like me", and I
just wanted to make sure that they

were hearing that message from
someone that they could relate to.

The first silent walk...

..was in the midst
of all the pandemonium.

In the scorching heat, starting from
the library in Ladbroke Grove.

In the midst of all the despair,

that silence just neutralised
everyone

and we walked through the streets
that felt like a warzone,

in peace and in silence
and it was so empowering.

Grenfell Speaks is a social news
channel.

I don't edit anything,
I just put stuff up raw.

It feels personal to me.

The lapel mic that a friend donated.

A...

Oh, it's just broken.

That is from the pound shop.

Yeah, I have got another one
at home, so that's OK.

An iPhone.

We should put it on social media,
just to get a greater following,

and it just shows the power of what
we have in our hands.

The reach is about 5 million
since the channel started.

There are people that watch the
streams

from Queensland in Australia
to Brazil.

Yesterday we had somebody
from Florida.

Forget BBC, forget ITV, you've
got Twitter, you've got Facebook,

you have got Instagram.

Film, stream, circulate it.

Because the thing is there is no-one
more powerful than us collectively.

WHISTLES BLOW, CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Collectively.

NEWSREADER: Detectives investigating

the fire which
destroyed Grenfell Tower believe

the number of people who may have
died

is higher than the current figure
of 58.

JON SNOW: 386 households have been
uprooted from its neighbourhood

and are now living in
emergency accommodation.

Most of them in hotels.

As you will be aware, this is
a private meeting of the cabinet,

to which only Kensington and Chelsea
councillors have been invited.

On the 29th of June,

the leader of the council started
to read out a statement.

A bland expression of regret.

At which point I noticed that there
were press pouring into the room at

every door and every angle.

We can't have an unprejudiced
discussion in this room

if journalists are recording
and writing,

and I therefore have to declare
the meeting closed.

So what you've done is you've
actually used this as an opportunity

for YOU to make a statement

and nobody else gets to say anything
at all.

I would have liked to have had a
conversation,

but I am advised that we can't do
that because we would be

prejudiced... An absolute fiasco!

This is why I am calling
for your resignation.

Not because of what happened
in the fire,

but the sheer and ongoing
incompetence

that this council has shown
ever since it happened!

Thank you.
My advice is that we can't continue.

You keep telling us that you're
taking advice,

you're taking the wrong advice.

Our reputation is absolutely
in the gutter.

Mr Paget-Brown, will you apologise
to the residents of Grenfell

for the council's actions?

NEWSREADER: The pressure
simply got too great.

The leader, deputy leader and chief
executive

of Kensington and Chelsea
Council have all resigned.

The Government is drafting in a team
of civil servants to help improve

the official response
to the Grenfell Tower fire.

Many residents have said they have
received little or no assistance.

Waiting to hear the news about
missing relatives

was the most difficult situation.

It just took weeks and weeks
and weeks,

and it was becoming very confusing
but also emotionally tormenting.

My nan wakes up in the morning and
sees, you know, her son's graveyard,

my uncle's... That is what it is,
you know?

It is a mass graveyard.

The top floor was the hottest and
it burned for the longest.

What are we talking about? Are we
talking about pieces of my uncle?

You know, this whole month has
felt like an eternity.

You know, the people that have done
this, nobody knows.

All we're doing is waiting for
information.

Every day goes by, that frustration
increases more and more and more.

It was awful.

It was like being in a
really sort of dark limbo.

I thought it was my responsibility
to get some answers,

to have some information.

Trying to be realistic and logical
in the situation...

I spoke to a lot of media outlets,

and I said to all of the journalists
the same thing -

you have a responsibility to make
sure that you keep this alive.

For me, personally, you know...

VOICEOVER: By me making
relationships with people

in the media, I can say to other
families, "Look, I trust them.

"If you want to get your story out,

"let the people know
what is going on."

My name is Yasmin
and I'm 11 years old.

Do you know what it is
that your dad's been up to?

Yeah, he's been going to a lot of
meetings.

The more coverage we can get...

YASMIN: Every single day.

When he comes back, he used to,
like, come very late

and he used to come, like,
very tired.

Tell me which family members who are
still...

Six members of my family.
My mother, my sister...

My brother-in-law
and three of his kids.

I don't want anyone to forget
my family,

and I want people
to know who are these people,

and how did they die?

SHE SOBS GENTLY

It's OK. It's all right.

It's all right. We're strong.

It's all right, I cried.

There's nothing wrong with crying.

We can't have our loved ones back
and I'm sure the police have their

reasons, but because they're not
communicating to us

and I think we have the right to ask
them these types of questions.

You know, what are you doing?

No arrests have been made, people
are been treated like witnesses,

not suspects. Nobody's been brought
in to be questioned.

Why?

One of the first meetings
we recorded

was the one at Clement James Church

where it was quite,
quite a, um, quite a vocal meeting.

And then four weeks later
we're asking the same questions

to the same people
that have no answers.

We have brought the senior
investigative officer for the case.

PEOPLE SPEAK OVER ONE ANOTHER

Four weeks after the fire,
I went to a community meeting.

Immediately when I got there,

it became apparent
I needed to stay there,

it was the right place for me to be.

Have you interviewed the top of the
council?

When I need... Make arrests first.

When I need to make an arrest,
I will.

The test of my investigation
will be whether it's done properly,

not whether it's done quickly.

Unfortunately, an investigation of
this scale will not be quick,

but it will be thorough.

It will get to the
bottom of whatever happened

and hold those to account.

CROWD GROWS RESTLESS

It would be much easier for me
to give a running commentary of my

investigation, much easier because
I wouldn't face this anger.

Investigate! Like you do with the
terrorists.

It's impossible to conduct this
investigation and pretend

that you're not affected by what
you're seeing and hearing about.

It's impossible to not care for the
bereaved families.

We will be interviewing each and
every firefighter that entered the

building, that is 650.

Each and every police officer
is another 300.

Each and every survivor that came
from the tower,

that's another approximately 255.

So far we've identified 60 companies
that have been

involved in the construction,
the refurbishment...

CROWD RESPOND ANGRILY

VOICEOVER: There were some real raw
feelings there.

But this fire hasn't affected,
as has been reported,

a den of illegal immigration.

This fire has affected real people
from many different backgrounds.

Grenfell Tower could have been
Grenfell Street.

It's no different to any other road
in London.

Judge me when it's done, but...

You're moving slow.

If I told you the ins and outs...

I was approached by...

..the police, who basically say,
well,

you're a prominent member of the
community, and so forth,

would I be interested in chairing

some of the meetings
that became very heated?

Can I ask a question
from a doctor from Birmingham,

who is sitting here patiently?

I can be louder than you.

I live 50 yards from there.
You know I live 50 yards from there.

You know!

First of all, put your hands up
if you've got a question.

Please respect everybody who's
speaking,

give them a chance to speak.

I actually said to panel members,

"You really do need to have
some answers for these people."

People were speculating,

"Why can't we have their bodies
to bury and put to rest?"

But then, after speaking to the head
of the site retrieving these bodies,

he actually told me, "You need
to come and see it for yourself."

Because I was struggling, I was
finding it hard thinking, "Come on,

"you're massaging the figures and
people are saying you're lying,

"you don't want us to know the true
extent of how many people died."

And the bloke was like,
"I just do not know."

People during the course of the fire
moved between rooms.

So where you thought
somebody would be, maybe wasn't

where they would be. They would move
up to the flat above

or the floor below.

You know, on some of the floors,

we have something like 15 tonnes
of material.

Then he invited me
to go up to the tower.

We started walking up,
and what it was,

it was three teams of police
officers.

You've got pathologists in the
middle, who checks

for all of the bones and then you've
got three big buckets, three sieves,

and what they're doing is shovelling
all of the stuff off of the floor

into the sieve, going like that...

..seeing if there's any bones in
there, pass it onto the next one.

If there were any bones,
the guy would log those bones.

They're looking for
hip replacements, knee joints,

those sort of things that can
survive the fire,

for them to identify bodies.

If there's anybody that died...

..they would have been on the floor,
and then the ceilings have come

on top of them and then the walls
have come on top of them as well.

So it's all mixed up.

Then the Fire Brigade have gone in
there with their hoses,

so it's wetted that out.
So everything's congealed together.

It's like breaking crystals.
They'd actually break these crystals

to find out whether there's any
bones in there and stuff like that.

And he basically said to me,
"Look, we've walked into one flat,

"there could be a body there
and I would never know."

So it's quite a daunting task for
all of those involved

in trying to find out
how many people actually died.

REPORT: Grenfell Tower,
built in 1974

by Kensington
and Chelsea Borough Council.

A two-year refurbishment
was completed last year.

The building was modernised with
cladding as part of an £8.5 million

refurbishment programme,
which was completed 12 months ago.

There were big gaps between our
windows and the outside

after they fitted
the double glazing.

There was wind blowing in
from underneath.

The job was not...

It was not done like a proper job.

The boilers,

these were actually going to be
placed in our entrance hallways.

The health and safety risk was they
were positioned over the electrical

fuse boxes - and when we complained
about that to a senior manager,

we asked him in plain English,

"Well, how would you feel
if this was in your flat?"

His words, which I will
never, ever forget were,

"Well, if I was getting it
for nothing, I wouldn't mind."

You know, it's put down as social
housing as if they're giving you

something, they're not giving no-one
anything.

They weren't doing me no favours.

I was paying for what I had.

I paid £700 a month rent there.

Kensington and Chelsea Tenant
Management Organisation, or KCTMO,

was responsible for
Grenfell Tower

until the block was engulfed in
flames...

The TMO was set up as an
arm's length management company to

separate the council from the way
in which

its social housing stock
was managed.

Very, very difficult to get
someone to come.

Very, very difficult.

The tradition of distrust between
the TMO and tenants

long predates the fire
and the disaster.

In the last, I'd say, five years...

..it got progressively worse.

You needed a repair,
it would take forever.

The kitchen was literally rotting
away.

For years
I was trying to battle that.

One day I was at work
and the surveyor came

and his comment to my mum was,

"Yeah, but, you know, you've got to
understand, this isn't your house."

We experienced these surges
of power,

smoke started coming
out of toasters.

Lights going on and off
and flashing.

Sparks came out of light fittings.

It just blew up two of my lamps.

Our legitimate concerns about the
services we were receiving from our

landlord were totally ignored.

It felt like we were being treated
like second-class citizens.

JEREMY VINE: Kensington
is the richest borough in London.

The average house price is
£1.4 million.

I think there's been a take-home
message for people

that they were very lucky
to be living in Kensington.

I was the co-author of the
Grenfell Action Group blog

that was documenting
what was happening to our community.

The council decided that they were
going to place a secondary school

on the residential amenities
surrounding Grenfell Tower.

We wrote to the council saying,
"If you build a school here,

"you will prevent fire engines
accessing the building."

November 2016, we wrote a blog.

I'll read you a little bit of the
blog.

It goes, "It is a truly terrifying
thought

"that the Grenfell Action Group
firmly believe

"that only a catastrophic event
will expose the ineptitude

"and incompetence of our landlord,
the KCTMO.

"The Grenfell Action group have
reached the conclusion that only an

"incident that results in the
serious loss of life

"of KCTMO residents will

"allow the external scrutiny to
occur that will shine a light on the

"practices that characterise
the malign governance

"of this non-functioning
organisation.

"It is a conviction that a serious
fire in a tower block

"is the most likely reason that
those that wield power

"will be found
and brought to justice."

Everything that happened was
so unnecessary

and could have been prevented and,
um...

..it wasn't.

No justice. No peace.
No justice. No peace.

Good evening from here outside
Kensington Town Hall

as the council inside the building
behind me

try to appoint a new council leader.

Madam Mayor, we believe that such
is the anger and distrust

right across the borough
at the failure of this council

that nothing can convince the
people that you know

what you're doing or that you care.

The group tonight will seek to vote
down the election of the new leader

and we repeat our call for the
imposition of commissioners

to bring into effect real change
now.

So, shall I give you my bag,
actually?

If you ask me questions about
the immediate aftermath

and whether I think that was handled
well or not,

that's part of the enquiry.

So if you ask me that,
I'll say, "I'm afraid,

"that's for the inquiry to look at

"and I can only talk
from where I started."

Would all those in favour
of Elizabeth Campbell please show.

BOOING FROM PUBLIC SEATING AREA

And those against.

WOMAN: I'm against.
OTHERS AGREE IN PUBLIC SEATING AREA

I can announce that the election

of Councillor Elizabeth Campbell
is carried.

Boo! Boo!

MAN: Shame on you!

I'm desperately sorry
for what happened.

I mean, we're all human,
we all have families and things.

I can't imagine anything worse...

..in the world, than watching
people who you know die,

and not being able to help.

I mean, it's unimaginable.

The way that people have been
treated is disgusting.

Could we please calm down?

I've been put in a one-bedroom
hotel room -

me, my wife and my three kids.

There's a double bed for five of us
in there.

People need to be rehoused.

We've been consistently let down
over the years,

our voice hasn't been listened to.

The general sentiment is gross
mistrust in the whole establishment.

Please, if you allow me, there are
four people outside,

they are survivors,
they didn't allow them to come in.

Please can you let them in, please?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I hadn't prepared to say anything
that evening, but the atmosphere

was so charged. I looked across,
I looked at the council chamber,

I saw people who I believed were
involved in the culture

that had possibly
allowed the fire to happen.

We have been telling this council
explicitly how you were treating us,

how you were putting our lives
at risk,

how you were treating us
with contempt.

If you honestly believe
that you have the legitimacy

after everything
you have heard here tonight,

after everything that's happened in
North Kensington over the past few

weeks, you need to seriously
reconsider

because I'll tell you one thing,

the wounds that have been created in
North Kensington are not going to

heal as long as YOU are ignorant
enough to believe

that you have the right
to rule over us!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The scale of the anger,
the depth of the mistrust...

You can't solve immediately.

That council meeting was the
first day of trying to say, "No,

"it isn't business as usual,
we've changed."

You know, if you can't change
after an incident like Grenfell,

when are you ever going to change?

This is a new leadership team.

I'm appointing Kim Taylor-Smith
as my deputy.

Kim is going to make sure we find
homes for all those

who lost theirs in the fire.

First of all,
I just want to introduce myself,

I'm Kim Taylor-Smith...

..and I'm a week in the job...

PEOPLE SHOUT OUT QUESTIONS

VOICEOVER: When I took this job on
as deputy leader,

one of my brothers said to me,

he said,
"Look, Kim, just remember..."

He said, "The book has been written.

"And the book is the failure of the
council."

And he said, "Don't even think about
changing that book because it will

"always be the failure of the
council."

And he said, "But if you're going to
take this job on,

"what you've got to think about
is writing the second volume."

Somebody needs to step up

and somebody needs to take on this
chance.

My first task is to deal with the
380 people

who are currently
sitting in a hotel.

But can I just say, there's going
to have to be a queue here.

VOICEOVER: I've always had a policy
of being very frank and open.

The one thing my wife always says to
me in the morning, you know, is

she says to me,

"Kim, do up your flies and don't
talk like a businessman."

You know, because my background
before becoming
a councillor was a businessman.

You can shout as much as you like,

you can shout as much as you like.
Shouting is not going to help.

You're not answering my question.
You can keep going like this at me,

you can keep going like this,

but I am trying
to give you some answers. Sit down!

You're saying,
"Yap, yap, yap, you're very tired."

That gentleman has lost his child.

I know that each and every
one of you are trying

but can you understand
how that appears?

I remember most of the council
meetings only because

just the disconnect between
the people that I grew up with

and the people that are sitting on
the other side of the table who were

you know, who were tasked to,
I don't know,

take care of the community.

Hello. This ain't right.

This ain't right.

Hello?

I've taken on the job to try and
find homes for the people.

How's it going? How's it going?

How's it going? Slowly.

It's going slowly because we are

running at the pace of the
individuals.

We've...

MAN SHOUTS DISAPPROVAL

I'm...

DISQUIET CONTINUES

People in the community
and the council,

there is that sense, I think,
that...

..people are speaking different
languages.

They're speaking English but they're
speaking

different versions of English.

I'm going into the flat tomorrow.

What do you expect to find?

God knows.

And as it's getting closer,
I'm getting more...

It's awful that the tower is still
there

and looms over the entire community.

If I feel dodgy,

then I will just turn around and
walk back down again,

because people died on them stairs.

Some people felt a need to go back
and see their homes,

maybe look for possessions that
may have survived and also just,

I suppose...

..one never gets closure, but to see
their home for the last time.

I've been up them stairs, it must be
5 million times over the years,

and all you could see
was blackened smoke.

There used to be a railing
all the way up the middle

and that used to be bright red -
all the paint had come off that.

Anyway, we've got to my landing,
the police have opened the door,

well...

..I walked in...

..and it looked like something
out of World War II.

I looked into the kitchen...

..and I said to the police,
"I've had enough."

I said, "I've had enough,
I've got to get out."

I'll never forget it.

And I wish I hadn't have done it.

I wanted to go in to say goodbye,
but then now I wish I hadn't.

I had a lot of memories there.

SHE SOBS

For three months, my uncle was still
technically missing.

When we were finally told that he
was identified,

we went to go and meet the coroner.

She was like, "Look, I can tell you
that he was identified in his flat

"and we have managed to...

"He was found all in one piece,"
like altogether,

and we could have him that day.

And for us, you know,
that was like... "Wow!" You know?

It was the best news to hear
in the most horrific situation.

It was a very long, agonising wait.

And when it comes, it's...

It kind of hits you really hard.

They kept coming one by one and
every time they told us about one...

..it just felt like a knife going
through you each time.

You're being stabbed again and
again.

Nadia had worked here for ten years.

Gentle, kind,
a genuine lady who really cared.

So the feeling that Nadia had died
was immense, really,

with children and parents.

She had three daughters.

The oldest being Mierna,
who had been our deputy head girl.

The middle child was Fatima,

about to finish
and go to secondary school.

They always dressed up for
World Book Day.

Mierna dressed as Handa from
Handa's Surprise.

And this is Fatima
as the Tiger Who Came To Tea.

This is Zainab,
Nadia's youngest daughter,

who'd actually just started nursery
a few weeks before the fire.

"She'd played with the Play-Doh,

"explored the outside area
holding her grandma's hand.

"On the first morning at nursery
she didn't want to leave

"and asked Grandma
to stay a little longer."

# Allahu Akbar. Allah. #

Specialist teams have spent the past
five months sifting through debris

on every floor of the building
in west London.

Police believe they have now found

and identified the bodies of
everyone

who died in the Grenfell Tower fire.

They've put the final
number of victims at 71.

THEY SING: How Great Thou Art

Khadija, we will love you
and miss you

and talk about you forever.

And may the blessing of God...

I think everybody's conscious that
this is an individual tragedy,

but it's also a shared community
tragedy as well

and therefore every death,
every funeral,

has that backdrop of all the others

who are suffering from this tragedy
at the same time.

And that gives it a much wider
dimension.

Right, are you guys ready?
Let's go, guys.

We went from a couple of hundred on
the first march

to about 500 on the third.

And the six-month anniversary came
quicker than ever, and we had about

2,500 people on the streets.

The silent march allows us to
mourn.

It tends to be some form of therapy
to a lot of people as well.

The more people you speak to,

the more you realise how many people
are suffering -

the direct survivors and the
bereaved,

to the surrounding community.

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

The greatest thing that has had an
impact for me, I believe,

during the whole of this, is the
time that after all the relief,

after donations, we got together
as a staff team, we all held hands,

made everybody hold hands,
we were in a big circle,

and I wanted to thank everybody for
their hard efforts and recognising

that we've all had a traumatic time,

not only the victims and the
survivors, it's us as staff members.

And then I got all kind of emotional
and het up and...

You see, I find it hard to talk
about it now.

But then we cried as a staff team.

And then for me,
at that present time,

it just showed the impact that
it could have on just normal people.

And, um...

Yeah.

Wow, so many people.
Thank you.

VOICEOVER: My wife said, "Look,
Karim, let's go away

"for a little bit."
We went to...

..like, a national park.

I don't know what happened.

I don't really remember much of it
but I had like a big, um...

..like a breakdown,
a big nervous breakdown.

I was just overwhelmed.

Still to this day, I do avoid the
tower, I'll be honest with you.

People on that night, those people
I'll never get out my head.

I remember shouting to a young kid,

"You're going to be all right,
don't worry."

I never saw that kid again.

Because he's got vascular dementia,

Dad, he can't be left alone
too long.

He's already gone out around nine
times.

Someone actually spotted him
crossing the road,

which is like three lanes
on each side, a big, big road.

REPORTER: So far we have results in
from 18 of London's 32 boroughs.

Kensington and Chelsea remains
Conservative,

despite strong criticism
of the council's response...

We need to stick together.

We need to be each other's strength.

Whatever it takes to get justice,

whatever it takes
to make sure everybody's in homes,

whatever it takes to make sure
everybody's being looked after.

We'll get together, we'll form our
groups, we'll use our experience,

our knowledge, our education,
our resources.

We will make things right.

And that's how it feels right now.

Pily loved fashion.

Full of colours, totally flamboyant,
but it was always her own style.

She could have chosen anybody,
really,

I don't know why she chose me.

But from when we got together,
we were never apart.

My wife never really recovered

from the trauma of the fire.

After seven months...

..my...my wife passed away.

Justice, reparation,

these words are really meaningless.

It's about fundamental change.

Grenfell can represent
a turning point in history.

A change in how society views
communities

that live in social housing,

that, um, they are listened to
and respected.

Because, had we been listened to and
respected at Grenfell,

it would not have happened.

It's as simple as that.