Witness Statement of: Maria Jafari No. of statement: 1 Exhibits: 0 Date of statement: 1 June 2018 GRENFELL TOWER PUBLIC INQUIRY

Transcription

1 IWS _0001 Witness Statement of: Maria Jafari No. of statement: 1 Exhibits: 0 Date of statement: 1 June 2018 GRENFELL TOWER PUBLIC INQUIRY WITNESS STATEMENT OF MARIA JAFARI I, MARIA JAFARI, will say as follows: I. This statement if my account of events that took place on 14 June I make this statement for the purpose of Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry. I will make a second statement in relation to Phase 2 of the Inquiry. Background 2. I lived in Flat 86 on the I floor with my father Ali Yawar Jafari, my mother Fatima Jafari and my sister Nadia Jafari. I have another sister who was living in Afghanistan at the time of the fire. I have three brothers, Bashir, Hamid and Farid. I moved into Grenfell Tower with my family on 10 March My family and I lived in a flat that was owned by Notting Hill Housing Trust. We were temporary residents and were waiting for a permanent home, but we lived in the Tower for 16 years. All that time we were waiting to move to a permanent home. 3. My room was the most beautiful room in the flat. Nadia had decorated the walls with pictures of butterflies and flowers. Whenever guests came to stay they had their photographs taken in my room. Although it was beautiful, it was small because it was made up of part of the original living room. Our landlord had separated half of the living room off to make an extra bedroom and there was a long radiator that was half in my bedroom and half in the living room, with a gap in the wall separating the two rooms for the radiator to fit through. Maria Jafari

2 IWS _ From 2014 to 2016 the Tower was refurbished. The refurbishment didn't really change the building that much for us, but one thing we were really unhappy about was the gas pipes. They were put in our corridor, which made it very difficult to get anything large in or out of the flat. Nadia and I wrote a letter asking the council to move the pipes out to the kitchen, but they just said that we needed to fill out a form. We also had a big boiler installed during the refurbishment. It was too big and got in the way. We told Notting hill that we didn't want the boiler where it was in the hall inside our flat, but nothing happened. 5. Many people in the Tower didn't allow Rydon to do some of the work inside the flats that they wanted to carry out, but we couldn't stop it because Notting Hill Housing Trust owned our flat and they said it was okay. They said it was not our permanent home and so we could not have a say. We were not even allowed to stop them installing things that we were not able to use. In the kitchen they installed a heater that we never used. They said we needed to have it as decoration. 6. Another problem was with the windows that were installed. There was a big gap between the new cladding on the outside of the building and our window. When they installed the windows I called the council to complain, but again nothing changed. 14 June In the afternoon on the 13 June 1 had been shopping. I went shopping with my mother, and when we got back home I cooked rice with chicken. 1 started cleaning everything I also needed to make sure that everything was tidy, because we had been told that the next morning there was going to be a gas safety inspection. The inspectors were supposed to have come earlier in the week. They told us that they had come and that no one answered when they knocked on the door, but they lied. I know, because I was in the flat for the whole day and heard nothing. 8. I remember that my father was very happy that evening. He really enjoyed the food and ate two plates of rice. Usually he ate only one plate. Often I would say that he should not eat too much because of his diabetes, but on that evening he was so happy and I thought that maybe he was supposed to eat more. After eating we drank tea and started to watch TV. Maria.1alari 2

3 IWS _ After we finished eating, my father was lying down on the floor and watching television. At about midnight he took all of his medication and then went to lie down in the bedroom. His medication made him very tired as one of the pills he took was supposed to help him sleep. Nadia was sleeping in my parent's room because she was unwell and so my father went to sleep in my room was also going to go to lie down but my mother said not to go to sleep I took my phone and I laid down on the bed in Nadia's room for an hour My mother stayed in the living room and turned off the TV Maybe five or ten minutes later my mother came to me and said that she could hear things outside. The windows were closed but my mother went to the window and opened it to see what was happening went and joined my mother and looked out of the living room window. When the new windows had been installed they had made them with window sills that were much wider and so we couldn't see down the side of the building easily, but I could see the shadow of the fire on a tree. It was like lightening. There were a few people around but not many. As I looked further down I could see the lights and two fire engines next to Barandon Walk. At that time it was about 00: My mother said we should go downstairs. At first I said that I didn't want to because I thought it was just a small fire, but I agreed to go with her because she insisted. We closed all the windows in the flat. I went into my room where my father was half asleep and I got my coat, but I didn't say anything to my father because I thought he might panic and I did not think that the fire was serious. I went to Nadia's room to wake her. She was annoyed that I woke her and told me to go away and that she didn't care about the fire. She had recently had surgery and was recovering. 14. I left with my mother. We took the keys from my father's coat pocket next to the door. I went outside and waited while my mother went back into the flat to wake up my father again. While waiting for my mother to come back I pressed the button to call the lift and I opened the door to the stairs. There were a few people running down the stairs. I spoke to a man who I know. He asked me what was happening Nlaria Jafari 3

4 IWS _0004 downstairs. I said 1 didn't know, just that there was a fire. He had two children with him and his wife and he was carrying nappies because his baby was small. I went back onto the landing and shouted to my mother to ask if she was going to come and suggested that I could go alone. She said to wait for her and that she would come with me. IS. On the landing I also saw someone I did not know come from our neighbour Natasha's flat. I now know that the man is Natasha's boyfriend. He asked me what was happening. I explained that we had seen a fire and he just laughed and went back into his flat. No one knew at that time that it was as serious as it was. 16. When my mother came out onto the landing again the lift was open. I said that we should go by the stairs, but she needed to go by the lift because it was difficult for her to go down the stairs. Inside the lift, there was an old lady and a young boy form the top floor who I recognised but did not know. He wasn't worried or anything. No one was panicking and I couldn't smell or see any smoke. 17. The lift was working normally and it stopped on the third floor where there was an Iranian lady who was panicking and was saying, 'fire, fire' and was closing her flat door. Still though there was no smoke. No one got into the lift on the third floor and the door opened again on the ground floor. I understand that I am recorded on CCTV as leaving the lift area at around 01:20. IS. Inside the Tower on the ground floor there was nothing unusual. The walls were glass and so 1 could see outside the Tower as soon as I left the lift. Outside the Tower there were two or three firefighters who were just waiting. They had been spraying water. I could tell because everywhere outside was wet, but at that time they had put their hose down and were just standing looking at the building. When we left the building, my mother and I shouted to them to say that they should use the water. 19. As we left the building, we walked and turned left and then left again to see the side of the building that had the fire. The entrance was on the opposite side of the building to the fire and so we had to walk around the Tower. Maria Jalari 4

5 IWS _ When we saw the fire, my mother started to cry and others were also crying. There was a man who I recognised who was very upset. He was crying and shouting, 'you have ruined our whole life.' At that stage the fire was on about the seventh floor. 21. When I first saw the fire, I was shocked. When I saw how quickly it was spreading I panicked, I thought that my father and Nadia might be asleep and were in great danger. I was terrified. I thought that both of them might have been trapped inside. My mother was shouting and beating herself. 22. I wanted to go back and get my father and Nadia. 1 went back inside the Tower through the main entrance and I was going to try to use the lift but a Moroccan lady there told me not to do that and so I started to climb up the stairs with her. I used the keys that I had taken from the flat to get access to the stairway. This was at around 01:21. At that time there was no one by the entrance to stop me from trying to go back into the Tower. I climbed the stairs with the Moroccan lady to the third floor. 23. On the third floor there was no smoke but there were two fire men wearing protective suits and they were talking into a walkie-talkie. I explained that my sister was ill and that my father had heart problems and that they were both still inside the Tower. I asked the fireman to go and to save them and I gave them the key to the flat. The Moroccan lady I was with also had relatives still in the Tower and she did the same thing. I could hear the fire man talking to the other firemen on the walkie-talkies. He told them that there were people trapped in Flat 86 on the 11th floor. I heard them say that there was someone upstairs. I heard them directing people to go and get my father. I felt reassured, and so I went back to the ground floor and left the Tower. 24. A few moments after I got back outside the building, I saw the fire reach our floor. It was like there was an explosion. Large burning pieces were falling off the Tower, and one large piece was missing from the top. There was fire falling, but it was only from the side that was burning at that stage. 25. I called my brother Bashir and explained about the fire in the building. Then I called my other brother Hamid and then my aunt. I was running around not knowing what to do. Eventually I went to see my eldest brother Fareed, Nadia and my father were still inside the Tower. Maria Jafari $

6 IWS _ When 1 came back to the Tower from Barandon Walk, down the stairs from Grenfell Walk, I saw Nadia coming from the building. 27. When I saw Nadia, she was coughing and she was holding her stomach. I asked her where our father was and she said that he was inside and told me that they were on the 10th floor in the lift, but then she had lost him. I was really worried. I thought that he must still have been in the lift. Nadia was coughing and it was difficult to understand what she was saying. 28. There were policemen standing next to us and I told them that my father was stuck in the lift and that I needed to go inside the Tower. The policeman wouldn't let us go closer to the Tower because there were burning pieces falling down. They pushed us further back, away from the Tower. They said. 'don't worry, they will bring everyone downstairs.' I believed them, and so we moved back to near the sports centre. 29. I could see from beside the sports centre that our flat very quickly burnt out. There was heat and an explosion. I ran around the building and went to the side near to the station. I thought that maybe my father would be coming out of the other side, or that someone would bring him there. Bashir, Fareed and I decided to go on different sides of the Tower in case my father came from a different exit. From the station side I could see people trapped in the windows. I saw one woman banging on the window, and maybe a second later she had gone. 30. Nadia became very unwell and needed a doctor. There were three buses bringing injured people to the hospital. It was hard finding the buses, and everything was a bit chaotic. It was also a long way to walk because they had closed off many of the roads, and they didn't allow us to walk the most direct path. 31. I got to the ambulance where Nadia was at around Sam. By now it was already light. We went together to the hospital in the ambulance. On the way, Nadia's pulse went very low. The ambulance people were very worried about her and kept trying to make her talk. The machine showed that her pulse almost stopped and the ambulance people were getting more and more worried before we arrived at hospital. 32.1n hospital Nadia was crying a lot and was put on a drip, but she kept saying that she needed to go and find our father. She kept trying to remove her drip, and the doctors Maria Jafari 6

7 IWS _0007 kept telling her not to remove it. Nadia told me to go back to the Tower to look for our father. Nadia stayed in hospital until 19:00 that night. 33. Later I tried to go back to the Tower and find our father, but I didn't have any money. I had run out of credit on my mobile and I couldn't walk there. Around this time I saw a black taxi. I knew that I did not have enough money to pay the fare, but I asked the driver if I could just pay him with the little money I had and he said, 'don't worry, I won't charge you'. He even charged my mobile phone. The black cab took me to the Portobello Club and could not go any further because the roads were all closed by the police. 34. We were told to go to St Clements Church because this was the place that people needed to go to get help. I began calling all of the hospitals that injured people had been taken to. I called one hospital several times, and after I had phoned a few times the lady I spoke to was shouting at me asking why I was calling, and said that she would contact me if they found my father.later in the day they said that the Church was going to close and that they needed to move everyone to the Westway Centre. 35. The next day there was still a small fire burning at the Tower. People made stories about who they had found alive. When I heard things like that, my hope of finding our father was lifted.. After two or three days with no news, I spoke with Nadia and she said that no hope was left. 36. One of the sad things is that I was not told of my father's death for three weeks, even though they had found his body and they had done a post monem. We didn't know about this. People say that my father was old, but no one deserves to die in this way. He was everything to us. 37. It is so wrong that all of the people died. Every night after it happened I was thinking, 'How did these people die?' I kept thinking about all the people. It should not have happened. I don't want to go into detail in this statement about the impact the fire has had on me and the family. I understand that Phase 2 of the Inquiry will look at the aftermath of the fire and I can make a further statement then. Maria Jalari 7

8 IWS _0008 Statement of Truth I believe that the facts stated in this statement are true. I confirm that I am willing for the statement to form part of the evidence before the Inquiry and for it to be published on the Inquiry's website. Signed: IQ". Dated: Maria Jafari 8