Evening summary
Here is a summary of the day’s proceedings and other Grenfell-related developments:
- Proceedings had to be suspended this afternoon after a woman was overcome during a video tribute to six members of the same family - the Choucairs - who died in the fire. Officials helped her to the floor after the woman began moaning, during part of the video in which Nabil Choucair was talking about his 13-year-old niece Mierna, one of three generations of the family killed in the fire. It was during a commemoration video to the Choucairs on the second day of the inquiry that a woman collapsed, leading “trigger warnings” to be issued subsequently before particularly upsetting content.
- Nabil Choucair told the inquiry lessons were not learned from previous disasters that could have prevented the Grenfell fire.
- The husband of Fatemeh Afrasiabi, 59, who dieD in the fire is unable to come to the UK because his visa application was refused, her son, Mohammed Samimi, told the inquiry. He said his father wants to be able to visit his wife’s grave.
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The daughter of Sakineh Afrasehabi, 65, said “corporate negligence” was to blame for her mother’s death. Nazanin Aghlani said her mother, Fatemeh Afrasiabi’s cousin, was partially sighted and walked only with the aid of a tri-walker. Despite Kensington council’s housing needs department saying in 2003 she should not be housed in a lifted property above the fourth floor, she was placed on the 18th floor of Grenfell Tower, her daughter said.
- Raymond ‘Moses’ Bernard, who died on the top floor of Grenfell Tower, surrounded by other victims who had sought refuge in his flat, was remembered as a hero by his family. His sister Bernadette said: “We know that he would have given comfort to each of them before they took their last breath and departed this world.”
- El Alami Hamdan who lost four members of his family in the fire wept as he paid tribute to them. His daughter Farah Hamdan, 31, son-in-law Omar Belkadi, 32, and granddaughters, Malak Balkadi, 8, and six-month-old Leena Belkadi, were all killed.
- Kensington and Chelsea council is set to spend £3.5m replacing 4,000 fire doors in all its social housing after the Grenfell Tower blaze. A police investigation found in March that doors used in the tower failed tests and could resist fire for only 15 minutes, instead of the 30 minutes required by building regulations guidance.
- The council has been heavily criticised in a report about the response to the blaze. The review, commissioned by the charity Muslim Aid, concluded that the response of local authorities was slow and lacked direction, and voluntary organisations had had to step in.
That concludes our coverage of the day’s proceedings.
Updated
Closing the session, Sir Martin Moore-Bick says he has found the past few days “humbling and moving”.
He says he has been struck by the “strong sense of community” within Grenfell Tower, adding that the portrayals have left him feeling that he spent some time in the company of those who died.
He says the people who died came from many different countries and cultures, but have “displayed many human qualities of which we should all be proud”.
He concludes this stage of the inquiry by saying both he and his team are determined to provide the answers those affected by the disaster seek.
Updated
Without being asked to do so, the audience stands and the lights are dimmed as Richmond reads out the names of the people who died as a result of the Grenfell Tower disaster.
You can read the Guardian’s tribute to each of them here:
The commemoration is followed by a 72-second silence in memory of those who died.
Bernard Richmond QC is closing this section of the inquiry, telling its chair it has been a “humbling experience for me to have played some small part in the last seven days of commemorations. It has been both heartbreaking and yet uplifting”.
He said the despair has been heartbreaking to witness. But it has also been uplifting to “experience the spirit that was Grenfell”.
Updated
Bereaved relative says Grenfell could have been avoided
Nabil Choucair, who lost six members of his family, says lessons were not learned after similar disasters prior to the Grenfell Tower fire.
Had they resolved issues from Lakanal House fire on 3 July 2009, Shepherd’s Bush tower block fire on 19 August 2016, Grenfell Tower would have never happened.
Bassem was a brother, an only brother, a special brother. I will never, ever have another brother like Bassem. Nadia was a sister to Malek, an only sister. She too will never have another sister like Nadia.
For today, we will start to make a change. I call upon a nation to stand united. United we stand, divided we fall. In solidarity, with dignity and pride to get the overdue justice.
The conclusion of Nabil Choucair’s statement is received with a standing ovation. It was a “very fine commemoration,” the chair, Sir Martin Moore-Bick tells him.
Adding to his testimony, Nabil Choucair pays tribute to the local community who helped out in the aftermath of the tower. His sentiment is met with another standing ovation.
Nabil Choucair reads out a statement of his own:
What was done on 14 June 2017 was very inhumane, barbaric and beyond an atrocity. Three generations of my family wiped out due to arrogance.
Who knows best? Out-of-date laws, regulations and legislation. Yet they still don’t listen and wake up and smell the coffee.
A loss to one is a loss to all. This affects everybody for we are all equal regardless of sex, ethnic origin, colour.
Nabil reads a further letter in the voice of his mother, Sirria Choucair, who he says looked after her family – even when she was only a child herself.
He says he and his siblings looked after Sirria – especially Nadia – because they all lived near to each other in Grenfell Tower. Nabil Choucair recounts the last time he saw his mother.
He asked her to forgive him if he had upset her. She said it was not him she was upset with and they both cried together.
Updated
Nabil is reading a letter written in the voice of his sister, Nadia Choucair. It recounts her wedding day and her close relationship with Nabil’s wife, Malek.
He recalls the final call he received from his sister after the fire had taken hold, saying they were sitting in their flats. Little did he know, he says, it would be the last time he would hear from her.
Nabil Choucair moves on to a letter written in the voices of the three Choucair children: Mierna, 13; Fatima, 10; and Zainab, three.
He says his twins “keep asking if they can die so they can be with you in heaven”.
There is some laughter at the inquiry as the translator is asked to read out nursery rhymes in memory of Zainab Choucair. “She would say it differently,” Nabil says.
Updated
The letter, which is being read by a translator, calls their grandchild the “eternal smile on our faces”. They pray that Allah answers their prayer and to see their grandchildren in the hereafter.
Next, the inquiry is read a letter from Bassem Choucair’s parents to the family in both Arabic and English.
We are devastated by your departure and our hearts are broken and burned by fire, as were your innocent bodies.
They say they wish the Grenfell fire was just a “dreadful nightmare” they could wake up from. They say they look for them everywhere – but it is in vain.
Updated
Nabil is now being invited to speak to the inquiry in person. He is reading a statement in the voice of his brother-in-law, Bassem Choucair. It recounts his life before and after his move to the UK with his family.
He says the two families were close. “I trusted my brother-in-law with my life,” he says – recounting a story in which Bassem offered him his credit card and PIN when he had no job.
Updated
The family’s life together was “beyond lovely,” Nabil Choucair says.
As images of the Choucairs’ six coffins and the burning building are shown to the inquiry, Nabil reads a poem.
Your heart was purer than the purest gold,
We will fight every corner, until the truth is told
They want us to forget you, but we are reminded by our tears,
Trust us – our love for you, will get stronger over the years.
At this moment in time, there is so much grief,
It may take years to get justice, but it will be a relief.
While people are shocked, we despair and [are] crying,
We tried fighting our way through, to prevent so many people from dying.
As the building fell apart, we are left with more questions: Did they do their part?
On the night – you made 999 phone calls, your voices we recall,
On the night when we heard you phone call, on the ground there seemed to be confusion,
We will find out exactly when they have finished their conclusion.
The fire took a hold of the building in a flash,
Had they thought of safety, or the cash.
Now there’s no flame, they look at each other: Who to blame?
Zainab was the smallest and the cutest of the children, Nabil Choucair says. The three-year-old was able to remember poems like Three Little Pigs, despite her age.
Fatima and Yasmeen would play games together, he adds. And Zainab would try to sneak in and interrupt. “Happy is an understatement,” he says.
Nabil Choucair says Fatima, Mierna’s younger sister, was a quiet child who loved sports. Where her older sister resembled her mother, Fatima looked just like her father. She was well-known in the building and had a lovely personality, he says.
On the video tribute to Fatima, Yasmeen says:
I miss you. I miss the sound of your voice in my ears. I miss when we used to play together and have fun. I remember all the games that we used to play. You’re the best.
I love you so, so much and I miss you a lot. I will never ever forget you. I miss the way you smile, how it brightened up my day – my world.
When you left, my heart has been shattered into millions of pieces. Each piece of my broken heart is being crushed every time. With every piece being blown around by pain that I feel for you. I miss you. I miss you so, so much.
The tribute to Mierna Choucair continues with a message from her cousin, Yasmeen.
I miss you. I miss the times when we used to play together. I miss the times when you used to protect and defend me like a big sister would. Now that you have left, I haven’t got a big sister any more.
I miss you so, so much. I miss when we used to go on trips and after-school clubs together. You broke my heart when you left. I never got a chance to say goodbye. I miss you very, very much.
I will do anything just to get my big sister back. Love you loads.
Updated
Continuing his video tribute, Nabil Choucair says Mierna looked more and more like her mother as she grew older. She was very friendly, he says, just like her mother. She and her sister enjoyed swimming, Nabil Choucair says.
He tells a story about her when she was only a few months old.
She loved olives – eight months-old. Olives with a seed inside it. She would put it in her mouth at eight months. Eat the olive and give you the seed. And I couldn’t believe she did that.
I was like, when I first saw it, I was like ‘Oh, what are you doing? She’s got an olive in her mouth. Quickly, get it out’. Bassem would say: ‘No, no, no. Watch her, watch her’. I was scared, I was so scared. I thought she was going to choke.
She gave us the seed and ate the olive. That was so amazing. I couldn’t believe it. One after the other – and she loved it.
Nabil Choucair’s video tribute has resumed.
The inquiry has yet to resume. Bernard Richmond QC, counsel to the inquiry, said Nabil Choucair, who had been giving the presentation when the woman was overcome, was still “extremely shaken” by what had happened. Richmond said Choucair was finding it “very difficult” to return to the room and resume his tribute and asked the judge for 15 minutes to sit with Choucair in a private room.
Updated
The inquiry hears that Nabil Choucair is still unsettled after the incident, which saw a woman overcome during his video tribute to six members of his family. As a consequence, there will be a further 15 minute break, it is announced.
It appears the inquiry is about to resume.
Hearing suspended after woman overcome
The inquiry has been suspended after a woman collapsed during the video tribute to the Choucairs. The woman, believed to be a relative of the Choucairs, is currently being treated by medics. All men were asked to leave the inquiry room so she could receive assistance.
Nabil Choucair says in the video tribute that losing six members of his family is like “sinking in quicksand with a cancer that is eating us from the inside”.
Let the world know that all of you died sheltering, trying to protect the children by having them in the middle of you. You all will be missed so very dearly but not forgotten.
He promises not to cease striving for justice for the “crimes” that led to their deaths.
He says his sister, Nadia, was a teaching assistant at a local school who was much-loved by the pupils and a memorial had been created to her at the school.
Bassem was an “excellent brother-in-law”, fun and loving.
His sister’s eldest daughter, Mierna, 13, was the spitting image of her mother and “very friendly”, just like her mother.
She was great, very educated, talented.
The commemoration to the Choucairs, the final one of the inquiry, is from Nabil Choucair, son of Sirra Choucair and brother of Nadia Choucair.
It begins with a video, which we are told contains an image of people in their flats.
The video commences with a prayer and then Nabil Choucair remembers how his mother lived at flat 191 and his sister and her family at flat 193.
He says his sister’s children were always running between the flats, sometimes sleeping at their grandmothers.
They were like any other family but they were caring. They loved everyone around them ...They would always go out of their way to help everybody.
He says his mother always spoiled the grandchildren, giving them treats and telling them not to tell their parents.
She had an amazing heart, very soft, very kind.
The final commemoration of the inquiry will be to six members of the same family, the Choucairs.
Sirria Choucair, 60, a hospital caterer who lived on the 22nd floor in a flat neighbouring his sister, died along with her daughter Nadia, 33, a nursery teacher, son-in-law Bassem, 40, a supervisor at Marks and Spencer, and their three daughters, Mierna, 13, Fatima, 11, and Zaynab, three.
It was during a video shown about them that 20 survivors walked out in distress and a woman collapsed in an apparent panic attack on the second day of the inquiry Those present are warned that today’s commemoration also contains potentially triggering content.
Next is a tribute to Isra Ibrahim, 33. The tribute is from Said Essaouini, her husband.
They met in 2014 in an internet cafe when he had come out of a difficult relationship.
We fell in love. She brought out the best in me and made me a better person ...she was a gift from God. I loved her and she loved me back. Isra Ibrahim, the most beautiful woman I ever met in my life. I loved her more than I loved my mum.
Isra Ibrahim’s mother Fathia Ahmed, 71, and her brother Abufars Ibrahim, 39, also died in the fire. Essaouini says:
I believe she could have escaped from the fire if she wanted to but she would never leave her mum.
He says his wife loved Brighton, going on rides at the funfair, loved animals and Chinese and Sudanese food.
We spent our time like children, always holding hands and playing around ...I am ripped up to pieces, only God knows ...I feel like I lost my world ...every Friday I go to the cemetery and sit down and talk to her for two hours.
The tribute concludes and there is applause.
There is now an additional tribute to Gary Maunders, from his sister Tammie Maunders, read by solicitor Mark Scot.
She says the pair squabbled as they were “both mouthy, LOL.”
I think about how you must have felt that awful night, which I can’t imagine ...
You’ve left a big hole in our lives and it will never be the same, especially at Christmas...
I hope you’re looking down. I can imagine what you’re saying ‘Look at those silly ‘b’s crying’. LOL
She describes their love-hate relationship.
I don’t show how I feel all of the time but I think about you every day.
There is applause after the statement is read out.
Khadija Khalloufi managed a pharmacy in Morocco after leaving school, the statement says.. She later moved to the Netherlands and then London.
She was lonely at first in London because she missed her family and could not speak English.
She registered to help at a centre to help immigrants integrate by teaching them English etc. It was there she met her husband Sabah Abdullah, who was from Iran. She did not tell her family about him for four years.
She would then visit relatives in Europe and in Morocco.
She was a person who never ceased helping us emotionally as well as financially, especially after the death of my father.
She was a strong, independent woman who worked hard to help her family as much as she could.
In the statement, her brother says when Khadija departed Morocco on her last trip before her death, they both cried as they hugged and said their farewells.
It was as if she knew this was the last goodbye.
He recalls the painful days in the aftermath of the fire, waiting for news.
You cannot imagine the helplessness and pain when no-one is telling you what has happened and why.
He pays tribute to family friend Samira Brady who he says helped them so much after the tragedy.
He adds:
My sister’s memory is very dear to us and we will do all we can to preserve and protect it as it is all we have left.
He says the statement was written through tears and prayers that all the victims deserve justice.
Brother
First up is another tribute to Khadija Khalloufi, 52, who lived in flat 143. Her brother Karim Khalloufi could not intially obtain immigration clearance to be here, we are told, and as a result cannot be here. So, a solicitor, Balvinder Gill, is reading a statement by him.
The inquiry has previously heard from Khalloufi’s husband, Sabah Abdullah, who lived with her on the 17th floor.
The family lived 20km north of Casablanca. They were “of modest means but happy”.
Khadija had a “big heart”.
She was there for us whenever we needed her but none of us could help her escape the fire.
Updated
The afternoon session will commence shortly.
Summary
Here is a summary of this morning’s proceedings and other Grenfell-related developments. Proceedings resume at 2.15pm:
- The husband of Fatemeh Afrasiabi, 59, who dieD in the fire is unable to come to the UK because his visa application was refused, her son, Mohammed Samimi, told the inquiry. He said his father wants to be able to visit his wife’s grave.
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The daughter of Sakineh Afrasehabi, 65, said “corporate negligence” was to blame for her mother’s death. Nazanin Aghlani said her mother, Fatemeh Afrasiabi’s cousin, was partially sighted and walked only with the aid of a tri-walker. Despite Kensington council’s housing needs department saying in 2003 she should not be housed in a lifted property above the fourth floor, she was placed on the 18th floor of Grenfell Tower, her daughter said.
- Raymond ‘Moses’ Bernard, who died on the top floor of Grenfell Tower, surrounded by other victims who had sought refuge in his flat, was remembered as a hero by his family. His sister Bernadette said: “We know that he would have given comfort to each of them before they took their last breath and departed this world.”
- El Alami Hamdan who lost four members of his family in the fire wept as he paid tribute to them. His daughter Farah Hamdan, 31, son-in-law Omar Belkadi, 32, and granddaughters, Malak Balkadi, 8, and six-month-old Leena Belkadi, were all killed.
- Kensington and Chelsea council is set to spend £3.5m replacing 4,000 fire doors in all its social housing after the Grenfell Tower blaze. A police investigation found in March that doors used in the tower failed tests and could resist fire for only 15 minutes, instead of the 30 minutes required by building regulations guidance.
- The council has been heavily criticised in a report about the response to the blaze. The review, commissioned by the charity Muslim Aid, concluded that the response of local authorities was slow and lacked direction, and voluntary organisations had had to step in.
A friend of Fatameh Afrasiabi, whose name I didn’t catch, says:
She was a great woman, she was not like the ordinary people. She was very kind, the sympathy she was showing to everyone was incredible... An image I can’t forget is her smiling face.
The video concludes and there is applause.
The chair Martin Moore-Bick describes the video as “very impressive and very moving”.
There will now be a break for lunch until 2.15pm.
Updated
In the video, we also hear from all of Fatemeh Afrasiabi’s daughters.
One daughter, Raheleh says:
My mother had a passion for painting, she was a very good painter. She used to make very beautiful paintings, creatively ...
I wish I still had your kind and warm embrace.
Another daughter Sara shows a doll with traditional Iranian costume her mother made for her. Sara says her mother used her own hair for the doll’s hair and kisses it.
A friend, also called Sara, says:
She was not a sort of person you could forget ...Her laughter, her beautiful eyes are in my mind.
Updated
Husband of victim 'denied UK visa'
The next set of tributes are to Sakineh Afrasehabi’s cousin Fatemeh Afrasiabi.
Her son Mohammed Samimi, a filmmaker, has made a video. Speaking through an interpreter, before the video begins, he asks the inquiry to remember his father who he says could not come to the UK because his visa application was refused. He says his father wants to be able to visit his wife’s grave.
After a montage of pictures of Afrasehabi, we hear from one of her grandchildren, Melina. Afrasehabi was one of four children, born into a middle class household in Iran. Melna says:
She always encouraged me to study and create arts.
She says her grandmother helped her make outfits for her Barbie dolls.
The sound of that sewing machine and her singing voice are still in my mind.
Updated
Sakineh Afrasehabi’s son says a few words.
The night when she was burning, she told me not to come, tried to look out for me even though she was being burned by fire and smoke, she told me not to come. In one sentence she taught me something I couldn’t find in any books - the meaning of life ...If you want to know the meaning of love - unconditional love - look on the face of your mother.
That concludes the tributes to Sakineh Afrasehabi.
Daughter of victim says she was killed by "criminal negligence'
She was a big fan of the Queen, says her daughter, who recalls when she got her citizenship, she said: “Elizabeth’s my queen now.”
She used to talk to birds and helped people in need.
Nazanin Aghlani says her mum made her favourite fish stew when she visited her flat on the night that the fire would break out.
She says blame for her mother’s death must be attributed not solely to the fire
Our mum lost her life not only the fire ...but to the corporate negligence ...Grenfell was gross criminal negligence. If we settle for this, we deserve it.
There is now a tribute to Sakineh Afrasehabi, being read by her daughter Nazanin Aghlani.
She was very funny and had a wicked sense of humour.
She travelled extensively in the 1970s as her brother was a merchant. During the Iran-Iraq war she sheltered other members of her family.
She moved to the UK in December 1997. She worked at the Punch and Judy nursery in Earl’s Court, cooking for the children.
She loved Portobello market and loved buses, picking random routes and travelling to the end of the line then going home and telling the family about her adventure.
Afrasehabi suffered pain due to an accident in Iran and in 2003 RBKC’s housing needs department said she should not be housed in a lifted property above the fourth floor.
However, she was eventually moved into a flat on the 18th floor despite being partially sighted and only being able to get around with a tri-walker. She accepted this “out of desperation and pressure from the council”.
She was a vulnerable disabled person ...The fear of [her] iving so high ...was always in the back of our minds.
Updated
Now El Alami Hamdan talks about Leena, who was just six-months-old. Weeping profusely, he recalls bumping into his daughter, who had Leena in a pushchair with her, on the day of the fire. He remembers playing with Leena, covering her with a blanket, while she smiled and pretended to be sleeping.
She hugged me, and I didn’t know that that night she would die...That was the last day, the last hour...
Death has separated us and left me torn into pieces. Since this happened both my left arm and my left leg are really painful.
Richmond pays tribute to his bravery. Hamdan thanks everyone in the room.
There is lengthy applause in recognition of how painful that plainly was for Hamdan, who lost four members of his family in unthinkable circumstances.
Martin Moore-Bick, chair of the inquiry, describes the tributes by Hamdan as “profoundly moving”.
Updated
Bernard Richmond says the next part is going to be really difficult as it is about El Alami Hamdan’s grandchildren Malak, 8, and Leena, who was six-months-old.
Malak’s grandfather says:
She was always smiling, she didn’t cry much.
Malak did karate lessons on Saturday and on Sundays she went to Al Manaar mosque in north Kensington where she was studying arabic.
Asked if he liked being a grandfather, he says:
They are my children, I [will] never forget them.
El Alami Hamdan says his son-in-law Omar Belkadi was “a faithful man”.
He was really honest, he didn’t lie.
El Alami Hamdan says of his daughter Farah:
People loved her, you can see her in the photos [being displayed on the screen]. She was the best.
She used to respect everyone, whether they are Muslim or not. She was giving importance to everyone, whether they are old or young.
He says his daughter and her husband Omar Belkadi, who also died in the fire, “really loved each other. You can see them in the photos, you can see how they were. It’s very obvious how much they loved each other.”
They were married in Morocco. He describes the wedding as “magic” and a proud day for him. He says of his daughter:
She was amazing and our relationship was really good ...She is really dear to my heart. She respected me ...Even her husband, actually, he calls me uncle, he did everything for me, whatever I ask for, he says ‘yes’. He was the best man ever.
He says his son-in-law Omar Belkadi worked in a restaurant and then as a pizza delivery man. He says people always told Belkadi to keep the change as tips.
Everyone loved him. May Allah blessed his soul. I used to feel he was my son ..You never hear the word ‘no’ from his mouth.
Now, there are commemorations to four members of the same family who died: Omar Belkadi, 32, his wife Farah Hamdan, 31, and their daughters, Malak Balkadi, 8, and six-month-old Leena Belkadi.
They lived in flat 175.
Paying tribute is El Alami Hamdan, the father of Farah Hamdan, who is accompanied by an interpreter. He breaks down immediately.
Bernard Richmond QC is asking questions, which Hamdan is responding to. The couple had three children, earlier there was a request that the media do not name the third child who survived as she is extremely vulnerable.
El Alami Hamdan says Farah Hamdan was born in London and lived in Kensington and Chelsea all her life.
There is nobody in the neighbourhood who doesn’t know Farah ..she was respectful, she was also respecting everyone. She was also a good student and she was a teacher.
While there is a short break before the commemorations resume, I thought it was worth sharing this:
As the first Grenfell Aniversary approaches, the Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service have published information on helpful things to do. The poster is available to download from our website https://t.co/MzDv1Lv5yN pic.twitter.com/TV1CxBqJ3k
— KC Mind (@KandCMind) May 30, 2018
Now there is another tribute to Raymond Bernard in a statement by from his daughter.
In the statement, read by another family member, it refers to his long flowing locks when he was young and how he was a “free-spirited lion”.
He moved into flat 201 in Grenfell Tower in 1980. He enjoyed dominoes and watching his beloved West Indies cricket team, who were all-conquering in the 1980s.
Never will Moses be forgotten. We miss him dearly.
There is applause and that concludes the tributes to Raymond “Moses” Bernard.
Now there is a tribute from Raymond Bernard’s son Julian Burton. He is present but feels unable to read the statement himself, we are told.
The thought of never seeing my dad any more is heartbreaking. I loved my dad very much...In my eyes, he was the greatest man I ever saw on this planet in many ways ...he was an incredible man.
He describes his father as “fun-loving, considerate, easygoing, calm-natured and supportive”.
Applause follows the tribute.
Bernadette Bernard names seven other Grenfell residents who took shelter in her brother’s flat on the night of the fire.
We know that he would have given comfort to each of them before they took their last breath and departed this world ...
Ray was snatched from me and my family in the fire. It has been difficult to come to terms with the loss of my brother...
Anger has left a deep deep void in mine and my family’s life...
Bernadette Bernard talks about the impact on her daughter Zoe who rushed to the tower on the night on the fire and saw her uncle’s flat burn, causing her unimaginable torment and distress.
She says Raymond’s mother Rose, 84-years-old “cries constantly about her son being burned to death”.
Bernadette Bernard says she cannot sleep and has PTSD because the fire is “ingrained in her head”.
My days and nights are filled with thoughts of my beloved brother.
A video is shown of Raymond’s mother and his sister Martha paying tribute.
Addressing her dead son, Rose Bernard, 84, says:
This is your mother... I still love you, you will always be in my thoughts... Love you still.
There is applause at the end of the video.
Bernadette pays tribute to her partner Michael for helping her get through these trying times. She says:
Sadly where there is no justice there can be no peace. I will never forget. I will never forgive.
A video is played from the memorial service of people singing Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water and that concludes the tribute from Bernadette and other members of the family to applause.
Bernadette Bernard describes how her brother always looked out for her, including ordering her back to school when he caught her bunking off one time.
When the family decided to return to Trinidad, Bernadette and Raymond were the only ones to remain in the UK.
She says her brother used to say:
Life is to short, try to love those around you, be happy and enjoy the life you have on earth as life, as we know, can be snatched away anytime.
She adds:
Ray always had a smile on his face. He knew how to love without expecting anything in return.
Her brother was her “modern-day Moses, my hero”. Raymond Bernard had a long-term partner, Karen. They had a dog named Marley, which also perished in the fire. Bernadette Bernard says Karen was “devastated” by the death of Raymond and Marley.
A video is played of the memorial service to Raymond “Moses” Bernard held on 19 August last year. There is applause at the conclusion.
The commemoration to Bernard is being given by his sister Bernadette. In a breaking voice, she introduces members of her family on the stage including her partner Michael, her “friend and sister” Jackie, her daughters and granddaughters.
She begins:
My brother ...meant different things to the different people in his life ...but to me he was my Ray, a brother I admired for his strength, his kindness, his patience and above all, his belief that good would always prevail over evil.
My brother was...my rock, my go-to person in times of trouble...We shared a deep love, respect and understanding for each other, coupled with an unbreakable bond.
He was born in Pinar, Trinidad and was one of seven children. He left school at 14 and began an apprenticeship with a local car mechanic.
Updated
Proceedings have begun. The first tribute will be to 63-year-old Raymond ‘Moses’ Bernard, who lived on the top floor of the tower. Bernard Richmond QC says there are a number of “trigger warnings” today, including in the video commemoration to Bernard, which features pictures of the burnt out tower.
There appears to be some delay in starting proceeding (which were due to commence at 9.45am). As soon as they begin, we will be bringing you live updates.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is among those watching proceedings at the Millennium Hotel conference centre in Kensington today.
Survivors have previously expressed concern that public figures they believe should be interested in the inquiry have not attended the commemoration hearings.
The inquiry will recommence shortly amid a number of negative headlines today about the response to the tragedy.
During yesterday’s hearing, survivors lamented the fire brigade advice to residents to stay inside their flats.
Additionally, a report published today, Mind The Gap: A Review Of The Voluntary Sector Response To The Grenfell Tragedy, by the charity Muslim Aid, found that many voluntary organisations stepped up to the challenge of meeting the needs of the community where the statutory authorities fell short, particularly in the early stages.
The institutional response to the disaster was “badly flawed in the first crucial days, and the damage that resulted has been difficult to repair”, the report said, adding that the voluntary sector was “very much on the front line”.
Updated
Welcome to our live coverage of the seventh day of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. It is the last day of commemorative hearings, which have seen friends and families pay heartbreaking and often harrowing tribute to loved ones who died in the fire.
Today we expect to hear remembrances of the final six victims out of the 72 who died.
They included four members of the same family, Omar Belkadi, 32, his wife Farah Hamdan, 31, and their daughters, Malak Balkadi, 8, and six-month-old Leena Belkadi. Leena, one of the youngest victims of the fire, was found dead in her mother’s arms in a stairwell between the 19th and 20th floors of the 24-storey high-rise block. Family members have previously been too grief-stricken to talk about them so we know little about their lives.
The inquiry will also hear a tribute to Raymond “Moses” Bernard, 63, who lived on the top floor of the tower. His family too have previously declined to speak more about his life.
The final victim, not previously heard about in the commemorative hearings, who will be paid tribute to today is Fatemeh Afrasiabi, one of the few Grenfell Tower victims who did not live in the block. On the night of the fire she was visiting her sister, Sakineh Afrasiabi. The 59-year-old Iranian was a relative newcomer to Britain, arriving as a refugee in 2013.
There will also be further tributes to some of the victims we have heard about on previous days of the inquiry. The full list is below. Proceedings are expected to commence at 9.45am.
Today's programme for the final day of the commemorative hearing. A link to the live stream will be posted ahead of the earlier start time of 9:45am. pic.twitter.com/RiSbWfem42
— Grenfell Inquiry (@grenfellinquiry) May 30, 2018
