A Grenfell Tower survivor who lost 20 friends in the fire and is still living in a hotel room more than 16 months later has told a public inquiry that the council landlord never fixed problems with the building, including electrical faults and broken lifts.
Hamid Wahbi, 54, described his desperate escape from his flat on the 16th floor and said that before the fire, lights would turn themselves on and off and plugs would fail to work. A new fridge did not work when it was first plugged in.
He said he reported issues to the tenant management organisation but they were never fixed. The inquiry into the disaster has previously heard that the fire is likely to have started in a fridge on the fourth floor.
Wahbi said lights did not always work in the landings and lifts often broke down, meaning there was often a 10- to 15-minute wait for a working lift.
He is still waiting to move into a new home with his 90-year-old disabled mother and his son and has been living in an Ibis hotel in west London since the fire in June 2017.
His son Walid, a student, said in a statement: “I am currently struggling to concentrate and stay focused in general as I feel my head is all over the place.”
It is understood the family have accepted an offer of accommodation but the property is not yet ready.
By the beginning of this month 121 of the 204 households left homeless by the fire had moved into permanent accommodation and 39 had moved into interim homes, leaving 44 yet to be resettled.
Wahbi told the inquiry that on the night of the fire he was packing for a pilgrimage to Mecca when he heard the crackling of flames outside his kitchen window. It was about 1.15am, 20 minutes after another resident, Behailu Kebede, had dialled 999 about the fire in his flat 12 storeys below.
“I just turned back and went to the kitchen,” Wahbi said, his voice breaking. “I saw the fire.” When he opened the window to see what was happening, flames and smoke came into his flat.
“The fire was red,” he added in a written statement. “The smoke was black. It was very thick and strong; it was coming from the window. It smelt like poison … I was coughing, and black things were coming out and some blood.”
He ran down to the 15th floor because he suspected the fire was coming from above. On his way he met a firefighter in difficulty. “He had a mask on but was struggling to breathe, sitting on the stairs. He was a mess himself. I could not believe it.”
He ran back upstairs where he saw through the smoke Ed Daffarn and Sam Daniels, who also lived on the 16th floor. Daniels told him his father, who was disabled, was “frozen” and could not get out. Wahbi said they should get him.
“When I turned to look, I could not see Sam. I could not lift him [Daniels’ father] by myself; I left him. I now know that Sam’s father died in the fire,” he said.
“I started thinking about my friend Yasin El-Wahabi and his family. They were on the 21st floor. I know them well. I found it very hard, I was coughing too much. I forced myself and tried my best to stand up. I did not think I would make it. I put the towel over my face and ran down the stairs. I later found out that all five of them died in the fire.”
He said he ran down through the heat and smoke. “It was very noisy on the stairwell and I could hear people screaming and shouting very loudly.”
Asked whether he wanted to tell the inquiry chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, anything more, Wahbi said: “We’re just normal people who just want to get on with their life. We’re a working community, we’re normal people. Everyone wants to get on with our lives.”
