Children who survived Grenfell Tower fire still unable to sleep 16 months on
One mother says one of her daughters talks about death and heaven, and struggles to understand what happened.
Tuesday 9 October 2018 19:19, UK
A child who escaped the Grenfell Tower fire has asked about going to heaven, "where the other children have gone", her mother has revealed.
Meron Mekonnen also said her two daughters struggle to sleep, almost 16 months after the disaster which claimed 72 lives.
And she has criticised London Fire Brigade's "stay put" policy, saying the staircase was "empty at the point I left and there was virtually no smoke higher up the tower at that early stage".
Ms Mekonnen, who lived on the 19th floor, covered her daughters' eyes to stop them seeing the "human tragedy unfolding" around them when the flames took hold on 14 June last year.
The family left after being told by a relative on the fifth floor to get out, but several neighbours on their floor and friends elsewhere in the tower did not survive.
:: Woman separated from dad, 82, as they fled Grenfell fire
Once outside the block her daughters, then aged six and four, cried and screamed "our home is burning".
Both girls were traumatised, Ms Mekonnen said, in a written statement to the public inquiry into the disaster.
"I am worried about (name redacted) as she is constantly anxious and cannot talk about the night of the fire," she wrote.
"She breaks down a lot and we are trying to avoid everything that will remind her of the fire and remind her of Grenfell Tower."
Ms Mekonnen added: "(Name redacted) does not really understand what happened, as she is very young, but she talks about death and heaven.
"She asks 'why can't we go to heaven if this is where the other children have gone?'
"As a mother, it is extremely difficult to see the effect the fire has had on my young children."
Ms Mekonnen told the inquiry she was dismayed by the advice the fire brigade had given.
"I personally believe that firefighters should have started going from flat-to-flat to get people out the tower as soon as they realised the fire was out of control," she said.
"If people had left their flats at the same time as me and my children, (1.32am) I think that many lives could have been saved.
"I do not understand why the London Fire Brigade were telling people to stay in their flats, as the staircase was empty at the point I left and there was virtually no smoke higher up the tower at that early stage."
A total of 71 people died in the blaze, with a 72nd victim dying months later in hospital.
The public inquiry is currently in its first phase - hearing from survivors, the bereaved and residents at Holborn Bars in central London.