Grenfell Tower survivors to give evidence to disaster inquiry
Among those to speak is Antonio Roncolato, who spent five hours trapped in his flat as the fire spread around him.
Wednesday 3 October 2018 09:53, UK
Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire聽will today give evidence to the inquiry into the disaster which claimed 72 lives.
Relatives of those who died, as well as local residents, will also be called to relive their memories of the night of 14 June 2017.
It will be the first time they have spoken to the inquiry since it opened in May with a series of tributes to the victims.
The chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, promised that survivors' testimony would be treated as "integral evidence" in proceedings.
Among those due to speak on Wednesday is Antonio Roncolato, who had lived on the 10th floor of the tower with his son Christopher for almost 30 years.
He survived in his flat for five hours as the fire spread around him.
In March this year he described to Sky News his battle to stay alive.
"The moment I opened the door, a lot of smoke came in. Very hot, very strong, very dark. Pitch dark. And I realised, hold on a second, here you're in big trouble.
"So I closed the door quickly, went to the bathroom and I rinsed my eyes a little bit and then Christopher from downstairs sent me a picture of the tower burning and it was not, like, a small fire, it was like the whole side of the tower was on fire.
"So then I said 'Okay, you have to make sure that you now do the right thing because if you do something wrong you might not be able to get out alive from here'."
"I made all my towels, bed towels, bath towels, bed linen, everything wet, and I tried to put it against the windows or on the windows themselves to try and contain the smoke from coming in. Smoke did come in and started filling up the living room and kitchen."
Antonio was one of the last people to leave the building alive. He was finally rescued at 6.30am.
Until now, the public inquiry has mainly heard from London Fire Brigade officers about how they tried to tackle the fire and save people trapped inside.
What has become clear from the often emotional and moving testimony is that firefighters were confronted with a situation beyond anything they had experienced before.
They have described the ferocity of the blaze and the speed at which it spread up the cladding on the outside of the tower.
There has also been much time devoted to whether the "stay put" policy should have been abandoned earlier in the night.
Usually, the way tower blocks are designed means a fire breaking out in one flat should not spread throughout the rest of a building.
"Stay put" is designed to stop residents in flats unaffected by fire from unnecessarily evacuating the building and blocking the stairways.