23 January 2024 , 19:55
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The man who lived in the flat where the Grenfell Tower fire began says the disaster has left him as “a ghost of a man”.
A statement by Behailu Kebede was read out yesterday at the start of Grenfell Testimony Week, an event which was put together after a compensation deal was reached last year for people affected by the June 2017 tragedy.
A legal hearing in May was told there had been a settlement of about 900 cases and a global sum of about £150million compensation agreed. Before the testimonies began, the names of all those who died in the fire were read aloud, followed by a 72-second silence – one for each life lost.
Behailu, who was born in Ethiopia, said he came as a refugee to the UK in 1992. He said: “I know, in my head, that the fire was the fault of RBKC [the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea], Celotex, the Government... in my heart – which is full of fear and grief, it was in my flat, my kitchen, where it started. It’s a deep pain, a shame that I carry.”
CCTV footage of Behailu going to work on day of blaze (PA)
Card showing baby Logan who Marcio and Andreia lost (TV Grab)Behailu was cleared of blame by the official inquiry into the disaster but felt unable to attend the community’s marches or the inquiry.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
He said: “I did not have the courage. I can’t really say I’m any better [today]. My partner and my children live with a ghost of a man.” Organisers of the four-day event said it is being held to give the bereaved, survivors and residents an opportunity to “speak directly to organisations that many hold responsible for the fire”.
Marcio and Andreia who lost a child (AFP/Getty Images)
Tory Eric Pickles in 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)Marcio Gomes, the father of a baby stillborn following the blaze, described the life his son could have had, telling the firms represented: “This is what you have taken away from me.”
Marcio and his wife Andreia Perestrelo were expecting their third child on August 21 2017, but Logan was stillborn in hospital following the blaze. The couple lived with their two daughters in the North Kensington tower for 10 years, and all four escaped the blaze.
Other testimonies included from Emma O’Connor, who lived on the 20th floor and managed to escape with her partner on the night of the fire. Ms O’Connor, who is disabled, said: “I still struggle every day with survivor’s guilt.”
Grenfell and messages of support on a wall in front (AFP via Getty Images)
RBKC’s Kim Taylor-Smith (The Daily Mirror)The 24-storey tower was covered in flammable cladding in a refurbishment which finished in 2016. Representatives from Celotex, Exova, London Fire Brigade, Kingspan Rydon, and Whirlpool Corporation all accepted invitations.
Cllr Kim Taylor-Smith of the RBKC attended, as did representatives of the Home Office and Ministry of Housing, which was run by Eric Pickles from 2010 to 2015, and who gave evidence to the inquiry. Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick was among those gathered at Church House in Westminster, sitting alongside lead counsel Richard Millett KC.
Arconic, which supplied the cladding, helped fund testimony week but was not represented.