Grenfell Inquiry day 57: wheelchair user feared being left for dead after family rescued

News11.10.185.45 PM by Gavriel Hollander

A wheelchair user who eventually escaped from the third floor of Grenfell Tower feared that she would be left to die after firefighters rescued her three children.

Picture: Lucy Brown

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Grenfell Inquiry day 57: wheelchair user feared being left for dead after family rescued #ukhousing

Key points

Women with disabilities rescued by firefighters after being trapped in flat
Man who escaped from 16th floor blames stay put policy for increasing fatalities
“I didn’t have the information I needed to know just how unsafe our homes really were,” says one of the authors of ‘Grenfell Action Group’ blog

Mariko Toyoshima-Lewis told the inquiry into last June’s fire that firefighters were “freaking out” when they initially reached her flat because her wheelchair and mobility scooter were blocking the door.

She said: “When the firefighters saw me and my family they just started swearing. I have never heard swearing like it before, they said words to the effect of, ‘F***ing Jesus Christ! What are you doing?’
“I think they were freaking out because of the wheelchair and mobility scooter blocking the front door. I remember them telling me that I had nearly killed my children because I hadn’t followed health and safety guidelines.”
The firefighters helped Ms Toyoshima-Lewis’ three children and ex-partner David Lewis escape the blaze but she feared they would not come back for her.
“I started to pray,” she told the inquiry. “I prayed for my children’s future.”
Ms Toyoshima-Lewis was eventually rescued 45 minutes after first contacting the emergency services.

The inquiry also heard evidence from Richard Fletcher, who escaped from the 16^th floor with his wife and six-year-old daughter.
Mr Fletcher said he believed a lack of instruction from senior firefighters and the fire brigade’s stay put policy contributed to the number of fatalities.

He told the inquiry: “I feel that on the night of the fire, had there been someone directing people to come out of the building, a lot of people would have been saved; had the fire alarms been working, a lot of people would have been saved.”

“The fact that I assumed, because of the refurb, all the equipment would have been working. I was shocked when we went on the landing and it was full of smoke, because I assumed the smoke alarms would have gone off. I don’t understand how no one has been held accountable for that.”
Mr Fletcher was also highly critical of the reaction of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), saying the council offered “no support” to his family.

“Nobody knew anything,” he said. “RBKC were clearly making it up as they went along. There was no contingency plan.”

Mr Fletcher said he and his family spent almost a year living in a hotel after the fire.

Yesterday, the inquiry released written evidence from Edward Daffarn, who also lived on the 16^th floor and was one of the founders of the Grenfell Action Group, which raised a number of concerns from residents about the refurbishment of the tower.

Mr Daffarn said that residents were not consulted on the type of cladding to be used on the building, despite claims to the contrary by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO).

He also said a Freedom of Information Act request to see minutes of meetings between the TMO and its contractors was turned down on commercial grounds.
Mr Daffarn told the inquiry: “If we had seen that they had replaced non-combustible materials with combustible materials we could have publicised it and campaigned against it.

“I didn’t have the information I needed to know just how unsafe our homes really were. The thought that if I had been given this information I could have done something about it continues to cause me anguish.”