Grenfell Inquiry day 64: KCTMO ‘did not replace faulty fire door’

And he revealed that a new fire door fitted to the front of his flat in the refurbishment “jammed” after a few months.

In response, a Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) worker removed the “automatic closing mechanism” from the door.

Mr Macit said: “I asked him if he was going to replace the mechanism. The handyman told me that he would not be replacing it because it wasn’t possible to replace just the mechanism.

“He said that the whole door would need to be replaced in order for it to automatically close. He told me that there was nothing wrong with the door.

“What I assumed he meant by this was that it would cost money to replace the whole door, when only the closing mechanism needed to be replaced.”

The worker told Mr Macit that other tenants also had front doors which didn’t automatically close and that “it was not necessary” for the door to do so.

Mr Macit also told the inquiry that a group of tenants had considered legal action after their flats were left damaged by power surges months before the fire.

On 14 June, he said that “unbelievable” smoke which smelled of burning plastic filled the corridor outside his flat in just five minutes, preventing Mr Macit and his wife from leaving more than once for fear of choking.

“Thick black smoke” also came into his flat, where the couple lay on the ground for 40 minutes with wet towels on their faces waiting to be rescued.

Eventually, Mr Macit said a 999 operator told him: “Sir, no help can get to you. Please try and get out of the building.”

He said the operator “sounded as if she was about to cry when she said this” – and that she told Mr Macit it was he and his wife’s “only chance”.

He described leaving his flat as flames burst through the windows and set light to the walls and curtains, and stepping over bodies – including a teenage girl – while trying to escape.

And he recalled encountering two firefighters on the 10th floor, one of whom “was swaying as if he was about to lose consciousness” who did not acknowledge the couple despite Mr Macit “shouting at them for help”.

“A whole community has been destroyed,” Mr Macit concluded of the fire.

Earlier in the day, the inquiry also heard from Alemishet Demissie, who lived in Flat 94 and was left trapped there with her friend by the fire after they had held a Bible club earlier in the evening.

She said smoke “gradually” poured into her flat despite trying to block the doors with wet quilts.

And she described being told by a 999 operator: “Leave the flat or you are going to die” at around 2.40am.

However, Ms Demissie said she and her friend “simply gave up” after seeing the smoke outside her flat, because they felt no one was coming and they could not leave.

“We changed our prayer topic from hoping to be rescued, to praise and thankfulness for the lives that we had led when flames appeared at window,” she said.

Firefighters arrived at her front door at around 3am and led them downstairs to safety in a “confusing and difficult journey”, Ms Demissie said.

A total of eight witness statements, including Ms Demissie’s and Mr Macit’s, were published by the inquiry team today.

The hearing continues.