Yesterday, five years after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the 72 lives claimed were remembered.
As residents and the people of London took to the streets in preparation for a silent March to honour them, reporter Victoria Derbyshire addressed a camera.
She told BBC Breakfast viewers how she had been there on the night of the fire and one of the first people she saw was a man wearing pyjamas, slippers and a bathrobe.
He had escaped from his flat and what he wore was all he had left in the world. He was one of the lucky ones.
Victoria spoke to the nephew of a man who lived on the top floor, the 24th story, who also died.
The young man told how his uncle was a ‘wind-up merchant’ and would call him after his football practice at the bottom of the tower, to say he’d played terribly.
She spoke to a man who explained how residents had been told to stay put in their flats but thankfully he listened to a neighbour instead who called to say they had escaped and he must ‘get out’ now.
The fire was started by a malfunctioning fridge-freezer on the fourth floor. It spread rapidly up the building’s exterior, bringing fire and smoke to all the residential floors.
Among the lives claimed was a six month old baby. The next day, a survivor gave birth to a stillborn child, counted among the dead.
The stories are devastating and the sense of loss palpable but more, there is still anger.
Listen to anyone involved and it becomes clear why.
Another Grenfell Tower tragedy must be prevented
We knew shortly after the event that the fire spread so rapidly because the tower – the way it was constructed and the material used – was unsafe.
Changes have been made and similar buildings made safe but this is what astounded me: five years on, not all buildings have been changed.
So, this could happen again. Social housing exists of these same material – housing families, children, elderly and disabled people – and if a fire started tomorrow, we could be in this position again.
Is that not madness?
On the whole, I’m a believer of justice prevailing – of leaving things to those in power to put right.
But how can anyone who lost a loved one at Grenfell have that faith? Even looking on from afar, I struggle to have belief in the system.
Half a decade on, enquiries are still ‘ongoing’ – and before any criminal prosecutions for charges, including corporate manslaughter begin, they must conclude.
And yet life has been on hold for five long years. As one resident said, when asked if he felt justice was on hold, ‘no, everything is on hold.’
'I think we are a long way from justice..'
It's 5 years since 72 people lost their lives in a huge fire at Grenfell Tower.
Edward Daffarn survived the blaze – he says much still needs to be donehttps://t.co/g6CFtTl93M pic.twitter.com/n2DVtTBQ18— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) June 14, 2022
Survivors live in an ‘absolute hell’
Are we anaesthetised to the brutality of what happened?
What if it had been my grandad who lived in the middle of Dens and Tannadice?
I can remember him waving to me as I got in my car. What if he’d perished because builders and councils had illegally constructed his block of flats?
What if it was your daughter who had been rushed to Ninewells having inhaled deadly amounts of smoke and toxic gasses – only to give birth to your grandchild who would never live?
It sounds harsh even to be asked to imagine it but this is the reality – the absolute hell – these people live with day in and out.
Survivors are trapped in their own heads with memories of children being thrown from windows by parents who realised certain death awaited in the building they’d been told to stay in. Many children didn’t survive the fall.
Those who protest for justice say they are not respected or listened to – for if they were, answers and verdicts would already have been delivered.
And if they were, there is no way Grenfell could ever happen again.
It’s hard not to agree with them.
“Sometimes you feel the pain and you just hold it”
Former local teacher Hanan Wahabi lost her brother Abdulaziz EI-Wahabi, his wife, Faouzia and their children Yasin, 20, Nur Huda, 15, and Mehdi, 8, all of whom were trapped on Grenfell's 21st floor
🎥 https://t.co/1VSbJw7qQ8 pic.twitter.com/HYCpRgJJTi
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 14, 2022
There are echoes of Hillsborough where families waited 27 years for a verdict that found 96 men, women and children who were killed on the football terraces in 1989 were unlawfully killed.
These people experienced the devastation of loss too – but also gave their lives to the fight for justice. Lives wrecked for decades.
Must the survivors and families of Grenfell endure the same?
Conversation