Presentations honoring and remembering those who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire, sharing their stories and the impact of their loss on families and communities.
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00:00:00 Yes, Mr. Bellet.
00:00:26 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would now invite Danny Friedman, please, to come back to the
00:00:32 podium to present on behalf of Rania Ibrahim, Fethiye Hasan and Hania Hasan from flat 203
00:00:42 on floor 23. Again, I would repeat the trigger warning that statements and materials that
00:00:47 will be discussed or displayed during this presentation may be distressing to some and
00:00:52 those who wish to absent themselves from this room or from watching the live stream should
00:00:56 do so now. Thank you.
00:00:59 Yes, Mr. Friedman.
00:01:06 Rania Ibrahim was born in Aswan in Egypt on the 3rd of March 1986. She was 31 years old
00:01:16 when she died. She was married to Hasan Awad Hasan. The couple moved into flat 203 in Grenfell
00:01:25 Tower in 2016. They had two daughters, Fethiye Hasan, born 5th of October 2012 and Hania
00:01:37 Hasan, born 4th of June 2014, both of whom died with their mother in flat 203. They were
00:01:46 four and three years old. On the night of the fire, Hasan Awad Hasan was in Egypt attending
00:01:55 to his brother who was gravely ill. He returned to the UK on the following day to discover
00:02:02 that none of his family had survived.
00:02:05 Sir, you will recall the commemoration hearings for Rania, Fethiye and Hania were on three
00:02:12 separate days during which family members provided statements and films. As you heard,
00:02:19 Rania came from a large and close family of which she was one of seven siblings. They
00:02:25 are Saeeda, Hanan, Randa, Rasha, Rania, Mohammed and Mahmood as well as half brother Mustafa.
00:02:36 Rania came to London in 2009 to assist her sister Saeeda Ibrahim who was suffering from
00:02:44 cancer. Rania met Hasan in 2010 and they married in 2011. In June 2015, after both
00:02:56 of their children had been born, they obtained the tenancy to flat 203. Hasan spent several
00:03:02 months renovating the flat before they moved in. He wanted his family to have a beautiful
00:03:08 home.
00:03:10 On the 22nd of May, Sir, 2018, Rasha Ibrahim shared memories with you of her sister. She
00:03:18 described her as a beautiful soul. No one could sit with Rania and not smile.
00:03:26 On the 23rd of May, 2018, Saeeda Ibrahim showed a film narrated by her daughter Aisha testifying
00:03:35 to Rania's great kindness and commitment to justice. She spoke of the support Rania
00:03:41 provided to Saeeda and Saeeda's children, her Aisha, Mustafa, Mawada and Abdur Rahman
00:03:48 during her illness.
00:03:51 On the 29th of May, 2018, Hasan Awad Hasan spoke of the unbearable loss of his wife and
00:03:59 children. The inquiry also heard from Munira Mahmood, who you know lived with her family
00:04:05 in flat 25 on floor 5 of Grenfell Tower, who spoke to the loss of her very close friend.
00:04:13 Munira is the wife of Mohammed Rasool, who gave evidence in module 4 when all of the
00:04:18 panel heard from him.
00:04:21 These commemorative portraits highlighted that as a wife, mother, sister and friend,
00:04:28 Rania Ibrahim was an exceptionally loving and generous person with a deep Muslim faith
00:04:35 who put herself before others, caring for those more in need than herself.
00:04:41 As to the children, Fethiyeh was a confident child with a strong and vibrant personality.
00:04:50 Rania was quieter but showed a wisdom beyond her years. She adored her sister and always
00:04:56 tried to be like her. Both girls were raised by their parents to be lively and kind. The
00:05:03 many surviving photographs show the children to be full of joy.
00:05:09 May I turn to the 13th of June.
00:05:15 CCTV footage shows Hania Hassan entering the lift lobby of Grenfell Tower at 5.27 in the
00:05:23 company of Munira Mahmood, Rania's close friend. She was looking after Hania while
00:05:28 Rania took Fethiyeh swimming. As close families, they were helping each other while Hassan
00:05:34 had to be in Egypt to care for his brother.
00:05:38 At 1609, Rania and Fethiyeh can be seen re-entering the tower. They joined with Munira in flat
00:05:46 25 to feed their children together. Rania then returned to her own flat with her children.
00:05:53 Munira last saw her friend at 21.30 when she went up to flat 203 to give Rania her iftar
00:06:01 meal to break the fast.
00:06:04 Analysis of the footage of external fire spread on the flat 6 column shows that the fire reached
00:06:12 floor 23 soon after 01.26. Indeed, its spread was sufficiently rapid for its effects to
00:06:21 be noticed by the occupants of the top floor much earlier. Farhad Nida of flat 205, as
00:06:28 you heard this morning, called the TMO out of hours engineer at 01.10 and referred to
00:06:35 an electric burning smell. Shortly after the call, with the smell getting stronger, the
00:06:42 Nida family went onto the landing and saw Fafiyah Ahmed Al-Sanusi and her daughter Isra
00:06:47 Ibrahim who had exited from flat 206 in a state of panic. Isra started to run down the
00:06:55 stairs with her mother walking after. As you heard and will hear about further in other
00:07:00 presentations, soon after at around 01.30 residents of the lower floors came up to the
00:07:06 top floor. With them were Fafiyah Ahmed and Isra Ibrahim returning back up who then sought
00:07:13 refuge in Rania's home. To make sense of the various movements, I'm going to again ask
00:07:20 to bring up the NPS floor diagram but before I do, may I give a trigger warning, you will
00:07:27 see plans and names but no images of people or fire. And it is MET 0012529 at page 25.
00:07:43 You can see at the bottom left hand corner Rania's flat 203 where she and Hania and
00:07:51 Fafiyah were. This also shows flat 206 to the top right hand side where the Al-Sanusi
00:07:58 family would come from. We presume because their kitchen was soon compromised by fire.
00:08:08 If we can take that plan down please. At 01.38 Rania Ibrahim began to live stream events
00:08:20 in her flat in a Facebook recording that lasted until 01.4433 seconds. As a piece of evidence
00:08:30 that recording is extremely helpful in explaining conditions on the top floor and who came into
00:08:37 the flat. The video is also distressing to show and I hope everyone will understand we
00:08:43 do not ask to show it now especially as the inquiry has already described the important
00:08:48 parts of the video in its phase one report and generally been assisted by Rania's own
00:08:55 efforts in this regard in real time. By 01.38 Isra Ibrahim and her mother Fafiyah Ahmed
00:09:03 had already come into the flat. Isra's brother Abu Fras Ibrahim who was visiting that night
00:09:10 can also be seen in the video. Rania is captured opening the door to check whether anyone in
00:09:17 the corridor needs help. At 55 seconds into the video Rania opens the front door and calls
00:09:25 out to people to come to her apartment. At one minute 14 seconds into the recording Rania
00:09:32 says she is going out of the flat. She then appears to step into the lobby returning at
00:09:37 one minute 32 seconds. She can be heard calling out while in the lobby. A man who has since been
00:09:46 identified as Gary Maunders by both his niece and his previous partner enters the flat obviously
00:09:54 in need of sanctuary from the smoke. At around five minutes and 21 seconds into the video Rania
00:10:03 is heard to say words that quote the whole building is burning and we're on the top floor. She then
00:10:10 queries how they could possibly get out in these circumstances. Professor Purser's phase two evidence
00:10:18 has underscored how occupants of the flats on the top floor were inhibited from escaping
00:10:24 by the dense smoke in the actual lobby of the floor that had accumulated as early as 0129. The
00:10:32 available version of the video which translates Rania's Ibrahim's Arabic into English subtitles
00:10:40 shows at this point that she is making religious recitations for what continues for the large part
00:10:47 of the remaining footage. Members of the panel as you have heard in other presentations today at
00:10:55 this time the control room was receiving a significant number of fire survival guidance
00:11:01 calls from the top floor flats reporting rapidly deteriorating conditions. Can I mention three
00:11:08 points about this? First there were calls between 0130 and 0141 especially from Jessica Abano
00:11:17 Ramirez, Mariam El-Gwari, Biruk Haftum and the beginning of a long call by Debbie Lampro. Some of
00:11:25 these calls will be dealt with in further detail tomorrow. Cumulatively they called for the LFB to
00:11:31 go to the top floor to assist but that could not occur. Second we know now that the highest
00:11:40 deployment was the Paddington crew after 0156 for firefighting and not rescue purposes. They
00:11:48 saved Faduma Ahmed but only one of their number reached the exit door of floor 22, none reached
00:11:55 floor 23. Third other crews were deployed at 208 and then at 224, 251 and 303 but none reached the
00:12:09 highest floor. Relatives of Rania Ibrahim became aware that Rania and her children were trapped in
00:12:18 her flat due to the fire. Rania's sister Saeeda received a FaceTime call from Rania to say that
00:12:25 there was a fire in the block and that she didn't think she would be able to leave. Just before 2am
00:12:33 Saeeda's daughter Isha called the emergency services to tell them that there was a woman with two
00:12:39 children stuck in flat 203 on floor 23. Rania did not speak English as a first language and it appears
00:12:48 that she provided her mobile phone to her neighbour Isra Ibrahim who spoke fluent English with a London
00:12:56 accent. Isra Ibrahim made repeated calls to the LFB over the following 45 minutes. I'm going to
00:13:08 deal with those calls in this presentation and return to them when we make a presentation for
00:13:13 the Al-Sanousi family on the last days of these hearings. At 0205 25 Isra Ibrahim told CRO Halsan
00:13:23 at the control room that she was part of a group of five adults and two children in flat 203. Isra
00:13:31 Ibrahim expressly asked for the status of the situation at the moment. She was assured that the
00:13:38 fire was on the fourth floor but it was creating a lot of smoke. She was expressly advised that it
00:13:44 was not safe to go outside because there's a lot of smoke in the communal areas. She was told to
00:13:51 stay calm for the children and that firefighters would go to them as soon as possible. Isra Ibrahim
00:13:59 called the LFB back at 0221 and 32 by which time she told CRO Gotts that the next door flat was on
00:14:09 fire. She pressed the operator as to whether there was actually enough firefighters to rescue them and
00:14:15 was again told that firefighters were coming up. When she asked whether the helicopters could assist
00:14:21 she was told quote they are sending up a helicopter so that they can see it from the air but I'll let
00:14:29 them know. Isra Ibrahim spoke to the control room for a final time at 0242 06. She told CRO Halsan
00:14:43 that smoke from the fire next door was coming in. She emphasized that they were five adults with two
00:14:49 children under five. When Isra was told by the operator to call back if there were any changes
00:14:56 she made it plain that a further call might not be possible effectively because they would be dead.
00:15:02 CRO Halsan again assured Isra Ibrahim that the firefighters were making their way up the building
00:15:10 but would not be drawn on what floor the firefighters were on at the moment. As the panel will be aware
00:15:18 this was a point in time after the state put advice had been revised by those in command in
00:15:25 the control room which occurred at around 0235. Albeit that there would have been a period of time
00:15:32 when this change was being communicated to the individual operators. The chair will recall SOM
00:15:39 Joanne Smith walking around the control room to inform each colleague of the change. The message
00:15:48 had not yet got through to CRO Halsan at the time of this call because the occupants of flat 203
00:15:54 were told that quote the safest place for you at the moment is in the flat because you don't know
00:16:01 what's going on outside. A further call was made to the control room at 02.58.42 to say that in the
00:16:12 previous few minutes they had spoken to their neighbor who was stuck in flat 203 with her two
00:16:18 children both under the age of five. The LFB operator on this call was again CRO Halsan.
00:16:24 The caller told the operator that they had tried to get into the building but had been stopped by
00:16:29 the police. For the first time CRO Halsan communicated that if the resident was to phone back then
00:16:36 quote we're advising people now that they need to get out of the building. The caller queried
00:16:43 how will they get out of the building? No one's shown them the way. The operator emphasized that
00:16:49 they needed to attempt to get out of the building and she also said she would let the crews know
00:16:55 that Rania was still in the flat. At around three o'clock Rania spoke to Munira Mahmood.
00:17:04 By this time it was dark, the flat was filled with smoke and Rania was finding it difficult to
00:17:09 breathe and coughing. The children could be heard in the background coughing quite a lot
00:17:14 and asking for their father. Munira repeatedly tried to convince her friend to leave telling her
00:17:22 she would die if she stayed. However Rania clearly remained under the impression that she was required
00:17:29 to stay put and that someone was coming to rescue her based on what the control room had told her.
00:17:35 She also referred to seeing a helicopter. This was the last time the friend spoke.
00:17:42 Rania also spoke to her sister Sayyida Ibrahim at around three o'clock and to her brother
00:17:48 Mohammed Ibrahim after that. There was no further contact. When Munira Mahmood's friend Samir tried
00:17:56 to call Rania's number at about 0315 she did not answer. As you will hear further in the
00:18:04 Al-Sanousi presentation late in these hearings it is known from CCTV footage that Abu Fras Ibrahim
00:18:11 fell from the tower at 0350. The remains of Rania Ibrahim and her two daughters were found in close
00:18:24 proximity and indeed commingled in the bathroom area of flat 203. They were also in close proximity
00:18:33 to Fafia Ahmed and Isra Ibrahim. The adult women had made a cordon around the children.
00:18:41 The remains of Gary Maunders were discovered in the adjacent separate toilet area.
00:18:47 Professor Purser describes how there would have been relatively slow smoke infiltration into the
00:18:53 flat over a long period between 1.30 until around 3.11 to 3.20 when there would have been increased
00:19:00 smoke and toxic gas penetration from the external fire outside the bedrooms.
00:19:06 Professor Purser explains how the toxicology sample from Abu Fras Ibrahim which showed a
00:19:12 sub-incapacitating 20% carbon monochrome hemoglobin, carbiocene hemoglobin level at the time
00:19:20 he fell at 350 is an important factor to estimate the time of death for other occupants.
00:19:27 Charting the likely accumulation using the point of reference he calculates the time of death
00:19:33 for the adults who remained in the flat sheltering in the bathroom and toilet area
00:19:37 at approximately 420. However, due to the more rapid uptake of gases by young children,
00:19:44 he indicates that Hani and Fafia Hassan would have lost consciousness and died before their mother
00:19:49 by approximately 3.55. Professor Purser's evidence therefore establishes that the medical
00:19:57 indoors of death can be given as the more specific and informative cause of inhalation of toxic fumes
00:20:03 rather than the generic conclusion of consistent with the effects of fire as found in the current
00:20:09 post-mortem reports.
00:20:11 Panel, can I conclude that if you watch the Facebook video in your own time, you will see
00:20:19 that Rana Ibrahim was a special woman motivated by her faith and she conducted herself in a powerful
00:20:26 and impressive manner at a point when she increasingly knew that she and her daughters
00:20:31 were going to die. Is it right to conclude by paying tribute to Rania, Rana and Fafia?
00:20:41 Fafia and Hani's family and friends including Rania's siblings and most especially to Hassan
00:20:48 who lost everything that night. This husband and father has experienced an enormous trauma
00:20:55 but he is also a special person who works in the al-Munar mosque and is known to a lot of
00:21:01 people in the area. If you want to understand something about him and indeed the other parts
00:21:07 of this community you can recall what Mohammed Rasool said of him during the module four evidence.
00:21:13 It's transcript, day 265 page 149 line 11. Hassan was out of the country. He'd been looking after
00:21:24 his brother for six months. His brother had his legs amputated in Egypt because of extreme diabetes
00:21:30 and he was looking after him. He hadn't seen his kids, his wife and kids for a long time.
00:21:37 He arrived the next morning and the first place I happened to make contact with him was the al-Munar
00:21:43 mosque and I just remember I was trying to make sense of things, trying to find some peace in the
00:21:49 mosque and the moment I saw him and he came over to me and as soon as I saw him I got up, embraced
00:21:57 him, I was trying to keep it together. I'm the one who broke down crying and he told me he just,
00:22:06 his words were, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, all thanks and praise be to God whatever we go through
00:22:17 and I think just that kind of reflection of our Islamic tradition where whatever you go through
00:22:23 in life you deal with it, you have your struggles, you apply the means outwardly but inwardly we
00:22:32 should strive for that inner peace where we accept God's divine decree in things that happen and for
00:22:39 me I was just, I was blown away just about how he reacted and how he kept it together that was
00:22:46 inspirational. Panel, inwardly Hassan and this community of family and friends strives for peace
00:22:56 as part of their faith but I know it is important to them for me to end the presentation by saying
00:23:02 to you that through their faith they also strive for justice.
00:23:10 That concludes the presentation. Thank you very much indeed Mr. Friedman.
00:23:16 Well that concludes the last of the presentation that we're going to hear today so the
00:23:23 inquiry will cease at that point and we shall resume at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning when we shall
00:23:31 hear presentations in relation to others who lost their lives in the fire and thank you all very
00:23:38 much 10 o'clock tomorrow morning please.