Grenfell Inquiry day 52: resident saved by son’s phone call

He said that he did not think that there was a smoke alarm outside his flat, adding: “If there was, it would have gone off that night, but the only smoke detector that went off was inside my flat.”

Mr Roncolato, a hotel worker, told the inquiry how he had eaten a bowl of porridge to “keep my energy levels up” while he waited to be rescued.

“Throughout the night Christopher kept calling me telling me he loved me and to make sure I was OK,” he said. “I told him that it was not my time and I needed him to be strong. I was trying to reassure him.”

He was eventually rescued at around 6am by two firefighters who came to his flat and led him down the stairs. He said he wore his son’s swimming goggles and put a wet towel over his nose and mouth to keep the smoke out.

“I do not understand how the fire could have spread so quickly and why there was no communal alarm or other fire safety measures in the tower that could have saved more people,” he said. “This was despite residents reporting on numerous occasions their concerns about fire safety, but we were not listened to. We were ignored.”

He spoke about draughts which came through windows which had been fitted during the refurbishment of the flat in 2015 and 2016, and which on the night of the fire allowed smoke into his flat. He had filled in some of the gaps with plastic filler in order to stop the cold, he said.

The inquiry had previously heard that plastic fillers used around the windows and the new cladding panels, which were also fitted during the refurbishment, helped spread the fire.

Mr Roncolato also said that a concierge who had previously worked in the block was not reinstated after the refurbishment works had taken place. Residents had petitioned to have the concierge reinstated, he said.

He also said residents had meetings with the council about relocating gas boilers from within individual flats to the building’s corridors, which they were concerned would pose a fire hazard.

The tenant management organisation agreed to put some boilers in the flats, but “for those residents who did not speak up, they were bullied into having the new boiler installed in the hallway by the front door”, he told the inquiry.

The inquiry also heard from Maria de Fatima Alves, who had lived in the block for 19 years. She described the scene as a “horror film”.

After returning from a night out with friends, Ms Alves and her husband saw smoke in the fourth floor lobby and, realising there was a fire, she left the building while her husband went up to their flat on the 13^th floor to get the couple’s two children.

Ms Alves said she saw “melting plastic” falling to the ground as she stood and watched the blaze, and witnessed a number of her neighbours coming out after her husband woke them up.

“I have every respect for the firefighters but I think that there was a lack of communication between those inside the tower and those outside,” she said.

“I still think about what I could have done more. I often wonder if I had stayed at the tower and buzzed people to wake them up and get them out whether more lives could have been saved,” she said.

She said she didn’t think she had ever read the fire notices posted in the building, and assumed that in the event of the fire she should exit the building immediately.

No one had ever told her what to do if a fire were to break out, she told the inquiry.