34 victims identified as inspector tells of tower collapse fear
ACORONER has revealed 34 people who died in the Grenfell Tower have now been formally identified.
A married couple and two brothers were among the latest victims to be named at Westminster Coroner’s Court as 10 more inquests were opened yesterday.
Dr Fiona Wilcox has opened and adjourned a total of 30 inquests, all of which she has suspended while a public inquiry and criminal investigation are carried out.
“We have identified 34 people who have died as a result of the fire and our work is ongoing and proceeding as well as it can in these circumstances,” she said.
At least 80 people are thought to have died when the blaze tore through the 24-storey block on June 14.
“I have another round of openings regarding the deaths in the Grenfell Tower fire,” said Dr Wilcox four weeks on from the disaster.
Coroner’s Office manager Eric Sword then set out details of how remains of 10 people were identified through DNA or dental records.
The provisional cause of death for each of the 10 victims was given as being “consistent with the effects of fire”.
The coroner opened and adjourned all 10 of the inquests and said in each case: “This afternoon I suspend this investigation... in order to allow the public inquiry and criminal investigations and prosecutions to proceed.”
At the end of the short hearing she offered her “sincere condolences” to all of those touched by the deaths, adding: “There is nothing the court can do to make it any better. All we can hope is we don’t make it any worse.”
One of the first police officers at the fire said he feared the tower would collapse, and compared the tragedy to the 9/11 terror attack.
Inspector Nick Thatcher said “absolutely nothing at all” in his 23 years as a policeman prepared him for the scale of the incident.
“Every decision you make in the back of your mind is 9/11, that was on a significant scale, much bigger scale, but thinking that at any second that building is coming down, which direction is it going to go in,” he added.
He said a single call came through from the fire brigade at around midnight, which was “concerning but not unusual”.
But before he even got to the tower he realised the scale of the blaze and put out a call saying, “we need everything”.
When he got to the scene and saw survivors staggering out of the building “the magnitude started to become apparent”, he said.
“People were coming out coughing and spluttering, still in their nightclothes, and fire officers were going in.”
He added: “Everybody was just awestruck, they were just standing, arms by their sides, head up, mouths open, just staring at the fire.
“And even in the short time it took me to drive less than a mile the fire had escalated and spread to the top two floors, you had to take a few seconds just to think, ‘goodness, this is not normal’.”
He added: “It’s an enormous building in the middle of an older estate if it was to come down, which I honestly thought in the night that any second it was going to come down, and even when I left hours later I was still certain it was going to come down.”
One of the challenges the police had to deal with was stopping members of the public going in to try to rescue loved ones, he said.
“We had to keep the public away – they were trying to help but there was nothing they could do,” he added.
Mr Thatcher, based in Kensington, praised the community’s response to the incident.
“The firefighters who were coming out of the building were exhausted, absolutely exhausted,” he added.
“And they were so desperate and so thirsty – we were able to get some drinks from the machine in the sports centre.
“We were concerned that we just couldn’t get more to the fire officers but that’s when the community then pulled up with these shopping trolleys full of water.
“As a whole it was tragic but within the tragedy there was an awful lot of good.”
He described the efforts of the emergency services as “absolutely amazing” and added: “No-one extra died.
“It’s tragic and the loss of life – tragic is the only word you can use.”
He said many colleagues worked more than 24 hours to help with the tragedy.
“They were shattered, absolutely shattered,” he added.
“The uniform is very much like a suit of armour and there’s a skill in taking it off, putting it in your locker and going home.
“But it doesn’t go away, I didn’t really sleep for three weeks.
“I don’t think I will ever, ever forget and you wouldn’t want to, but no-one has failed to turn up for work, everyone’s back – everyone’s doing what we’re paid to do.”