Grenfell tower victim’s brother told firefighters his sibling was inside but they ‘ignored him’

The brother of a Syrian refugee who was accidentally left to die in Grenfell Tower, has said firefighters ignored him when he told them his sibling was still trapped inside.

After fleeing the conflict in his homeland, Omar Alhaj Ali arrived in the UK with his brother, Mohammad, in 2014. The pair lived on the 14th floor of the west London highrise.

As flames raced up the building on 14 June last year, the brothers moved into a neighbour’s flat at number 113, where six other people were also waiting.

Firefighters eventually came to rescue some of the residents, but four, including Mohammad, were left behind.

He later jumped to his death from a window after watching the other residents stop breathing, Omar said.

In a written statement to the Grenfell Tower inquiry, Omar said he panicked when he realised his brother had not managed to escape.

He telephoned him and discovered he was still trapped in the flat with Zainab Deen, 32, her son Jeremiah Deen, two and Denis Murphy, 56.

“I said to Mohammad: ‘Why didn’t you come with us?’ and he replied saying no one took him out of the flat,” Omar said. “While I was still on the phone to Mohammad I walked over to a fireman inside the tower and told them that my brother was still in the flat and could not get out.

“I was saying: ‘Please go upstairs, please. There are children upstairs.’ Some firefighters were saying that they were sure that they took everyone out. They ignored me and didn’t believe me.

“I was told by a firefighter that I was in shock and maybe I was in panic. I walked from one fireman to another and I spoke to many of them telling them to help my brother. I felt like they were ignoring what I was saying.

“One of the firemen did listen and wrote 113 on his hand, Omar Alhaj Ali, but none of them then went inside.”

He told Mohammad firefighters were coming and he should leave on his own if they did not, but he was “scared to leave by himself” because of the thick smoke in the hallway.

“I tried 100 times to speak to any fireman I could,” he wrote.

“I even passed one of the firemen the telephone to speak to my brother himself but he didn’t take the phone. He didn’t want to speak to him. I was upset and angry. The firemen then moved me back next to the children’s playground.

“None of them listened to me. If they had, my brother could have been saved.”

As he watched the fire travel closer to flat 113, Omar made several attempts to go into the tower, but each time firefighters blocked his path.

“They were not helping him and would not let us help him,” he wrote. “I started to shout lots of things like ‘my brother, my brother, he is dying inside.’ I felt like I had lost my mind. I was panicking. I was emotional and I was saying random things. I was overwhelmed with worry. I lost my mind.”

Omar was later taken to King’s College Hospital after vomiting and struggling to breathe.

He was told of his brother’s death when he awoke. A friend said a photo of his brother’s body lying in Grenfell Walk had been posted on Facebook.

He said: “My brother Hashem was the last person to speak to Mohammad,” he said. “Hashem told me that Mohammad had watched the others in the flat [Dennis, Zainab and her son] all stop breathing and he didn’t know what to do. This must have been when Mohammad decided to jump from the flat.”

He added: “I felt like nothing was real. I could not believe what had happened. Losing someone suddenly is easier than losing someone in the way that I lost my brother. We had been together in the fire; we were scared together and were planning on leaving together. This makes me even sadder. It all happened so slowly.

“You try to be strong but it was like torture. Having to look at the flat while my brother was inside was torture.”

Omar’s account of the night of the blaze appeared to contradict the one given by firefighter Peter Herrera, who previously told the inquiry he did not search for any more residents in flat 113 because Omar told him no one had been left behind.

Omar wrote: “I am angry that it happened. But I know nothing will change. We had never experienced this before. When the firefighters came upstairs, we could have left much earlier. Why did they leave us for so long? I think when they took me outside; they closed the front door behind me. They didn’t go inside to check the other people inside the flat.”

Omar said the firefighter’s account was “false”, adding: “Mr Herrera made a terrible mistake not checking the flat. I understand that it must make him feel very bad for what happened. But it is very wrong for him to put words into my mouth that I did not say and which put the blame on me for the death of my own brother and the other people in the flat who were my friends.

“What he has said in his statement has caused a lot of stress and upset to me and to Mohammad’s family and I’m sure the other families of those who died.”