Grenfell Tower fire: Italian couple called parents from 23rd storey flat as they watched flames rise towards them
‘Thank you for all you did for me,’ Gloria Trevisan told her parents
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.An Italian couple feared dead in the Grenfell Tower fire phoned their families to say goodbye as they watched the flames rise towards them, it has emerged.
Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi were in their 23rd-floor flat when they became aware of the blaze, which killed at least 30 and injured many more.
With little chance of escape the 27-year-old architects phoned their parents, who said they told them they could see the flames raging up the stairs.
“I am so sorry I can never hug you again,” Ms Trevisan said, her father Loris told La Repubblica newspaper. “I had my whole life ahead of me. It’s not fair. I don’t want to die. I wanted to help you, to thank you for all you did for me.
“I am about to go to heaven, I will help you from there.”
After the phone line cut out at around 3am, he added that they made hundreds of calls to their daughter, but they were unable to get through.
Their daughter had phoned them at their home in Padua earlier on to say that they had heard there was a fire on the fourth floor.
But she reassured her parents that it appeared that firefighters would be able to extinguish it.
As they watched the blaze on television, Mr Trevisan said his daughter told him “they wanted to go down but said they could see flames going up the stairs and the smoke was more and more intense”.
Mr Gottardi also called his family twice at 2.45am and again just over 15 minutes later, at which point he said the apartment was “flooded with smoke” and the situation had reached emergency, his father, Giannino Gottardi, told Il Mattino di Padova.
“In the first call, Marco told us not to worry, that everything was under control, that basically we must not worry. He was trying to minimise what happened, probably not to unsettle us,” he said.
“But in the second call – and I can’t get this out of my head – he said there was smoke, that so much smoke was rising. We were on the phone until the last moment … At 4.07am [Italian time] he told us their apartment was flooded with smoke and that the situation had become an emergency.
“The communications broke down and from that moment on we no longer had any contact. The phone didn’t pick up again.”
Police confirmed on Friday afternoon that the death toll had risen to 30, and was likely to increase further. Twenty-four people remain in hospital, of whom 12 are in a critical condition, while scores of others remain unaccounted for.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments