Statement on behalf of the Claimant Rawda SaidFirst Statement of Rawda Said

STATEMENT OF MRS RAWDA SAID

1, MRS RAWDA SAID, of

, date of birth 1987], WILL STATE as follows:

1. I make this statement for the Grenfell Enquiry, which deals with in my

understanding, fire safety procedures at Grenfell Tower, refurbishment of the

Tower carried out by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (hereinafter

referred to as RBKC), together with Rydons as their main contractors, the

events of the evening of 13 June and 14 June 2017, and our experiences

thereafter.

2. My partner is Mr Makrem Harzi, who was born on 1984 and we

have a young son, Y who was born on 2016].

3. I am employed by a housing association

4. Up until 14 June 2017 we lived in Flat 54 on the 8th floor of the Grenfell

Tower. I first moved into the Grenfell Tower in 2006. I moved in with my

sister, Salma, who already lived in Flat 54, in fact she owns the leasehold to

the flat. She had moved in a year before.

5. Our flat at Grenfell was a one-bedroom flat and when I first moved in, I was

sleeping on a sofa bed in the front room. I did ask the Council, RBKC, if I

could be re-housed, but they refused saying that I was not a priority case as I

was working and I did not have any dependent children, so I would not be

entitled to the provision of any council housing for myself.

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6. I do not remember when I first moved in receiving any information from

RBKC or the management organisation of Grenfell Tower regarding fire

safety. I do not remember being told what to do in the event of a fire in either

my flat or elsewhere in the building and I do not remember receiving any such

advice at any point after moving in to Grenfell Tower.

7. I remember the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower very well. I have to say that

I never really got the impression that we as residents were really taken into

account at any stage during the planning process for the refurbishment. I

remember that a council representative came to see us in our flat and explained

to us what was going to happen. This was not a consultation, however, it as

just presented to us as 'this is the agreed plan' and that was it, there was no

discussion, no debate.

8. It always seemed to me that the main focus of the refurbishment was to

improve the outside appearance of the building. The four exterior walls of the

building were completely covered in a cladding, which from the ground

looked very impressive indeed. What happened inside, however, was a lot less

impressive and we really did not like the changes that were made.

9. About the only thing we were reasonably happy with was the fire door. We

were given a new PVC fire door, which was quite thick and heavy and we

were told this would prevent the spread of fire within the building. Other than

the fire door, however, nearly all the other changes we did not like,

particularly within our flat.

10. We had been told that we would be getting a new boiler together with new

pipe work for gas, water and electricity. The proposal was that the boiler

would be placed right by our entrance hallway and that would restrict access to

the flat We were not happy about that. Fortunately, our flat was one of the

last to be renovated and by the time the builders got round to us, there had

been so many complaints by other residents regarding the location of the new

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boiler, that when we complained they actually agreed to install the new boiler

in the same place as the old boiler had been

11. I would say that the change in the position of the boiler was the only

concession that was made by the Council. We were very concerned that the

new pipe work installed in our flat was left exposed. There was no attempt

whatsoever to cover it up; it ran along the floor, up the walls and along the

ceiling, carrying gas, electricity and water. The hot water pipe was actually

hot to the touch and we were always worried that our young son might fall

over and injure himself against this hot pipe. It was eventually agreed that the

pipes in the ceiling in the bathroom would be covered and a box was placed

over the pipe work. Unfortunately, that had the effect of significantly

lowering the ceiling in our bathroom and my partner, who is quite tall, had to

stoop every time he wanted to use the shower.

12. In addition to changing the boiler and the pipe work, we also had new

windows installed and these had a PVC surround. We were never happy with

the window in our bedroom. Almost as soon as it was installed, we started to

experience quite a nasty draught coming through the window, even when it

was shut, and that made the bedroom feel very cold. We did ask for

something to be done about that, but in response simply a workman came

around with a silicon gun and he put some white silica around the window. It

did not solve the problem at all, the draught was always there around the

window and the bedroom was always very cold.

13. The problems with the pipe work were not just limited to our flat. The pipes

extended from our flat out in to the communal lobby. There were pipes

running along the ceiling in the lobby, there were pipes going down the stairs.

The whole refurbishment inside looked very unprofessional and unfinished in

my view.

14. The refurbishment added extra floors in what had been public areas. Three

extra floors were added during the refurbishment so our flat which had been

on the 5'h floor, became the 8th floor.

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15. The lifts never worked very well. There were two lifts in Grenfell Tower to

service all the floors. In the mornings they were always very busy and when

one of the lifts had broken down it was even worse. Quite often you had to

use the stairs when the lifts were not working. I cannot say that the lifts were

always repaired very quickly either. Sometimes they would be out of action

for three or four days at a time.

16. Using the stairs, unfortunately, in the Tower was not a pleasant experience.

The stairs were the only part of the building that was not touched at all during

the refurbishment. We only had one flight of stairs for the entire building and

they were in a very poor state. The paintwork was very old, it was very

stained, the stairs were very dirty, they smelled of a combination of cigarette

smoke and urine and the signage for the floors was far from clear; it seemed

that only every other floor had a sign so you could be confused about which

floor you were actually on.

17. One last change made during the refurbishment that I was not happy with was

the removal of our concierge's office. Before the refurbishment we had an

office that was always manned. During the refurbishment, the concierge

office was removed and the new reception looked very impressive, but it was

not manned. Although we had security doors and you had to use a fob key to

open the door, from time to time the doors would break, which would allow

anyone in, or you used to find that intruders, if they were quick enough, could

follow a resident in before the door had closed. When we had a concierge,

these intruders would be stopped and we did not really have a problem, but

after the refurbishment we did have a problem with intruders in the building.

18. We did have a smoke alarm in our flat and I believe that the Tower as a whole

did have some kind of alarm system. Although I no longer recall exactly when

this happened, I do think that sometime after the refurbishment there was a fire

in one of the flats and I do recall the fire alarm going off then. I do not recall,

however, that the fire alarm was regularly tested. We did have an annual

safety inspection that was carried out by the TMO. I do remember that earlier

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on in 2017 during the annual inspection, we were told by the TMO that our

cooker was no longer safe and that we would have to replace it with a new

one. I think we bought the new cooker in February 2017, only a few months

before the fire at Grenfell.

19. On the evening of 13 June 2017, I was at home with my husband, Makrem,

and our son, YM My sister, Salma, was staying with a friend in Chiswick

so we were the only people in the flat.

I recall that after putting our son, YM to bed,

Malu-em and I stayed up to between 23:30 hours and 00:00 hours, I am not

quite sure when we went to bed.

20. We were both awoken, I am not sure of the time, by some very loud knocking

on our front door. I got up to find out who it was and saw our neighbour,

Khalid, from Flat 51 standing at the door. He said there was a fire in the

building and that we ought to get out. My husband and I could both see that

there was faint smoke in our landing and we immediately decided that

something serious must be happening so we lost no time in getting out. I

remember that I was still in my nightclothes, as was my husband, and I only

put on a pair of flip flops. I think my husband put on some outdoor shoes, but

we really were not prepared to spend very much time inside at all.

21. After knocking on our door, our neighbour, Khalid, went around and knocked

on all our neighbours' doors. I remember that we were out in the landing

when he knocked on the door of our neighbours, the Patels, who are an elderly

couple. When they opened the door, smoke streamed out from within their

flat. Their flat was actually on the side of the building that had caught fire and

smoke had started to come through their flat. Seeing the thick smoke really

alarmed us and we proceeded to go straight down the stairs.

22. Although there was some smoke on the stairs at this time, it was quite thin and

you could see the stairs quite clearly. The width of the stairs was quite

reduced, however, because on the way down the stairs we passed firemen's

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hoses and also firemen going up the stairs. We did not say anything to them

and they did not say anything to us. Because the firemen were there, it did

mean that we could only use one side of the stairs and had to go down in

single file. By the time we entered the stairs, there were quite a few people on

them and so you had to wait for people in front to go down. It was a very

strange experience as people clearly had just got out of bed so many people

like us were in their nightclothes, such people were just in underwear; it was

very strange.

23. I do not know how long it took us to get down the stairs, possibly five to ten

minutes. I have been informed by the police that there is footage of us

walking across the downstairs reception area at about 01:24 hours.

24. I recall that outside there was a fireman who was telling everyone to move

away. People seemed to be naturally congregating by the better gym which

was located at one corner of the Tower. However, debris started falling from

the Tower and we were quickly asked to move away by the police.

25. 1 should say at this stage that both my husband and I thought there were more

police in attendance than firemen. We could only see three fire crew and two

fire engines. We had passed some firemen going up inside the Tower, but

outside there seemed to be only one fireman on one hose trying to fight the fire

outside and the hose he was using was only reaching up to about the 4th floor.

There did not seem to be any other firemen outside at this time trying to fight

the fire.

26. The way the fire spread was very frightening and it happened so quickly.

When we first got outside, only the area by the 4" floor on only one side of the

building seemed to be alight. However, the fire just spread so quickly up the

whole side of the building and also as well as spreading upwards, it started to

spread around the sides. It was only a few minutes before all sides of the

building were on fire.

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27. One of the main recollections that I have of the hours immediately after

leaving the building was being constantly asked to move back by the police.

As the night wore on, we were moved further and further back because of the

amount of burning debris falling from the building.

28. In the minutes after we had left the building, you could see residents in other

flats waving to people down below from their flats. After a while, however,

the people disappeared from the windows and you could no longer hear

shouts, what you started to hear were explosions from within the building.

29. I must say that at first, because we did not have our mobile phones as we had

left everything in our flat, we assumed that everyone had got out safety. We

did not know ourselves that there were people still trapped in their flats and

that many people had died. At about 04:00 hours I met with one of our

neighbours, Turufat, and she suggested that I take my son to her the house of

one of her friends who lived nearby, so that he could sleep there. I took her up

on that offer and I went with my son to her friend's house and my husband

stayed outside watching the Tower until about 06:00 hours when he came to

join us

30. We stayed at this house for a few hours until my brother arrived in the

morning of 14 June 2018 and we went with him to his house in At

this stage we really still did not know how bad the fire had been and that so

many lives had been lost. We stayed overnight in my brother's house in

on the night of 15 June and then decided the next morning that we

really needed to go back to Grenfell to find out what was happening. I

remember that when we arrived back at the Tower it was still smoking and

someone, I cannot remember now who, told us that a lot of former residents of

the Tower were gathering at the Portobello Rugby Club, so we decided to go

there.

31. I cannot praise highly enough the local community and the volunteers that

came to offer their help and assistance at the Portobello Rugby Club. We had

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no problem getting bedding, clothing, food, water, everything was available

there. Although officials from the TMO and RBKC were conspicuous by their

absence, there was an informal information exchange amongst residents who

were at the Portobello Rugby Club and it was there that we started to discover

how bad the fire had been and that there were so many people missing,

including friends of ours. We had seen one family, the Hashemi family just

the weekend before the fire, we found out that all of them had died in the fire.

It was a terrible shock to find that out.

32. Although we could not find any officials from RBKC there were employees of

other councils present and we had accommodation arranged for us by an

employee of Harrow Council, and they arranged for us to stay at the Hilton

Hotel in Edgware Road. We stayed there on the second night following the

fire and we were there until September of 2017. During that time we would

frequently return during the day to Grenfell and would carry on using both the

Portobello Rugby Club and also the Westway Centre, where the staff were

equally helpful in providing water, food, blankets and such information as they

had available to them. I cannot say that I had any contact with anyone from

RBKC or the TMO until over a week had passed, but I remember that the first

thing that the TMO were doing was to cancel and utility bills.

33. I have to say that we were not entirely happy at the hotel where we were

staying; we only had one room and there were three adults there: myself, my

husband, my sister, Salma, her two children and YM It was very

overcrowded. We had to solve that by having the children stay with relatives.

We were the only family that were in the Hilton Hotel in Edgware Road and

we did feel a bit isolated from what was going on, as most of the other

residents had ended up in two hotels a lot closer to Kensington than we were.

34. During our time at the Hilton Hotel no one from the Council or from the TMO

came to visit us to check to see that we were okay or that the accommodation

was suitable. I do remember that we did request a microwave because we did

want to cook some food in our room, rather than just eating the food at the

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hotel. Although we made the request to RBKC to supply the microwave, they

did not provide one, in fact we ended up getting one from the hotel.

35. We did not like staying at the Hilton Hotel we did ask the Council if we could

be moved .In response to our requests I recall that we received a telephone

call from an official of RBKC at about 20:00 hours one evening we were told

that we could move to another hotel near Waterloo. We were not happy with

this option as it was moving either further away. In the end we did not go to

the Hotel near Waterloo eventually we were moved to the property that we are

now living in,

We opted to move to this property because we were not receiving

any offers of accommodation in Kensington & Chelsea, we were told there

were not enough properties within the borough , but if we agreed to move

outside the borough properties would be available.

36. I recall that the Council were less than helpful in arranging the move for us.

Instead of organising a removal van, they hired a taxi and we had to get all of

our belongings into the taxi. The taxi driver himself was not prepared to help,

understandably he is only a driver, not a removal man, and so we had move

everything ourselves. It would have been better if we had been provided with

a removal man to take us to the new property.

37. Obviously the move to means that we are even further away

from Grenfell Tower and the Kensington area and most of our friends and

neighbours from the Tower. We have felt quite isolated out here at times and

that has presented some difficulties. For example, although we have been

made aware that counselling can be provided, we have to travel back to

Kensington to have the counselling, they have not been prepared to send

anyone out to see us. I have had one session of counselling so far and my

husband has yet to take the offer up.

38. Another issue arose with laundry whilst we were at the Hilton Hotel. We were

told that we would be getting a laundry voucher so that we could launder

clothes free of charge. However, unfortunately, the laundry that we were

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directed to use was in Ladbroke Grove, which is a considerable distance away

from Edgware Road. I remember we were provided with just one voucher at a

time, so on one occasion when I did a voucher I did go all the way to

Ladbroke Grove to get the washing done at this laundry, however, it was such

a trek to get there and back that I only did this once and after that we arranged

to have our clothing laundered at a laundry near the Hilton Hotel at our own

expense.

39. The fire has had a huge impact on us as a family; not only did we lose all of

our belongings, we lost some very close friends, who I have already detailed

previously in this statement, one of the families that we were friendly with, the

Hashemis, all died in the fire; other friends and neighbours also perished; we

have been forced to relocate to a different area, away from our friends and

other family members, which has been very hard to accept and both myself

and my husband have struggled with depression and low mood since the

accident. I have been tearful whenever I think about what happened.

Although I have absolutely nothing but praise for the local community and the

way that people from all over London came to our assistance in the hours and

days that followed the fire.

40. I feel badly let down by the officials of RBKC They really were conspicuous

by their absence in the first few days after the fire and we were given no help

or information by them whatsoever. I feel as a consequence of this fire that I

have a lack of trust in British authorities in general and I cannot help but think

that the Enquiry itself is just an exercise in window dressing and covering up

and I have my doubts that it will ever really uncover the truth behind the

causes of the fire at Grenfell Tower and the individuals and officials whose

decisions may have led to the fire spreading so quickly.

41. I should also say how unhappy we have been with empty promises made by

politicians , whilst we were staying in the Hilton Hotel in Edgware Road we

were told we would be re housed in Kensington, that never happened.

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42. Neither my husband nor I have given statements to the police. Although we

gave our names to the police on the night of the fire, we were not contacted by

the police until February this year and we have yet to be able to arrange a date

for a meeting where a statement can be taken.

43. I have not as yet spoken to the press or television about our experiences of the

Grenfell fire. I am very wary of the press and media in this country. Reading

through some of the newspaper reports they seem to be full of stories about

drugs being found at Grenfell, flats been illegally sub-let and illegal

immigrants living there, it is really in the press in a very unfavourable light. I

do not think that the press are interested in presenting residents as they really

were, very close families from a variety of different backgrounds. I really do

not think the press is interested in presenting that at all, I think they are only

interested in presenting negative stories in an effort to undermine the

credibility of the former residents of Grenfell.

44. I have to say that I have been very shocked by some of the comments I have

seen on social media to the extent that I try now to avoid it. There have been

some very abusive and racist comments on sites such as Facebook. Also on

some of the media sites, you find that people have made comments about news

articles, I have particularly noticed this on Sky News. There have been some

very abusive comments posted by individuals in response to stories published

on the website by Sky News. For example there have been posts saying that

we all go back to where we came from, comments like that that are very, very

hurtful. Although there have been some wonderfully positive comments, I

have to say that my impression is that there are far more negative comments

about us on social medial than there are positive comments and that is very

upsetting.

45. We found out only a few days ago that we are now going to be re-housed

permanently within the borough of Kensington & Chelsea. We signed papers

for the new tenancy only a few days ago and we are now awaiting a date to

move to our new property.

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Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I confirm that I am

willing that the statement forms part of the evidence before the Inquiry, and may be

published on the Inquiry's website, save for redactions indicated in the text, and those

applied by the Inquiry.

Signed:

Rawda Said

Dated: 21.05.18

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