A Grenfell Tower survivor has told how he “cannot move on” until criminal convictions are brought against those responsible for the disaster.
Willie Thompson remains traumatised by what he saw and stoic in his determination to see justice ahead of tomorrow’s fifth anniversary of the disaster, which killed 72 people in 2017.
Aside from a handful of sick days, the 65-year-old has sat painstakingly through every single session of the inquiry, the investigation into how the fire happened and why.
He ensures he is at every hearing so those being quizzed can see there is a survivor always watching them.
Willie lived in the same Grenfell Tower flat for 20 years and one day.
He escaped from flat 52 on the eighth floor with partner Mary, 60, daughter Cathy, now 25, and their late dog Casper. Their other daughter, Laura, now 27, was away at university at the time of the fire.
Willie, a former groundworker, is scarred by the horrors he saw as the flames engulfed the building and residents were told to “stay put” in their homes.
The “stay put” fire policy would later be recommended to be scrapped after the first phase of the inquiry into the disaster.
But to the outrage of bereaved and survivors, the government is planning to keep the policy.
Willie lost friends, companions and neighbours, and wants to see prison sentences for those responsible.
The Irishman has regular flashbacks and nightmares.
He sees and hears people screaming for help from their windows as they flashed lights in a bid to alert emergency services they were alive, and needed rescuing.
Willie still smells the thick, black smoke that engulfed the building, and ties his mind in knots over whether he could have done more to save those stuck in the tower as it burned.
He can no longer bear the sound of fire engines and emergency service vehicles.
Willie told how as he walked to the inquiry recently, two fire engines on the way to an emergency sped by.
“Any type of siren, and I just stop. Two fire engines went past as I was walking here, and I stood out there holding the railing for 10 minutes.
“I was stuck, I couldn’t move. I grabbed onto the railing outside and couldn’t let go.
“There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t see the friends that I lost in the fire,” he added, wiping tears away.
Willie was laid in bed with a book and listening to TalkSport when there was a knock at his door on the night of the fire - a neighbour alerting him to something taking place as the blaze began on the fourth floor.
“For a long, long time before the fire we were fighting with the council about the conditions,” he said.
He was one of seven lead members of The Compact, a group formed to represent Grenfell residents.
There was a second knock at the door and Willie told his neighbour the advice was to “stay put” in the event of a fire, and that any fire should be contained within the flat it began.
“Fifteen minutes later there was another knock and he was about to say something and to the left of him I saw the lifts,” Willie recalled.
“I could see white smoke and above that there was thick, black smoke. What frightened me was the smell - an acrid, horrible, sickly smell.
“I immediately thought ‘we need to get out of here’.
“As we went down the sixth and fifth it was getting cloudy, and on the fifth it was getting darker. There was smoke everywhere.
“We got to the lobby and it was full of firefighters and I could see the flames out of my periphery - a thin, long flame.”
They made their way to a nearby sports centre where people were gathering, and then turned to see what they had escaped.
“That was the first time we got view of the fire,” Willie said, his eyes filling with tears.
“It was climbing quickly and I thought ‘what on earth is burning? and why are they not getting people out of those flats?
“We were screaming at fire officers to get them out. As the fire got higher and they could not reach it with their hoses, it was clearly the point to get people out.
He recalled, through tears: “My sight turned to the windows, and inside the windows were people. People who had been told to stay where they were, friends who never came out.
“A friend of mine was told by firefighters to go up the floors as the lobby was filled with smoke. She refused and came out, and lived.
“Another friend did what she was told and went up the floors. She died in the building.
“I’ve said this to two Prime Ministers and I’ll say it again. When you go home at night and watch it on YouTube, do not look at the flames.
“Look at the windows. The people. The lights flashing. The desperation.
“They could have got most the people out. They didn’t. You’re looking at people you’ve known for years. On the 14th floor, four people in one flat died because of their incompetence.
Willie, who was diagnosed with PTSD, still has a “way to go” when it comes to dealing with the tragedy psychologically.
“I don’t think we will ever deal with it and it will never go away. How can it?
“The killing point at the moment is the flashbacks, the smells, the nightmares. I’ll be walking down the road and see a fire engine and I smell the smoke from Grenfell.
“I’ve been told the nightmares and flashbacks will go in time, but they won’t, I know.
“The noise of the fire. It was roaring. The cracks, the pops, and cladding panels being blown off the building. They will never go.
“I question whether I could have done more. Could 20 of us have got together and charged the building and saved some lives?
“Doctors have told us to put those thoughts out of our heads.
“I know in my heart we couldn’t have done anything. But in my head, it’s so difficult.
“I think that as a Compact, maybe we could have done more beforehand to fight the amount of things wrong with the building. Maybe it could have made a difference.
“If we were being treated fairly and properly by a landlord it’s different, but we knew what we were dealing with at the council. Scumbags.
“We knew that and so I think ‘why didn’t we push them more on concerns we had about the building’?’
The inquiry was previously told how residents were refused information on the refurbishment, which finished in 2016, by landlord the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO).
“We didn’t know what ACM cladding was. They didn’t let us have a sample of it when we asked. That should have rang bells.”
He said his message to Boris Johnson is: “We want justice.”
“But justice needs to be seen to be done properly,” he added.
“We know Boris Johnson is a pathalogical lier. Everything he speaks about is lies. You cannot believe anything he tells you.”
Willie’s enduring pain fuels his determination to always be at the inquiry, which began on May 21 2018.
“I know most of the RBKC (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council) people anyway, and I’ll be staring at them,” he said.
“Just so they - and others who are being questioned - know that we’re still here and we have not gone away.
“I’ll be listening to the questioning but I will not take my eyes off the person being questioned. They have seen a few times and they quickly look away.
“I feel good about that, in honesty.”
The refurbishment of Grenfell was completed a year before the fire and was covered in combustible aluminium composite cladding and flammable insulation, material chosen to cut costs by £293,000.
An email from July 2014 from the council’s management organisation, which was leaked in the aftermath of the blaze, read: “We need good costs for Cllr Feilding-Mellen and the planner tomorrow at 8.45am!”
The email was referencing Rock Feilding-Mellen, deputy leader of the council and its housing committee chair.
The inquiry is set to finish in July, at which point police will take over and the Met probe will begin once the inquiry’s final recommendations have been published.
Scotland Yard has interviewed as many as 40 people under caution, some multiple times.
The questioning of at at least some have related to gross negligence manslaughter, corporate manslaughter and health and safety offences.
“I really do think there should be prison sentences at the back end of this,” Willie said.
“We have not given up on getting these people jail and we will fight for it.
“I doubt there will be because it’s corporate manslaughter charges the police are looking at.
“But it depends what police have, they might have more than we know that could charge the hierarchy of the council with.
“It could be a losing battle but I want it to be made public that they are guilty, in our view, of 72 deaths and so they can live with that for the rest of the lives.
“They know and we know they’re guilty. But I want the world to know. I want them to be told by a judge or whoever it may be: ‘Guilty of corporate manslaughter, guilty of corporate manslaughter, guilty of corporate manslaughter’.
“I honestly believe I cannot move on until I hear this. I know I can’t. And I’m not the only one.”
A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: “As we approach the fifth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, our thoughts as always are with the family and friends of all those who lost their lives that night, the survivors and the whole community.
“Since the Grenfell Tower fire, we have made significant changes to our policies, procedures and equipment, especially for how we tackle fires in high-rise buildings.
"We accepted every recommendation made by the Inquiry and we’ve already implemented 26 of the 29 recommendations directed specifically at us and other fire and rescue services.
“We all owe it to the bereaved families, the survivors and the residents - whose lives have been torn apart by what happened that night – to continue to learn, change and improve.”
A government spokesperson said: “So far 45 of the UK’s biggest housebuilders have signed our developer pledge and will contribute £5 billion to fix their unsafe buildings. We expect them to work swiftly so people feel safe in their homes, and we will be carefully scrutinising their progress.
“The Building Safety Act brings forward the biggest improvements in building safety for a generation, giving more rights and protections for residents than ever before.”
