How did the community respond?

Grenfell survivors helped others escape by directly alerting neighbours to the fire—banging on doors and guiding people out of the building—even though official advice was to “stay put”.

Miguel Alves, who lived on the 13th floor, told his children to leave the building. He knocked on the doors of the five other flats on his floor, despite fearing they might be annoyed to be woken up. “It was my duty to help my neighbours, because they are my family; the people that live on my floor is like my family,” he said.

Shahid Ahmed, who lived on the 18th floor, also ignored advice to return to his flat—even when it came directly from firefighters. Ahmed, founder and chair of the Grenfell Tower Leaseholders Association (GTLA), who had previously raised concerns about the building’s safety, decided to leave after his kitchen window exploded. He told the inquiry he passed firefighters as he fled down the single stairwell. “I remember saying to one of them: ‘There’s a fire upstairs,’ and they told me to go back up,” he said in a written statement. “They had masks on. I couldn’t see their faces.”

From a report by the Guardian (Link to full story)

This is an extract from a Blog by Emma O’Connor, who escaped from the 20th floor where she shares how the tragedy changed her  (Link to the full story)

‘It was 1am when I first heard the sirens and I assumed there must be a problem at the factories nearby. But as we looked out of our flat window, we saw flames reflected in the windows of the school next door. Because of large plastic sheeting covering our window, I couldn’t really see what was happening. We’d stayed in with a takeaway that evening and I’d wanted an early night, but Luke wasn’t tired so we ended up watching TV. If we’d been asleep when the fire broke out, things could have been very different. I’ve always been a massive fan of the TV show London’s Burning, so for a fleeting moment I thought maybe they were secretly filming an episode of the show and hadn’t informed residents. But then a couple of minutes later, I saw another two fire engines arriving. One took a wrong turn, then rapidly reversed up our road. I knew then this was real life. Then suddenly, Luke saw a window explode from a flat on the fourth floor and I knew we had to get out fast.

I kept thinking of my neighbours and my friend Steve on the 16th floor. We’d bonded because he’s a dog-lover like me. I was desperately hoping they’d all made it out, but I didn’t have their numbers to call them. As I saw people running from the building, I suddenly thought, “Where are all the dogs?” I hated the thought that people might have left their pets inside to die. Two years ago, we’d had a much-loved staffie, called Lady. I knew I would have taken her with me, no matter what. I texted my mum and told her, “The building is on fire” and she sent a frantic reply, “Get out!” thinking I was still inside. She thought I’d accidentally started a fire in my own flat. Luke then called his mum and sister to reassure them we were safe.