Grenfell: Building a Disaster - Episode 1: Wake Up Call

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast

BBC

News

4.8 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the world wakes up to news of a fire in West London, questions start about who’s to blame.

At 8.30am on the morning of the 14th of June 2017 Karim Mussilhy is searching for his uncle. It’s over seven hours since the fire started, smoke is still pouring out of the top of Grenfell Tower and a toxic smell is hanging in the air. While residents stare up at the building in shock and Karim scours the streets for his uncle Hesham Rahman, civil servants and ministers also wake up to news of the fire and rush into Whitehall for an emergency meeting. At this moment is the first flicker of recognition that the state may have failed the residents of Grenfell tower – that they hadn’t done what they should have done.

Presenter: Kate Lamble Producer: Josephine Casserly Production coordinator: Janet Staples Audio engineers: James Beard and Gareth Jones Story consultant: Simon Maybin Editor: Penny Murphy

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:06.0	So I'll get up really early to go to work, but I don't usually look at my phone when I wake up.
0:09.9	So I went to have a shower and get ready for work.
0:12.8	And I heard the scream.
0:14.2	It sounded like somebody broken into my house.
0:17.0	And my wife ran into the bathroom and showed me this image of Grenfell on fire.
0:24.8	Karim Masilhi knew Grenfell Tower.
0:28.0	He lived on the same estate as a child, crossing under the shadow of the concrete tower block
0:32.7	to play football on the nearby pitches.
0:36.3	His family still lived at the foot of the tower.
0:39.4	Karim's uncle, Hisham Rakhman, lived in the building.
0:44.1	And the first thing I did was cool Uncle Hisham.
0:46.8	And his phone was ringing.
0:48.9	And by his phone ringing, I thought, okay, he's all right, you know.
0:52.2	It looks awful, but everyone must have escaped. Uncle Hssham's fine. So I'm ringing, I'm ringing okay, he's all right, you know, fine, it looks awful, but everyone
0:54.2	must have escaped, Uncle Asham's fine. So I'm ringing, I'm ringing, he's not answering,
0:58.3	I'm ringing, I'm ringing, I'm ringing, he's not answering. No one else had heard from Hisham
1:01.9	in the past few hours either. I was like, okay, I'm on my way. Karim was raised by his grandmother. But when she had to travel to Egypt for weeks or months, her nephew, Uncle Hisham, would move
1:12.6	in to look after Kareem.
1:14.6	And those memories were great because all we did was watch David Attenborough.
1:18.6	He made me love him and we used to just watch all of his nature programs together.
1:22.6	He'd pick me up from school, he'd take me to school, he'd come to my parents' evening, I remember.
	...

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