(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) A 24-storey building entirely torched in flames, residents hanging out of windows in effort to escape the fire, blurry vision, heavy smoke and unimaginable fear - this was the scene of the horrific night a Grenfell Tower resident said he can never forget.
Shahin Sadafi lived in West London's Grenfell Tower since 1997, until it tragically burned down on June 14, 2017, killing 71 residents of the building. Sadafi was in Dubai earlier this week to attend BOLD Talks, where he spoke about the incident and how he is helping the other survivors and victims rebuild their lives.
The UK media reported this week that the fire was caused by a fault in a Hotpoint fridge freezer on the fourth floor of the building. The flames quickly spread on the exterior cladding of the tower.
Sadafi, who lived on the fifth floor, remembers the night vividly and recalled how relieved he was that his mother survived the fire.
"I was away on a training course for my job and I received a phone call in the evening from my close friend that the building was on fire and to get out of the building quickly. It was a sound that I'll never forget. I pleaded to him to get my mother out of the building," Sadafi recalled.
"My wife was staying at her parents' house for the night and my brother was away at work at another part of the country. So, my mother was alone. It was a very unusual thing to happen where my mum would be left home alone. She has some mobility issues and suffers from arthritis, something that doesn't allow her to move properly and she gets a lot of pain. We normally don't leave her alone. But on that night it happened.
"By the time I got to the building, it was already 2.30am and the whole building was pretty much on fire. I only saw blurry faces as I was rushing to find my mum. It was the most frightening incident that I had ever gone through, not knowing she was safe. By the time I knew she was safe, an overwhelming emotion of relief took over me. However, that was very short-lived because while I looked up, holding my mum in my arms, not realising that the horror site I was witnessing had people trapped in it and it took so many lives. I heard screams and I saw people hanging out from windows and then I realised the horror we were in. Words cannot describe what we had to witness that night."
This was not the first time Sadafi and his family lost their home. He was born during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, a war that cost his family their home and caused them to relocate.
Sadafi's family relocated to London in 1994 and moved into Grenfell Tower in 1997. He said the residents in the tower had seen him grow up and that he had many friends in the tower and the neighbourhood.
"We grew up in that neighbourhood, we rebuilt our lives. I absolutely loved my community. I played sports in my local facilities, I made a lot of friends. It was the most devastating thing to happen in the UK since World War 2. It was tragic and horrific to have 71 of my neighbours and friends pass away," he said.
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