Bereaved father says Grenfell documentary must mark turning point in justice fight

Bereaved father says Grenfell documentary must mark turning point in justice fight
Marcio Gomes, whose son Logan was stillborn after the 2017 disaster, said he hoped audiences might be prompted to "start shouting" about a disaster which "should matter to every single person".
(Image: NETFLIX )
A new documentary into the Grenfell fire setting out the failings which led to the fatal blaze must mark a "turning point" in the fight for justice, a grieving father featured in it has said.
Marcio Gomes, whose son Logan was stillborn after the 2017 disaster, said he hoped audiences might be prompted to "start shouting" about a disaster which "should matter to every single person".
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Grenfell: Uncovered, on Netflix from June 20, follows the final report of the inquiry into the fire which concluded each of the 72 deaths was avoidable and had been preceded by "decades of failure" by government and the building industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.
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Bereaved and survivors were "badly failed" through incompetence, dishonesty and greed and the west London tower block was covered in combustible products because of the "systematic dishonesty" of firms who made and sold the cladding and insulation, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said last year.
Sir Martin called out "deliberate and sustained" manipulation of fire safety testing, misrepresentation of test data and misleading of the market.
Mr Gomes, who said he lives with the devastating consequences of the fire every day, said the documentary sets out the failures of various organisations in the years leading up to the fire.
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In an interview with the PA news agency ahead of the documentary's release, he said: "Ultimately, I'm hoping that people understand that this was no accident. This was very much avoidable, and these companies had a huge role to play in what happened.
"And I think people, especially in Britain – but this is a global thing, it's not just in the UK – need to start shouting about these companies, need to hold them to account.
"Because these companies have a duty of care but they've ignored it completely.
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"And I'm hoping that this documentary is a turning point that will then bring prosecutions and justice to the families."
A number of companies are referred to in the documentary.
The inquiry report saw cladding firm Arconic and insulation firms Kingspan and Celotex come in for particularly heavy criticism.
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Arconic was found to have "deliberately concealed from the market the true extent of the danger" of using its cladding product, particularly on high-rise buildings.
Kingspan had, from 2005 and even after the inquiry began, "knowingly created a false market in insulation" for use on buildings over 18 metres, the report said.
Celotex then, in an attempt to break into this market created by Kingspan, "embarked on a dishonest scheme to mislead its customers and the wider market", Sir Martin concluded.
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The Cabinet Office confirmed in February that seven companies were facing possible bans – Arconic, Kingspan, former Celotex owners Saint-Gobain, fire inspectors Exova, design and build contractor Rydon, architect Studio E and subcontractor Harley Facades.
Investigations were launched by the Government in March, assessing whether any engaged in professional misconduct for the purposes of the Procurement Act 2023, potentially leading them to be debarred from public contracts.
Mr Gomes said he hoped the 100-minute documentary would see people back the bereaved and survivors' fight for justice, as it sets out how firms were "prioritising profits ahead of people's lives".
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He said: "Eight years on, we've had no prosecutions. And justice can't continue to wait, in my opinion, and if you live in Britain, as we do, this should matter to every single person.
"Knowing that these companies that greatly contributed to something that was avoidable, as the inquiry said, are still making record profits and still working globally is appalling, in my view.
"So seeing this and then comparing to how my life is, and comparing to how many people's lives have been destroyed, in many ways, is horrific."
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Mr Gomes said he hoped viewers might be moved to take some kind of action, from writing to their MPs to spreading the word on social media.
He said: "I think if they can do whatever's in their power, and if that's writing a letter to the MPs about getting justice or removing the cladding (on other buildings), then that's what I'd love to see.
"It's whatever people can do – avoid their products, get the message out there. These companies need to feel some pain and that's not even close to what we've gone through."
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Bereaved and survivors gathered at the weekend to mark the eighth anniversary of the fire, which took place on June 14 2017.
Demolition work on the tower could begin in September, with the decision to remove the building met with criticism from some of the bereaved and survivors, who felt their views had not been considered.
Responding to the inquiry report last year, Arconic said it was its subsidiary, Arconic Architectural Products SAS (AAP), which had supplied the material used for cladding in the tower's refurbishment, and that it rejects "any claim that AAP sold an unsafe product" and that it "did not conceal information from or mislead any certification body, customer, or the public".
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Kingspan said it had "long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historical failings that occurred in part of our UK insulation business" but said these were "in no way reflective of how we conduct ourselves as a group, then or now", while Celotex said it had "reviewed and improved process controls, quality management and the approach to marketing within the Celotex business to meet industry best practice".

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'I just remember stepping over so many bodies': Harrowing moment daughter and her desperate family battle to escape Grenfell blaze is relived in new Netflix documentary

A family who lived in Grenfell Tower have detailed the harrowing moment they battled to escape the deadly inferno in Netflix 's new documentary on the tragedy that shook London. Marcio Gomes, his wife Andreia and their two daughters, Luana and Megan had lived in flat 183 on the 21st floor of Grenfell in North Kensington for 10 years. Andreia was seven months pregnant with their son Logan when the fire broke out on June 14, 2017. The entire family managed to escape the burning 24-floor building, but later in hospital doctors were forced to let Andreia's unborn baby die in order to save her life. In the streaming giants documentary Grenfell: Uncovered, released today, Marcio, now 46, and his eldest daughter Luana detailed the family's desperate escape and the moment they were told Logan would never be born. Perhaps one of the most disturbing recollections of their struggle to get to safety came from Luana, who was just 12 at the time. Speaking about the frantic moments in the smoke-filled stairwell with tears streaming down her face, the clearly traumatised 20-year-old said: 'I just remember stepping on so many bodies.' As charting songs of the time played, glassy-eyed Luana was transported back to the days leading up to the fatal event which changed their lives forever. She remembered her excitement about going into year eight as summer time began. 'I would definitely say I was very bubbly, I was very happy. I always wanted to do good in my grades. I was a good, happy 12-year-old,' she said with a vacant look in her eyes. Luana and her father recalled going out for a family dinner that night before the chaos unfolded. After getting home at around 11.30pm - just 80 minutes before the fire broke out - Marcio played and few games on his X-Box and then headed off to bed as he had work the next day. But he and his family were woken up at 1.15am by a neighbour banging on the door to alert him of the flames which were ripping through the tower block - ultimately saving them from being burnt to death in their sleep. Luana, who sobbed throughout the entire documentary, said: 'Everything was in a rush. We covered ourselves with the blanket that my dad had put in the bathtub, and I grabbed my dog and we just dashed it for the stairwell.' Haunting recordings of Marcio on the phone to a 999 call handler are played, with the desperate father heard shouting: 'Right, lets go girls. Go, go, go. Go through, go down. Let's go now! Keep going.' Speaking to the camera, he described the 'horrific' conditions in the stairwell, which left him 'coughing and gagging a lot'. The family were woken up at 1.15am by a neighbour banging on the door to alert him of the flames which were ripping through the tower block 'I didn't have any idea where they [his family] were. My expectation was they're in front of me,' he said, as recordings of the call handlers telling him firefighters were on the way up to rescue them echoed in the background. However, Luana recalled hearing her father's voice behind her, encouraging her to 'keep going' as she felt the bodies of her neighbours beneath her feet. 'And then it got to a point where I couldn't hear my dad anymore behind me. He sounded like he was, like, far in front of me, like, down the stairwell,' she said. Marcio remembered the terrifying moment he heard Luana scream 'Dad!' and it dawned on him that his girls were in fact behind him further up the stairs. Weeping Luana said: 'I just remember saying "I can't do it anymore", like, I can't carry on. And I remember placing my dog down on the stairwell because I couldn't cope.' That was her last memory inside the burning building before 'everything went pitch black' and she collapsed. More heart-wrenching 999 recordings play of Marcio pleading to go and look for his family, to which the call handler replied: 'You need to go back upstairs and get your girls.' The panicked father can then be heard desperately shouting in between smog-induced coughs and tears: 'Hold the rails, keep coming Luana! Megan, Luana, come on. Come on come on...' It was then he realised his eldest child had passed out from the heavy fumes and smoke inhalation. When he looked between the rails of the stairwell, he could see a 'very faint light'. 'I kind of thought "God, that must be a firefighter". I quickly ran down, and I shouted, I said "My daughter's upstairs",' he said as 999 recordings run of him telling the handler: 'I need to go up and get her. I've got to get her out.' When he tried to go back up the stairs to save them, another firefighter grabbed him from behind and ordered him to keep going down so he could get out. His voice broke as he continued: 'I saw Luana being carried out, but I didn't know where my wife was, I didn't know where Megan was.' Safely outside the blazing building, Marcio found Helen Gebremeskel and her daughter Lulya, who lived on the same floor, and they handed him over to the police. Officers told the worried father they couldn't promise anything, but informed him they were aware his pregnant wife and youngest daughter were still in the building. But firefighters had actually already brought them both to safety, which Marcio somehow all of a sudden knew in his gut. The Grenfell Tower residential building is seen on fire and engulfed in plumed of black smoke on June 14, 2017 He explained how he sighed with relief before he even saw her, before turning around to see Andreia and 10-year-old Megan sitting by a tree. The heavily pregnant and distraught wife asked her husband where their other daughter was. 'Of course, I knew where Luana was,' he said, 'She was to our side. They were resuscitating her.' Thankfully, paramedics put the family in one ambulance all together to get Luana to hospital. 'Next thing I know, I woke up and I was in the ambulance and I was the only one on the bed,' said Luana of her first memory on the outside. Selflessly, all the 12-year-old could think about when she first woke up was her mother and unborn brother. 'I just kept thinking, "Why am I on this bed?", like, "I'm not the priority here. If anyone's the priority, it's my mum", because obviously she was pregnant at the time. And then I just fell back asleep again.' Yet, it wasn't until the family reached King's College Hospital that they realised their heartbreaking plight was far from over. Struggling to get his words out, Marcio recalled the minute doctors came and said they needed to speak to him. 'They said they were going to need to make a call between Andreia and the baby. 'They said "In these circumstances we take the mother's side", and I said "Yeah, I understand that's what you need to do".' He paused, bit his bottom lip and cast his eyes down: 'That's when they said Logan had passed away.' The grieving teary-eyed father added: '72 people died, 18 of them were children, including my son, who was the youngest victim. They were all robbed of whatever they could have become.'

Time Out

6 hours ago

• Time Out

‘Grenfell: Uncovered' interview: ‘This community lost so much and got so little back'

The biggest residential fire since ​​the Blitz broke out in Grenfell tower on June 14, 2017. Few Londoners can have shaken off the memory of the North Kensington high-rise blazing through the night as firefighters worked desperately – and fruitlessly – to subdue it. 'I was on holiday in Thailand at the time,' remembers Grenfell: Uncovered director Olaide Sadiq. 'The news [chyron] had 'fire in London' on it, but I didn't think it was real. I didn't understand how it was even possible that this had happened.' When she got back to the UK, the filmmaker discovered that she knew one of the victims of the fire – 'Her face was popping up in group chats as missing' – which added a personal dimension to the disaster. Eight years on, her documentary about the fire is both poignant and enraging. None of the responsible parties is let off the hook – cladding manufacturers like Arconic, bureaucrats like Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and politicians alike – but the deeper story is one of resilience and misplaced trust. 'This was the biggest residential fire in Britain since the Blitz,' says Sadiq. 'You expect this kind of devastation at war, but you don't expect it in the middle of the night when people are sleeping.' You speak to a lot of traumatised people in the film. How did you approach those interviews? With respect and care. A lot of the Grenfell community have been poked and prodded for a long time, and there's a lot of trauma in everyone that's been affected by the story. We had to make it as safe a space as possible. The interviews were still the hardest I've ever done. You interrogate the companies behind the cladding products. How challenging was that aspect of the film? Yeah, the corporate side of things was complicated and eye-opening. A lot of people didn't want to speak to us, and understandably so, but everyone was given an opportunity to respond. But I'm very aware there's an ongoing criminal investigation, so I wasn't expecting anyone to welcome us with open arms. Are you concerned that a fire like this could happen again? Yeah, I think I am. We've had cladding fires since Grenfell: there was a fatal cladding fire in Valencia last year, and another one in Dagenham, where luckily there were no fatalities. I have to think that it's possible that it will happen again. Hopefully, the response will be different. The Prime Minister at the time, Theresa May, famously failed to meet Grenfell survivors. How did you get her to talk in the film? The decision to talk to us was quick; the decision to be on camera was slower. Regardless of people's political affiliations and opinions, I think it was quite brave [of her]. She wanted to own what she did and didn't do. She was happy to own that on camera, and we gave her the opportunity to do that. I respected that. What does this story say about the country that we live in? Great question. That we place a lot of trust in those that are meant to look after us. It showed me that this country is sometimes hesitant to change, but hopefully this film will spark real conversations about change. It's what the people affected by Grenfell want. Accountability, as well. You must have had two audiences in mind: the Grenfell survivors groups and those who were less familiar with the story? The story is not finished for [the Grenfell groups]. They are still waiting for what the Met Police decides to do. They're hoping [the film] brings more awareness to their story. We want it to ignite real conversation about what happened and what people want to happen next. There's still a lot of buildings with flammable cladding on them. What did you learn about Londoners making this film? I felt a sense of closeness within the community, but a sadness to it. I've always felt relatively safe living in London. What working on this showed me is that there's times it isn't safe – but in a way that you're not expecting. If you go down a dark alley in the middle of the night, you might expect something bad to happen to you, but they went to bed and woke up in the middle of night with their building on fire. That's the biggest violation of safety most people could experience. What binds the survivors together? Resilience. We spoke to very young people, we spoke to grandparents, and across the board there was a sense of resilience that I was astounded by. I was breaking down just reading the witness statements – it was harrowing. I couldn't imagine how people could get up and go after that. There was such resilience and strength in the community that lost so much and got so little back. The community lost so much and got so little back How do you cope with watching this harrowing footage, day after day? It was very difficult. It was really hard to watch some of the footage – some of it was too harrowing to use. I went for walks and listened to cheesy music, but there were people there to support us as well. I had to make sure I wasn't always sitting with the images.

Time Out

7 hours ago

• Time Out

Grenfell: Uncovered

There's a protocol you can count on to follow a public disaster in this country. It tends to begin with a years' long and expensive inquiry, and end with little change and none of the responsible parties being held to account. Some, if they're lucky, may even find themselves elevated to the House of Lords. That establishment playbook is in operation again in this poignant, winding and righteously angry documentary about the Grenfell tower fire – just as it was in ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office or Disney+'s 7/7 drama Suspect. Directed with forensic skill and lots of compassion by first-timer Olaide Sadiq, Grenfell: Uncovered holds the survivors of the fire in one hand, honouring their anger and grief in moving interviews, while using the other to slap down the many companies and governmental bodies whose decisions led to the loss of 72 lives on the night of June 14, 2017. The title, of course, has a poignant double meaning. The aluminium cladding applied to the residential tower block for aesthetic reasons – supposedly to satisfy Grenfell's well-heeled neighbours in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea – turned a small kitchen fire into a building-wide inferno, transforming the Fire Brigade's 'stay put' policy into a death sentence for residents. This is a poignant, winding and righteously angry documentary Sadiq pieces the night of the fire back together using audio from the emergency services, news footage, and the shakycam videos of locals. The shock and dawning horror of disembodied voices as the blaze takes hold stays with you. The list of guilty parties is long – from David Cameron's deregulation craze, to the deeply cynical cladding manufacturers, to the cost and corner-cutting of local government, and beyond – and even on that roll of dishonour ex-housing minister Eric Pickles (now Lord Pickles) is especially odious: telling the Grenfell inquiry not to 'waste his time' and confusing the death toll with Hillsborough. Campaigning housing journalist Peter Apps, heartbroken firefighter David Badillo, and a host of Grenfell residents, including teenage survivor Luana Gomes, bring humanity and heart to the story. There's so much in Grenfell: Uncovered about the state of modern Britain that Sadiq does brilliantly not to get sidetracked. About how working-class communities are talked down to and ignored. About how capitalism pursues profit even at the expense of endangering lives. About how the urgent need for change is stymied and sapped by the very review process designed to expedite it.