Camberwell flat fire victims named
- 00:01:29
- ITN
Camberwell flat fire victims named
Prayers have been said for the victims of a tower block blaze in south London, as an account emerged from a man who hid in a bathroom with five of the six people who died. Rasheed Nuhu spoke of his feelings of guilt at not being able to save his neighbours' lives and criticised the response of the emergency services. A mother and her three-week-old daughter were among those who perished in the blaze at Lakanal House in Camberwell on Friday night. Mr Nuhu gave refuge to Helen Udoaka, 34, and her baby daughter Michelle before they all hid in the bathroom of his neighbour Dayana Francisquini with her son Filipe, three, and daughter Thais, six. Mr Nuhu, his wife, and two children, who lived on the 11th floor, were then filmed by onlookers as they escaped onto the balcony from which they were later rescued by firefighters. All five others died, along with 31-year-old Catherine Hickman, who also lived on the 11th floor. Mr Nuhu said: "It's almost indescribable to me the trauma that came out of all this knowing the people we were in there together with died. "We could have stayed in there. I did not go outside to try and get away myself. I went out to do something (in) readiness when the need arise. Because of the fireball I saw I had to do something." Mr Nuhu also said he felt let down by the emergency services. "I was expecting things like helicopter (to) come and drop a ladder or commando type rescuer," he said. But the ladder "couldn't even reach us" and he had to wait about an hour and a half to be rescued, he said. Assistant Commissioner Nick Collins has defended fire crews' handling of the blaze, insisting they were at the scene within five minutes of the first call and began tackling the fire "immediately". Ms Francisquini's husband Rafael Cervi, 31, has described how the last words he heard from his wife before he lost her and his two children were in a phone call in which she said she was struggling to breathe. "They were what I lived for. Now everything is gone and I have nothing," he told the Sunday Telegraph The single staircase in the middle of the 12-storey 1960s building is now at the centre of investigations, after doubts were raised over whether escape routes and fire prevention measures were adequate. The London Fire Brigade said a "unique situation" caused "one of the most significant fires in some time" but said it may be "some weeks at the very least" until the cause of the blaze was known. It is believed to have started on the ninth floor. Prayers were said for the victims on Sunday morning at several churches in south London.
ITN | July 5, 2009
