Witness Statement of: Amal Al-Hut haifi

No. of statement: 1

Exhibits:

Date of statement: 6 June 2018

GRENFELL TOWER PUBLIC INQUIRY

WITNESS STATEMENT OF AMAL AL-HUTHAIFI

I, AMAL AL-HUTHAIFI, will say as follows:

1. This statement is my account of events that took place on 14th June 2017. 1

make this statement for the purpose of Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Public

Inquiry. I wish to make a further statement as part of Phase 2 of the Inquiry.

Background

2. Before the fire I was studying Childhood Studies at university. This was an

undergraduate degree. I was studying at the

my final year I was studying at the

and in

I worked from

September 2017 to December 2017 in nursery as a childhood practitioner.

From January 2018 to around March 2018 I worked as a teacher in a primary

school.

3. I was engaged to Mohammed Alhajali, who passed away in Grenfell Tower.

4. 1 first met Mohammed when I was working at Savers. I was working there and

Mohammed came in for work experience. I think that this was in 2015. We

decided to give him a job at Savers. Our relationship started sort of straight

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away. We talked about marriage very soon into our relationship. Mohammed

was traditional like that.

5. Mohammed was from Syria.

He came over with his brother Omar. His brother Hashem

came to the UK shortly afterwards. Mohammed first

moved to Halifax and then he came to live in London. That's when I met him.

I think he had been living in the UK for a year before I met him.

Grenfell Tower

6. When I met Mohammed he was living in Holland Park. He lived there for

about one year before he moved into Grenfell Tower, in August 2016. I was

living at home with my parents in West London.

7. We both went to university although we went to different ones. Mohammed

was studying Civil Engineering at the University of West London. We both

worked in a shop together in Central London to earn money whilst we studied.

We were both shop assistants.

8. Mohammed moved into Flat 112 Grenfell Tower, which was on the 14th floor.

This was owned by a private landlord. He lived there with his brother Omar

and his friend Mahmouad,

9. When I saw the Tower I thought that it was a really pretty flat to look at. I

knew the area well because I had lived there all my life and I was really

surprised to see such a modern looking flat there. I didn't expect it to look like

that when Mohammed told me he was moving there. It looked so nice from the

outside. It looked new. The council had made the area outside look really nice

with a green park outside of it. However, when you stepped inside the Tower

you could tell that it was just an old flat. The stairwell and the communal

corridors were really old. They had just made it look nice from the outside.

10. There was only one stairwell in the Tower and this was very, very narrow.

Two people couldn't really walk up or down the stairs side-by-side together.

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Only one person could really walk down at a time. It was very old, it was dirty

and it smelt. I don't know how they ever thought that this stairwell was

adequate to have been the only fire escape route for a building with 24 floors.

1 1. The lifts were often out of order. Mohammed would get worried about me

using them because he was worried that 1 might get trapped in there. He didn't

think that they were safe to use. Every time I went to see him, he would come

out his flat and get in the lift to the ground floor to meet me, and we would get

in the lift together.

12. Mohammed's flat itself was really modem looking. The landlord who owned

it had refurbished it. It had a brand new kitchen and everything looked new

and modem. However, the flat had a lot of issues with the gas. This meant that

the flat was cold because the heating wouldn't work and they couldn't cook

because the gas wouldn't come on. Mohammed complained about this so

many times and 1 remember the TMO gave him some heaters to use to heat the

flat.

13. Mohammed was constantly speaking to the TMO or the council and making

complaints about problems with the gas and things like that. 1 remember he

spoke to a company which I think was called Grid about the gas and they said

they would fix the problem. Gas pipes were put in outside the front door of his

flat and they went into the flat but this didn't change anything — the gas still

didn't work.

14. I remember I was in the lift once with other residents and I heard them talking

about the gas works in the Tower. I heard them say that they had problems

with the gas in their flats and they thought that the building was unsafe. They

thought the gas pipes made the Tower dangerous. They were worried about

gas leaks.

15. Mohammed had been a few times to the office, which is near the Tower,

which deals with management and things like that. He went to speak to staff

there about the gas. Mohammed was spending money on buying food all the

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time because he couldn't cook in the flat. They offered him some money to

stop complaining about it. It was money to shut up. I think they did this

because the problem with the gas had been going on for such a long time and

no one was doing anything about it. I never saw any workmen come in and do

anything about it, other than to build in pipes which did nothing.

16. I don't know whether Mohammed's front door automatically closed. I think it

did. I don't recall there being issues with the front door to the flat. I had seen

the workmen come to fix the entrance door to Grenfell Tower.

17. 1 never heard a fire alarm go off in Mohammed's flat or in the Tower itself.

don't remember seeing fire alarms in the corridors. I don't remember if

Mohammed had fire alarms in the flat itself. I don't remember there being any

fires when Mohammed lived there. Where I lived, we had signs on the walls

about what to do when there is a fire and we had fire extinguishers in the

building but in Grenfell Tower I don't remember seeing a fire extinguisher in

the building or signs up with what to do in a fire.

Community

18. I didn't really know the residents who lived in the Tower but whenever 1 saw

residents they were really nice and friendly. I think people have a pre-

conception about what the residents in Grenfell Tower were like. We never

had any issues with neighbours or any other residents. People you saw would

say "hello, how are you?" Everyone was friendly to me.

19. People seemed like they had lived their all their lives. Their children would

play together and go out together. Other children would come from the estate

and go up the lift to see people in their flats. The children from the Tower and

estates went to school together. The residents had good relationships with one

another.

1 4111 June

20. I was with Mohammed on 13th June until around 8:30pm. I was on the bus

with him going home. I went home to make some food and break my fast. He

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told me that he was going to see a Syrian family with his brother Omar and his

cousin to break his fast. That was the last time I saw him.

21. I have a message on my phone from him which was sent at 9pm which says

that he was on his way to break fast. We were messaging back and forth after

this and we spoke on the phone as well. At 12:10am he sent me a message to

say that he was now back at home. I was already in bed asleep and so I didn't

read this.

22. I was asleep through the fire so I didn't know what was happening. My phone

was on silent so I didn't wake up when people were calling me. I woke up

between 5am and 6am and I saw that I had missed calls on my phone from

people. The calls were made to me at around 3am. I answered a call from a

woman who was with Omar at the Tower. She said to me "don't panic but

there has been a fire. Omar is ok but he is going to hospital but we can't find

Mohammed". She told me not to panic and she said she would come and get

me in her car.

23. I waited for her to come and get me but she then called me and told me she

couldn't get to my house because of the traffic and the roads being closed. I

left my house in in my pyjamas. I just put a scarf on and left. I got on a bus but

the bus only took me a couple of stops because the roads around Ladbroke

Grove were closed. I got off the bus and I ran to the Tower. I could sec the

smoke in the sky.

24. In my mind I was thinking "it won't be that bad. Come on, we are living in

Britain". I thought to myself that it is such a huge block of flats, there is no

way he didn't get out. I thought that if there was a fire at the top or at the

bottom of the Tower then he would have gotten out because he is in the middle

on the 14th floor. I was picturing a fire in a flat. I didn't imagine that the fire

had spread and the whole Tower had been on fire.

25.1 was running and as J got closer to the Tower I could see that there was police

everywhere and there were more and more people around looking up. I wanted

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to get to the entrance of the Tower to see if Mohammed was there. If he was

still in the Tower I wanted to be there as he came out so he would see me. 1

saw there was a police cordon and tape and so I couldn't get to the front of the

Tower. The police kept stopping me getting any closer. i went around and

around the Tower trying to get closer but I couldn't get any closer because of

the police. I tried for such a long time. As I was approaching the Tower I

could see the smoke in the air and I could smell the burning. I can't describe

how it smelt but the smoke and smell was so bad.

26. I was so tired because I was fasting and there was so much heat. I think it was

heat from the Tower. There was ash falling next to my feet even though I was

quite a way back from the Tower. I could see bits of black on the floor. When

I saw the Tower for the first time 1 was shocked. It was black. I didn't think it

would be like that. The most I thought would be a floor was on fire. It was like

a movie. It was so surreal. There were so many people there and so much

media. The helicopter was in the sky above the Tower. I felt like I was

dreaming, or like I was in a movie. I was shocked. It looked like a warzone. It

was crazy.

27. There were children in their uniform sitting on the ground. People were

crying. I saw so many volunteers running around handing out water to people.

28.1 got in contact with Hashem and Mahmoud who were both at the Tower

looking for Mohammed. It was difficult to find them. There were so many

people and so many places blocked off. The police were everywhere and

residents were all over the floor. It was really hard to find the two of them. I

eventually found them both and I was so tired from looking for them and

Mohammed. We started looking for him together.

29. Every time we asked people around where can we find him and that he was

missing, people told us to register his name in different places around the area.

We went to refuge stops to write his name down on a list. We asked the police

about the hospitals the residents had been taken to but the police would not

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give us any information. I was crying. I was really distressed. We were

running all around to see if any one had seen him. No one was helping us.

30. My sister and my friend came to the area to help me look for Mohammed.

They told me to cover my mouth because the smoke and the smell coming

from the Tower was so bad and they were concerned about me inhaling it and

the damage it could do if I did.

31. Volunteers took me into a church because I was so distressed. I broke my fast

and they gave me water. There was so much media trying to talk to me and

they kept coming after me. They wouldn't leave me alone. I said to journalists

"please leave me alone I am trying to look for my fiancé." They were just

trying to get a story from me. A reporter from the BBC saw me running

around in my distress, looking for Mohammed. I was crying. The reporter

asked me if I wanted to speak to the BBC about what had happened. She tried

to get me to do a video interview. When I said I didn't want to she said I could

go on the radio. I kept saying "no I don't want to do that". She asked for my

number and I gave it to her to get her off my back. I was trying to look for the

person I loved and she just wouldn't leave me alone. She sent me a text

message when Mohammed was confirmed to have died and then she asked me

to come on the news and I said no.

32. I called a number I had been given which was a phone line for missing people

from the fire. I rang it but it took such a long time to get through to someone. I

registered Mohammed's name, his date of birth and I gave a description of

him.

33. Hashem managed to find a list of hospitals which they were taking Cirenfell

victims to. I don't remember the names of the hospitals but I know that there

were five hospitals and they were all in London. Hashem and I were taken to

the hospitals by Mohammed's cousin. He drove us to all five hospitals. I

would stay in the car and Ilashem would go into the hospital to ask if

Mohammed was there. He went in each one and came back to the car and told

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me that Mohammed wasn't there. It was now getting late. I felt that there was

no hope of finding him.

34. Hashem and I were dropped off at Marble Arch and we got a train to Kings

Hospital where Omar was being treated. We went to see Omar. I think that we

saw him at around 8pm on 14th June. He was on a ward in a bed and he had an

oxygen mask on his face. We were trying to feed him food. He was trying to

bold it together emotionally. When I saw Omar, I knew that there was no hope

for Mohammed.

35. A police officer came to see us. He was a detective. He told us that when they

found Mohammed they would let us know. I was so shocked by this because I

expected the police to know where everyone was and who was missing from

the Tower. I looked at Omar and he kind of knew what had happed. Omar then

told the police officer that he and Mohammed had been moved from their flat

to another flat on the 14th floor by firefighters, who left them there. Then some

firefighters came back into the flat which was full of smoke and grabbed

Omar. He was taken out the flat and down the stairs. When he got out the

Tower, he rang Mohammed, who said that he was still in the Tower. Omar

asked why he didn't come out and he said that no one came for him.

Mohammed said "why did you leave me?"

36. When Omar told the police officer this he was crying so much and he was so

distressed that I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He was breathing

so heavily and so fast. This wasn't the Omar I knew. It was so hard to watch.

37. I was standing by Omar's bed and then I fell on the floor and I hit my head on

the floor. I don't know what happened. I think I fainted. I lost consciousness

and when I woke up I was in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask on my face. I

looked around and it didn't feel real. I was screaming -where is he, where is

he, why can't I find him?" I needed him. I said that too. I couldn't breathe.

38. The staff at the hospital told me that I wasn't fit to go home and so I stayed the

night there. I had memory loss, which could have been because I hit my head

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on the floor or because of the shock. The medical staff told me it was because

of the shock. I had forgotten what had happened. The staff were telling me that

Mohammed was missing and I was saying that he wasn't. I don't' know if this

was denial or shock.

39. My brother came to the hospital and he took me home at 4am. This was on the

15th June. I-lashem stayed with Omar at hospital. When I got home I went

straight to sleep and when I woke up the next day I remembered that

Mohammed was missing and I needed to find him. I woke up feeling angry at

myself because I needed to be out there looking for him. My plan was to carry

on looking at the hospitals.

40. By this time, Mohammed's family had been told that he had passed away. I

know now that the way the family had found out was through a friend who had

seen a photo and a video of Mohammed's body lying in a bag in one of the

Walkways by the Tower. I have also seen this video.

41. Someone called my brother who was at home with me. I could hear my

brother on the phone and I could hear him crying but I didn't know why. My

mother was also crying. I know now that my family decided that they were

going to tell me when they were all together with me and they called my sister

and told her to come home to be there when they told me. My family didn't let

me out of the house. My sister came home and she sat down with me and said

"I am really sorry but he has passed away". I went crazy. I was screaming. 1

screamed so much that my voice went.

42. On 16th June Mahmouad came to my house to see me. I told him that I wanted

to be with Omar and Hashem. He took me to The Curve because they needed

some stuff as Omar and Mahmouad had lost everything in the fire. The Curve

was being used for donations like food and clothes. It is near the Tower. I

thought that it was stupid using somewhere so close to the Tower for this.

They should have used somewhere further away. T knew I had to go back to

the area and see the Tower and see everyone in the area in such distress. I felt I

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didn't have a choice because I wanted to help do things for Omar and

Mahmoud.

43. After I went to The Curve I was taken to Mohammed's cousin's house where

Omar and Hashem were. Omar was now out of hospital. They had no where to

stay and so they were at their cousin's. I saw them for the first time without

Mohammed and it was really hard for me to see. I started crying out in distress

and they all tried to calm me down. For the next few days I would stay with

them and the go home to my house to sleep. I would then go back and be with

them the next day.

44. I had a lot of breakdowns. 1 couldn't hold myself together. I couldn't eat when

I broke my fast. Everyone was just so upset. It wasn't like us anymore. It

carried on like that until the day that there was a meeting in the mosque near

Westbourne Park. I went to a meeting with Omar and Mahmoud. There were

all these people from Grenfell Tower there. I tried to hold myself together.

People were screaming and shouting about their families who had died, about

the wives and husbands and children they had lost. There was so much pain in

one room. I broke down and left the meeting. I couldn't handle it. There was a

girl who saw me on the street and she said come in my car I will take you

home. She drove me to my house.

45. Mohammed's family came from Syria to London on 20th June. I met them at a

hotel, which was the first time I had ever met his parents and his sisters. I had

spoken to them many times before and they knew all about me but we had

never been able to meet because of the war in Syria. When I met them it was

so emotional. For me, it was meeting part of Mohammed, the people he spoke

about all of the time, and I was the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life

with. I cried so much when I met them and so did they.

46. We went from the hotel to the East London Mosque where Mohammed's body

was being held. I tried to hold myself together when I got there because I

wanted to be respectful to his mother and father and sisters, as they had

suffered a terrible loss as well. We went into a room which was down the

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stairs and in the room was a coffin and Mohammed was inside it. I looked at

him and it still didn't feel like he had gone. He looked like he was sleeping.

He had no burns on his face. I touched his face and it was so cold. We prayed

for him in Islamic prayer. His mum was kissing him and holding him. I had to

be taken outside by volunteers there because of how emotional I got.

47. On 21' June we went to his funeral, which was at the same mosque. It was our

last goodbye to him because we had to bury him. There was like thousands of

people there for it. So many people gave us their condolences: friends,

colleagues, people I knew but I hadn't seen since I was a child. Sadiq Khan

was there and he paid his condolences to us and told us if we needed anything

then he would try and help and he told us how sorry he was for our loss.

48. Someone took us to the cemetery. We got there and there were so many people

there to bury him. His mum was crying so much and she was asking for her to

be put in his place instead, and people had to hold her up. She was distraught. I

still remember when they poured the soil on top of his coffin. Everyone then

left so we could stay as a family. We stayed by his grave. We were so

emotional and we prayed for him.

49. In Arabic culture people come to visit you at home but we had no home so we

booked a venue for two days and we provided food and drinks for people to

come and sit with us. There were a lot of people who came. Some people we

didn't even know. There were some people from the Tower and they gave us

flowers and sat with us.

Aftermath

50. After the funeral it was so emotional. I was crying every day. The whole

family were. It just carried on like that for months. Even now I have

breakdowns. No one likes to talk about Mohammed because it triggers a lot of

emotion. Everything we do doesn't have the same taste anymore without him

in it. It doesn't matter what I do, nothing is the same at all.

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51. I have so many questions about how Mohammed died and why was it that he

couldn't be saved? I know that Hashem was on the phone to Mohammed until

5am and then after that Mohammed's phone died. He might have been alive

well after that. Why couldn't he have been saved by the firefighters like they

saved others? There was a lot of time in which they could have saved him. The

firefighters had been told that Mohammed was still in that flat.

52. I know that Mohammed told Hashem that the firefighters needed to put water

into his flat and Hashem told the firefighters this. However, Mohammed kept

telling Hashem that the firefighters were moving the water away from his flat

and that he was suffocating because of this.

53. I know from Hashem that he was telling firefighters to get the people out of

the 14th floor who were still there but the firefighters were not going up. There

were chances to save Mohammed's life but he wasn't give that chance and it

hurts to know that he was begging for help and that he died in so much

distress. I think he knew in the end that no on was going to help him. I know

that he was on the phone and he was asking his parents to forgive him for

anything he had done. lie sent a voice message which was for his mum. I've

got this on my phone. You can hear the distress in his voice.

54. As far as I know from Omar and Ilashem's account of what happened on the

night, Mohammed was surviving in the flat. I know from Omar that

firefighters came to the 14t1i floor and they moved Omar and Mohammed from

their flat and made them go into another flat on the 14th floor with a man and

woman from the same floor, and a woman and her baby. The firefighters then

left them there. I don't know why they did that. They kept telling Mohammed

and Omar to stay put in the Tower. Why?

55. Firefighters eventually came back to the 14111 floor to save them and they took

Omar and others out the flat but they left Mohammed, and the woman and her

baby. How did they miss them or forget that there were other people in the

flat? Why didn't they go back and get him? Mohammed trusted the firefighters

and he followed their advice and he died because he was left behind. It hurts to

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know he was begging for help when help had bccn available. He could have

been saved. There were hundreds of firefighters there that night, so how did

they not get to him?

56. I once met with a senior police officer who is part of the police investigation.

He came and met with just Mohammed's family. I asked him questions about

the firefighters and the helicopter in the sky on the night of the fire but he

couldn't answer any of my questions. I don't understand why there was a

helicopter there. People inside the Tower must have seen it and thought it was

there to help them. If I had been in the Tower then I would have tried to get to

the top of the Tower, thinking that the helicopter was going to land on the roof

to save people. How do the police know that this didn't happen? How do they

know that people didn't think the helicopter was there to save then, when in

reality it was just there to take photos? I don't think the helicopter helped the

situation at all.

57. There is a lot I have to say about the aftermath and other issues which are

going to be part of Phase 2. There is a lot I can add to that and so I want to

make a further statement as part of Phase 2.

Statement of truth

I believe that the facts stated in this statement are true. I am willing for this statement

to form part of the evidence before the Inquiry and to be published on the Inquiry's

website.

Signed:

Dated: 6tk datt 2...0 I p-

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