GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY

WITNESS STATEMENT OF MOHAMMED AHMED

1. My name is Mohammed Ahmed. I was formally a tenant of Flat 102 on the131h floor of Grenfell Tower. My flat used to be on the 10th floor but becamethe 13th after the refurbishment.

2. I exhibit to this statement marked MA/1 and MA/2 images showing thelocation of my flat in Grenfell Tower. The window in the kitchen and one ofthe windows in the living room overlooked the leisure centre shown in MA/2and the other window in the living room and the windows in the bedroomsoverlooked the Walks shown in MA/1.

3. This present statement is made for the purposes of Grenfell Tower PublicInquiry. Although touching on some other matters this statement dealspredominantly with the night of the fire at Grenfell Tower. I would want theopportunity to make a further statement on other matters including eventsprior to the fire and the impact on myself and my family at a later point.

4. I am originally from Eritrea and English is not my first language but I speakand understand English well and don't need an interpreter.

5. I am married to Randa Al-Arasi and we have two children,who was 6 at time of the fire and will shortly be turning 7, and

who was 3 at the time of the fire and is now 4.

6. We moved into Grenfell Tower in July 2014 when was a baby. Wewere council tenants and the tenancy was in my name. We were a bitscared to move into a big tower block like Grenfell Tower but it was a goodplace to live and I very much miss the community that was there.

My floor at Grenfell Tower

7. There were 6 flats on my floor and I knew all my neighbours who lived onthe 13th floor. I am aware that they all survived the fire and made it to safetyas I have seen them after the fire. I exhibit to this statement marked MA/3 aplan showing the layout of my floor and the location of my flat within this.

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8. When you come out of the lift doors, you turn right to get to my flat. My flatis in the middle of 101 and 103. My door is opposite to the door to thestaircase.

9. I knew everyone who was on my floor and thankfully they all escaped thefire. In 101 was a man called Cludy who was I think in hishe had long hair in dreadlock. He was a really nice man. He livedwith his sister but I do not remember her name, she was mid-fortieswith very short black hair.

10. In 103 there was a Portuguese woman in her early fifties who had shoulderlength brown hair. She lived with her Portuguese husband who was also inhis early fifties with short grey hair and their son in his early twenties whoalso had short brown hair.

11. In 104 lived a Spanish woman early sixties with shoulder length white hairand her son late twenties with short brown hair.

12. In 105 lived a white man maybe Spanish or Portuguese in his late fortieswith short black hair. He lived with his wife who was also in her earlyforties, she had shoulder length brown hair and wore glasses. They alsolived with their children; a daughter who was in her early twenties longblonde hair down to her back and a son who was in her early twenties withshort blonde hair.

13. In 106 lived a woman called Adriana who was in her withshoulder length hair. She lived with her husband who was inhis mid-forties and had a shaved head. They lived with their sons; one whowas in his early twenties and had blonde hair and one who was nine or tenyears old with short blonde hair.

14. The hallway on our floor was always clean and clear and as far as Iremember there was the positon on the night of the fire.

15. I think there was a fire extinguisher beside flat 103 which was kept behindsome glass. I had never used or touched it. Save for smoke alarms in myown flat which went off on occasions I have never heard a fire alarm soundin the building.

16. The door to the staircase was completely wooden with a small glass panelat head height and you just pushed it to open it. I had used the stairs onprevious occasions when the lifts were out of service. One of the lifts wouldbe out of service quite regularly. My family were once stuck in the lift forabout half an hour. The stairs were not very wide enough for two people towalk down side by side but no more. When I saw them the stairs wereclear.

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The refurbishment and issues before the fire

17. At the time that we moved into Grenfell Tower we were told by theKensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation (TMO) that thebuilding was going to be refurbished. They told me that they were going tochange the heating, the boiler, the windows and the outside of the building.I was given brochures, leaflets and letters which said that they were buildingnew flats (I think it was seven), putting in a nursery and a boxing club.

18. 1 think they told me that fire alarms were going to be installed in the hallway.I remember seeing them working on both sides of the lifts on something thatwas there before the refurbishment. I asked them what they were doingand the workmen told me it was to do with fire. It was metal and inside thewall. It looked like some sort of a vent. It was from the floor up to aboutthree feet.

19.1n the hallway they put a locked cupboard which they told me containedpipes and machines. They said it had something to do with water pressure.The pipes came through each floor all the way up to the top. It was directlyin front of the lift doors, about two metres wide and around one metre ormetre and a half deep. The cupboard was painted white. There was a lockon the door and it was kept locked. It also I think said do not open.

20. 1 had regular visits to my flat from the contractor Rydon and a guy whoworked for them called Simon who I thought was good. Initially I was toldthat the new boiler was going to be in the kitchen. Later though someonefrom Rydon (not Simon) said that that they had changed their mind and saidthe boiler would not be in the kitchen because it would be a hard job forthem so it was going to be put in the hallway. I called Simon and askedwhat is going on but he told me sorry, he did work at the site anymore.

21. The old boiler was not removed from the flat and was left boxed in in thekitchen. After they installed the new boiler someone from Rydon came andtold me that they were now changing it back again so that the boiler wouldgo in the kitchen as they had originally said. All the work had alreadycaused a mess and disruption and I refused to allow the position of theboiler to be changed as I didn't want further mess in my flat.

22. About 6 to 9 months before the fire the National Grid installed some gaspipes all the way up the stairs to the flats. They installed two big pipes upthe staircase which split off into just my flat. I think I am the only one thatused gas on my side of the block on my floor. One day I think in aboutSeptember 2016 I am not sure of the exact date we woke up and there wasno gas. I called the National Grid and they told me had had beendisconnected because there was a gas leak in the building but just my sideof the building and a number of flats had been affected. I spoke to the TMOwho said they were aware and dealing with it. They then changed theirposition and said that the National Grid was dealing with it.

23. National Grid made appointments to come and see me and told me that thegas pipe would come through from the staircase into the lift lobby area on

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my floor and then into my flat. They said that was the only way to get gasback otherwise I would have to switch to electric. I felt I was left with nochoice but to agree to the gas to be connected in this way. The gas was offfor a number of weeks while all of this happened and since then did nothave any gas problems.

24..1 was worried about the exposed gas pipes in the stairwell, the hallway andinto our flat and that it was unsafe. I had told the National Grid that Ithought it was risky to have the pipes exposed in this way but they said thatit was fine. I think shortly before the fire the National Grid started boxing thetwo pipes in the stairwell.

25. My flat door was not changed in the refurbishment. It was a door that wouldnot shut automatically and you had to pull it shut. I think there was a firealarm on the ceiling in the hallway directly outside the lift but I have onlyever heard the smoke alarm ringing in my flat.

26. A layout of my flat is shown on the plan marked MA/4.

27. 1 had previously called the fire brigade in I think about September 2014when there was an issue with our cooker smoking. They attended andcame up to the flat to look at it. They switched the cooker off and said thatit could not be used and had to be thrown away. We subsequently bought anew cooker.

The night of the fire

28. On Tuesday 13 June 2017 just before the fire, it was a normal night inRamadan. I had broken fast with my brother and work colleagues at arestaurant. I then went to the mosque in

29. At the time of my police statement I thought that I had got home at about12 midnight. I have now though been shown a still from a CCTV camera(MGS-CC-51) from the downstairs lift lobby area that shows a time of 00.28so it was slightly later than I had initially thought. I took the lift up to my flaton the 13th floor. The kids were asleep in their room and my wife was withtwo female friends in the living room.

30. After I had been back home for about 20 or 30 minutes I heard a fire enginesiren. I looked out of the sitting room window which looks towards theleisure centre and saw a fire engine by the building which had come in fromGrenfell Road area. About 5 minutes later I saw another fire engine, it waslost and had gone past the entrance to Tower on the road where the RugbyClub was.

31. It was not unusual for the fire brigade to come to the Tower and indeed as Ihave referred to above they had come once when I had called them

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following a problem that we had had with a cooker at our flat. It was nottherefore something that caused me any particular concern at this time. Ifthey came for some issue with a flat they would normally leave after aboutan hour or so. I could see though from looking out of the window that moreand more people were gathering outside by the leisure centre. This was notnormal and I started to get worried.

32. 1 went in to the kitchen and got on the table to get higher to look down. I didnot open the window because it was locked for my kids' safety. When Ilooked out of the window I saw the trees below reflecting the light from thebuilding, it was a light that was moving. The trees should have been darkbut I did not realise that the light was from a fire. I didn't know what it was.

33. .Then someone banged on the door really hard. Like somebody wasscared. My wife and friends said that we should not open the door werescared that someone was coming to attack us.

34. 1 looked through the spy hole in the door. I could not see anyone. I openedthe door and smelt smoke. It was a very strong smell. I did not see anysmoke or anybody in the lobby.

35. 1 went back into the flat and told everyone that we had to leave, I picked upand my wife's younger friend picked up . My police witness

statement suggests that we all left together but in fact I went first with thechildren and one friend and my wife and her older friend stayed in the flatand came a short while later.

36. Before leaving my floor I knocked on all my neighbours' doors to alert thembut no one answered. I am not sure if I have seen a sign in the Tower but Iknew from general knowledge not to use the lift it there is a fire. Wetherefore opened the door in the lift lobby area and went down the stairs. Ididn't see anyone else on the stairs and although the smell of smoke gotstronger as we went down I did not see any smoke until we reached the 4thfloor.

37. On the 4th floor I saw two or three firemen who were wearing masks. Oneof them was at the door to the lift lobby area for that floor. It looked like theywere trying to unwind a hose. They were panicking and told us not to standand just to go down.

38. We did not stay there for long a matter of seconds there was thick blacksmoke coming from the hallway into the stairs. The smoke was very thickand had a strong taste like metal. The smoke was only on that floor and wepast through it as we went down. We continued down to the third floorwhere we had to change stairs. The door out of the stairs on the third floorwas closed but we just pushed it open. Then we went down the secondstairs to the ground floor and out of the Tower. I have seen a still from the

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CCTV system at Grenfell Tower that shows myself and my daughterat the bottom of the stairs (SLH-CC-63) and is timed at 01.22.17.

39. It was only when we were out of the Tower that I looked back and realisedhow bad and serious the fire was it was very shocking. I tried to get back into go for my wife but the fireman prevented me. I was really panicked and Itseemed a real age for my wife and friend to finally come out of the Tower.

40. My wife took the children away from the Tower. My brother who was in thearea came and whilst I was with him he took two videos one which isexhibited marked MA/5 when we were standing by the school and the otherwhich is exhibited marked MA/6 which was taken from Bramley Road.

41. I am very thankful that myself and my family have survived. Grenfell Tower

was a community which we have lost and we all knew many of the people

that have died and I have great sadness about this. I mention some of

them now; I knew a boy called Biruk we used to joke about football; he

supported Chelsea and I supported Arsenal. I knew Farah whose children

used to come to our flat to play with my children. I knew Rania Ibrahim who

died with her children and Hashim and his children who have all died.

42.1 am still presently still living in a hotel with my wife and children but hopethat we will be soon moved into a home.

Statement of truthI believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.

Signed

Dated. c? /

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