Press Association
Sunday 14th March 2010
A father has described how he thought it was "the end" after hiding in a bathroom with five of the six people who died as a blaze engulfed their tower block.
Rasheed Nuhu said he wished he could have done more to save his neighbours' lives.
Six people, including a mother and her three-week-old daughter, perished in the blaze at Lakanal House in Camberwell, south London, on Friday night.
Mr Nuhu told Channel 4 News that he gave refuge to Helen Udoaka, 34, and her baby daughter Michelle before they all hid in the bathroom of his next door neighbour Dayana Francisquini with her three-year-old son Filipe and six-year-old daughter Thais as his 11th floor flat filled with smoke.
Mr Nuhu, his wife, and two children were then filmed by onlookers as they escaped on to a balcony, where 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 he was feeling guilt for surviving while others died and added: "It's very traumatising, it's extremely traumatising, and I'm still trying to come to terms with that. 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."
The single staircase in the middle of the 12-storey 1960s building is at the centre of the investigation 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, which is believed to have started on the ninth floor, was known.
Southwark Council leader Nick Stanton said: "Everyone who has read the details today of the victims and their families will share our deep sense of sadness. The investigation into the cause of the fire continues and we are as anxious as anyone to know what caused the fire and why it spread like it did."
