A man whose wife and newborn baby were among six people killed in a tower block fire in south-east London told an inquest into their deaths Tuesday that his “life will never be the same again”
Mbet Udoaka lost his wife Helen, 34, and their three-week-old daughter Michelle in the blaze at Lakanal House, Camberwell, in July 2009.
The fire is thought to have been started by faulty electrical equipment.
In a statement read out at the inquest Udoaka, who was out at work when the fire started, recalled the last conversation he had with his wife after calling her 10 times to try to reassure her.
“The last words she said to me were that the smoke was too much, she couldn’t bear it any more, Michelle our daughter was going to heaven,” he said.
“She said if I didn’t see her again she would be going to heaven.”
Udoaka said he went to hospital in an ambulance with his daughter and found out the next day that his wife had died.
“My life will never be the same again, I can never get over these deaths, over the death of my beautiful Helen and my lovely Michelle,” he told the hearing.
“I’m really hoping that one day I will get to see them again.”
Other relatives’ victims also testified at the so-called “super-inquest” at Lambeth Town Hall.
Rafael Cervi’s wife Dayana Francisquini, 26, step-daughter Thais, six and son Felipe, three, died in the fire.
“I lost my entire family, my wife and a couple of kids that I had,” he told the hearing.
“Everything that I built, everything that I dreamed of was over in three hours.”
Designer Catherine Hickman, 31, also died in the blaze.
Her father Pip described her as “beautiful, kind, loving, warm, genuine, trustworthy, loyal, funny, proper, sweet, pure, classic, talented, unique and irreplaceable.”
The inquest is expected to last until March.
Inquest held into tower block fire deaths
